Save Trecadwgan Farm

Aim

Together! We will raise £50,000. Rescue this historic farm from a council auction. And restore it to the Community.

latest update:The council have moved the deadline! We now have just a week. 

We need help with SEED loans urgently as well as donations to crowdfunder. £20k raised in SEED loans, £30k to go!

This is a big blow, we have lost 11 days. However, we will readjust our timescales. We will achieve this. The community of Solva will take £50k into the council offices on the deadline to negotiate the sale of the farm!

We ask you to please share this message with all your friends: to ask for donations if they can and also 

As the deadline is so tight we are now also looking for the LOANS to bridge us over the deadline. Please have a look at these and consider if you are able.

**If just 6 more people lend us £5000 