Laurieston Hall

This co-operative of 16 adults is now well into its fifth decade. We live in and around a huge Victorian main house, with its walled garden, stables and cottages, surrounded by 135 acres of beautiful woods, pastures and marshland which stretch to a loch in the north. Living spaces use wood for heating and cooking. A hydro supplies much of our electricity.

From Easter to October we run a varied programme of events (music, dance, self-help, creative, gay, etc.), called the People Centre, which brings up to 70 extra people a week. We grow as much fruit and vegetables as we can, keep cows, pigs, hens and bees, and do most of our own maintenance. All of us pay a large portion of our rent in unwaged labour for the co-op. This means ideally spending about two and a half days a week doing what we call “workshare”.

Issues that affect everybody come to a weekly co-op meeting in which decisions are made by consensus. Co-operation is our common ideology; under that umbrella we lean this way and that, are generally better at dealing with tomorrow than next year, are supportive of each other as individuals as well as co-op members... and we try to have a good time!

There are two ways of visiting us. You can book on a People Centre event during 2016 (for 2017 onwards see below), or you can come on a Maintenance Week, (there are only three per year, so book early to avoid disappointment.)
Information and booking on either is via the newsletter - see below if you would like a digital copy.

We are not currently hosting 'first time' working visitors, nor seeking new members. If this changes, we will let you know.

For other enquiries, or for a digital copy of our newsletter, please email enquirylh@gmail.com

**stop press** During 2017 we plan to take a year off from running the People Centre events, so we can devote some time to looking at our future.