Save Babbinswood Farm

by Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society in Oswestry, Shropshire, United Kingdom

Total raised £21,455

£1,500,000 target 48 days left
1% 109 investors
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 31st March 2025 at 12:00pm

Join us to save Babbinswood Farm! Be part of our mission to protect organic farmland for purpose, not profit, and support the wild community

by Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society in Oswestry, Shropshire, United Kingdom

Join us and become co-owner of this beautiful organic farm

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Caption - Some of Team Babbinswood Farm on one of the permanent pasture fields for sale, photographed in December 2024. Listed from left to right: Barbara Jones, Andrew Cristinacce, Robert Morris, Alan Southcombe, Casha Bowles-Jones with kids Amber and George, Daisy Kirtley, Lynda Marchment and Ben Shatford.

Who are we?

Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society Ltd. are a passionate group of volunteers dedicated to saving and growing the legacy of Babbinswood Organic Farm. We believe in stewardship, not ownership, protecting and safeguarding our local land through organic management, known as Babbinswood Farm South.

We care deeply about retaining the biodiversity and organic nature of this land – we want it to sustain livelihoods in our community and provide green space that the whole community can all benefit from. This land has too much to give to the local community to become industrially developed or intensively farmed, to be lost to that same old story. We are dedicated to raising £1.5m by the 31st March so that, this time, we can change the story.. 

We intend to raise the £1.5 million through a community share offer, donations and grants to purchase 116 acres of permanent grassland, woodland and some of the traditional red brick farm buildings known as Babbinswood Farm South. 

If not purchased by the community, the land will be sold on the open market. Its organic status gone and its future potential to serve our farming and local community will be lost. We have until 31st March 2025 to raise the funds to save this land and to allow us to utilise it as a community asset (shown yellow on the map below) and we hope that you will come on that journey with us.

What are we saving?

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The yellow area is a guide to area the CBS could purchase. Photo credit to Olly Boon Earth Repairs who is doing some amazing drone footage and modelling for us.

On the farm in 2025:

  • a holistic veterinary practice
  • a pioneering cow-calf ethical dairy herd with exceptional animal welfare – one of very few in the UK
  • a direct sale farm shop and delivery service, specialising in organic meat, fruit, and vegetables
  • 180 acres of chemical-free soil certified organic since 2002, and holistically managed since 2016
  • a community garden (polytunnels and food forest) providing informal horticultural therapy, teaching in biodynamic methods, and free food for the local community via connections with food waste CIC OsNosh and local food banks
  • a nature haven: Woodland Trust-listed trees, two native lowland mixed oak and ash woodlands, traditionally managed hedgerows, a heritage orchard, and borders a section of the River Perry, a tributary to the River Severn.
  • community events and workshops, including a creative residency by the art and heritage-focused Rural Arts Hub and traditional Wassailing events
  • local businesses, including a catering service and outdoor bushcraft activities
  • 72 cows, a 130-sheep flock, farm dogs (including 23-year-old Eric the terrier!), and a giant cat Rama.
  • Five generations of the Jones family, whose family have stewarded the land at Babbinswood Farm since at least the 1890’s, and who have devoted their lives to trying their very best to care for the soil, plants and animals who live on their land and caring for their community.

We care deeply about keeping the land organic– we want this place to sustain farming livelihoods in our community, and to keep providing green space that people and wildlife can all benefit from. We want to save this precious land to grow food to keep on feeding it’s community.

How are we saving the farm?

Our aim as a CBS is to raise  £1.5m of funds by the 31st March 2025 to change the story through community co-ownership. But we need your help!

We intend to raise the £1.5 million through a community share offer, donations and grants to purchase 116 acres of permanent grassland, woodland and some of the traditional red brick farm buildings. This part of the farm is known as Babbinswood Farm South. 

After purchase, the CBS will rent land and buildings back to the tenant farmers to maintain the working organic farm.

The rental income from this will be used to develop and run community activities from the farm. An absolutely brilliant example of this way of farming is Fordhall Farm near Market Drayton, which is owned by a CBS called the Fordhall Community Land Initiative. Shareholders in the CBS have a life-long say in the future of the farm that they landlord, and we operate on a democratic one-member, one-vote basis so that influence can never be bought.

If not purchased by the community, the land will be sold on the open market. Given land prices and buying patterns, it is highly likely that its organic habitat and farmland will be lost , along with it’s future potential to serve our local community directly. We could see food production cease completely due to development or absentee landlordism. Some of the pastureland becomes temporary wetland during wet weather, reducing the flooding risk for local houses in an area already suffering from repeated flooding. 

As members of a rural community, we are tired of seeing the same old story of small family farms lost and our rural heritage destroyed. We believe that rural communities can lead the way to a wilder, safer, and more connected world.

We have until 31st March 2025 to raise the funds to save this land and to allow us to utilise it as a community asset and we hope that you will come on that journey with us. 

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The land and buildings that BFCBS is raising funds to buy are highlighted in yellow here, with the community woodland at the centre of the pastureland.

Do you want to Save Babbinswood Farm, ensuring the land is farmed organically and producing nutritious food for its community? 


Help us to ensure this land continues to be farmed organically, with our community at its heart? 

The story so far


Who are the current owners of Babbinswood Farm?

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Barbara Jones is the current owner of Babbinswood Farm.  Barbara and Casha, a mother-daughter farming team, are co-directors of Babbinswood Organic Farm Ltd. Casha represents the 5th generation of her family to farm at Babbinswood Farm. Their current farming business produces, processes, and retails organic food directly to the local community www.babbinswoodfarm.co.uk The farm is certified organic and has been focusing on holistic management across the whole farm since 2016. Both organic and holistic management fundamentally focus on caring for the soil through good land stewardship and high animal welfare standards. All the produce grown on the farm is sold directly to customers through their charming rustic farm shop and online.

This story, is like many other small family farms across the country that represent the core of the English countryside. They care about the land, they tend and they have diversified to sell their produce direct, to support their extensive and regenerative approach to managing the land, however they have been left in financial gapping due to the exponential increase in land prices. 

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Why Community Ownership?

The Jones family at Babbinswood are being forced to sell half of their farm to finance the divorce settlement. This is not a lone story. Farmers are often asset rich but cash poor, and as asset accumulation and development drives up the value of land, this disparity only grows.

Across the country and indeed the world, small family farms are being sold every day, often lost to development, commercial interests or investment funds due to land’s high and increasing value. 

It seemed as if this could happen here too, but the community have come together to change that story. Now is the chance for everyone to own part of Shropshire’s beautiful landscape and safe guard the land for purpose, not profit.

  • October 2023 Just Giving Page set up by a family friend
  • December 2023 Community meeting held to discuss solutions and ways to save the farm
  • April 2024 Local philanthropist, moved by the story provides support bridging finance until March 31st 2025
  • August 2024 Incorporated as a Community Benefit Society recognised by HMRC and Board of Directors formed
  • October 2024 We started sell shares to our supporters, family and friends
  • December 2024 Received Community Share Standard Mark from COOPs UK.
  • January 2025 Crowdfunder Campaign started

What happens next?

We have hope for a new way forward. 

A vision where the land is owned for purpose, not for personal financial gain. We want this land to stay in the ownership of people who care, and we want it to be stewarded organically – food production and the care and love of nature hand-in-hand.

Barbara, current owner, says "I feel this is the best contribution I can personally make to the future of the planet, which is why I fully support this land going into community-ownership".

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As the family looked for ways to retain their family home and the future of their land in 2023, a JustGiving page was started by a friend. An amazing £19,500 was raised by supporters of the farm – we all rallied together to help bide more time. 

Barbara and Casha also met with Charlotte Hollins from the Fordhall Community Land Initiative – England’s first community-owned farm – who has been supporting community ownership of farmland across the UK for a number of years. 

On a wintery afternoon in December 2023, our community came together to discuss how we could help secure the farm’s future. We all agreed – we did not want this land sold and farmed with little respect for all the hard work that had gone into preserving it. We want it to stewarded for the benefit of our community and our planet.

We are now fully incorporated as a Community Benefit Society and recognised by HMRC as an Exempt Charity (Ref Number ZD34883). Co-ops UK have been very supportive during this whole process.Our Community Share Offer has been awarded the Community Share Standard Mark, which affirms the robustness and fairness of the offer.  

A philanthropist who believed so strongly in what we want to achieve reached out to Barbara with an offer of financial support, giving our community until the 31st March to raise the funds before Barbara is forced to put Babbinswood Farm South on the open market.

We are now launching our community share offer nationally to offer you the opportunity to be co-owner of Babbinswood Farm South. 

We have until March 31st 2025 to raise £1.5m to save Babbinswood Farm South.

What will we do with Babbinswood Farm South once it is in community ownership?


  • Provide secure livelihoods for tenant farmers and protect its organic stewardship
  • Encourage long-term organic and regenerative stewardship of the land by offering our future tenant farmers, Casha and Barbara, a long-term Farm Business Tenancy
  • Protect the soil and landscape for future generations
  • Continue to connect people to the land through community engagement and educational practices
  • Work with others within the farming community to champion holistic and regenerative practices
  • Build on the success of the biodynamic focused community garden
  • Welcome volunteers, students and schools
  • To increase access for the community. We have many ways of welcoming the community on to the farm, for example:

🐕 Over 2km of Dog-friendly farm walks 

🌳 Community woodland – woodland activities, managed public access

🍁 Education – courses and resources for self sufficiency, gardening and farming

 🐓 Therapeutic activities – arts and crafts, horticultural therapy, care farming

🪴 Volunteering and job opportunities

🖼️ Buildings – meeting rooms, workshop space, capacity for eco-build rentals this might include a community cafe

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By becoming a shareholder, you will be helping to:


  • Create a secure organic future for Babbinswood Farm South.
  • Change the rule book – where long-term livelihoods on the land are prioritised over short-term farming practices and targets.
  • Ensure land remains in the ownership of local people and out of the pockets of large investment companies and pension funds.
  • Make healthy food and nourished soils the focus of land management.
  • Secure a place where wildlife and people can flourish together.

For further information and before buying shares in Babbinswood Farm CBS, we recommend you read our Society Rules, Share Offer document and Business Plan (Links at the bottom of the page).

With your support it will make all these ideas a reality!

A Board of Directors will be elected from our new base of shareholders. As members and landowners, you will help to guide the direction of this farm for the future, ensuring we meet our charitable objects and create a landscape which nourishes us all.

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Purchase your community shares today and become a steward of the land

  • Each share is £50 and you can buy as many as you like up to a maximum of £100,000.
  • Each member receives one vote, regardless of the number of shares held - Community Benefit Societies are 100% democratic.
  • Shares are life-long and making you a part-owner of Babbinswood Farm South for life.
  • Each shareholder is welcome to put themselves forward to be on our Board of Directors – we’d love to hear from you.
  • Our shareholders, our community, will guide the direction of Babbinswood Farm South. 
  • Shares are non-profit-making and withdrawable upon giving notice to the Society (on the proviso that sufficient funds are available to service the withdrawals)

Please note: The purchase of community shares is at full risk, and investors can lose all or part of their capital invested without recourse to the Financial Ombudsman Service or right to compensation under the Financial Service Compensation Scheme. Please do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.

We hope we have inspired you to buy one or more shares! This is a truly special farm and has so much potential to enrich and nourish people's lives. 


Please share our story far and wide - to your friends and family and let’s get everyone talking about Babbinswood Farm CBS. Even if you can’t become a share owner please share our story on social media and sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with our community.

Thank you for reading our campaign, for supporting our story and sharing!

from,

The Board of Directors (See images below), The Land and Our Future Generations
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Ways to keep updated with our progress and sharing our campaign... LETS GET THIS GLOBAL

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Facebook    Instagram       X.           WhatApp or Call us on: 07907708075

Email us on [email protected]

Website 

Youtube

Levels of Investment

£50 or more

One or more non-profit-making shares

Buy one share for £50 and you become a member of the Society. You will receive a share certificate. An e-certificate is an option to save on printing and posting costs. Each member has one vote, regardless of how many shares they own. You’ll be a co-owner of Babbinswood Farm South for life! You can increase your investment at the checkout - remember to only use denominations of £50, any others will be treated as a donation.

£10 or more

Make a donation & we can claim in 25% Gift Aid too

If you want to support our campaign, but not through becoming a life-long member of the farm (buying a share), then a donation can go that bit further with a Gift Aid declaration from you. You can increase your investment at the checkout - remember to only use denominations of £50, any others will be treated as a donation.

£30 or more

Make a donation & we can claim in 25% Gift Aid too

If you want to support our campaign, but not through becoming a life-long member of the farm (buying a share), then a donation can go that bit further with a Gift Aid declaration from you.

£150 or more

Three or more non-profit-making shares

You will receive a share certificate. An e-certificate is an option to save on printing and posting costs. Each member has one vote, regardless of how many shares they own. You’ll be a co-owner of Babbinswood Farm South for life! You can increase your investment at the checkout - remember to only use denominations of £50, any others will be treated as a donation.

£250 or more

Five or more non-profit-making shares

You will receive a share certificate. An e-certificate is an option to save on printing and posting costs. Each member has one vote, regardless of how many shares they own. You’ll be a co-owner of Babbinswood Farm South for life! You can increase your investment at the checkout - remember to only use denominations of £50, any others will be treated as a donation.

£500 or more

Ten shares or more non-profit-making shares

You will receive a share certificate. An e-certificate is an option to save on printing and posting costs. Each member has one vote, regardless of how many shares they own. You’ll be a co-owner of Babbinswood Farm South for life! You can increase your investment at the checkout - remember to only use denominations of £50, any others will be treated as a donation.

£1,500 or more

1 of 25 claimed

30 shares and an afternoon with Casha on the farm

In addition to your membership and voting rights you get to spend an afternoon with Casha on the farm getting to know her, the land, and the animals up close and personal! You can increase your investment at the checkout - remember to only use denominations of £50, any others will be treated as a donation.

£5,000 or more

0 of 3 claimed

100 shares and join Adam for a day of bushcraft

In addition to your membership and voting rights you and up to 6 friends and family, get to spend a day with Adam in our beautiful woodland learning bushcraft skills, axe throwing and archery. Adam has over 15 years experience teaching in the outdoors. We will also include a delicious organic lunch. You can increase your investment at the checkout - remember to only use denominations of £50, any others will be treated as a donation.

£10,000 or more

0 of 10 claimed

200 shares and a day with Casha on the farm

In addition to your membership and voting rights, you and up to 4 friends or family, get to spend a day with Casha on the farm getting to know her and the animals up close and personal! Your day will include meeting the cows, walking the fields and a delicious organic lunch. You can increase your investment at the checkout - remember to only use denominations of £50, any others will be treated as a donation.

£20,000 or more

0 of 10 claimed

400 shares and an overnight stay at the farm

In addition to your membership and voting rights, you and up to 4 friends or family will be treated to an overnight stay at the farm. This will include: spending time with Casha on the farm. You all will be treated to an organic dinner with Casha and the family. The next morning you’ll be up with the birds and help Casha with morning milking followed by a hearty organic breakfast.

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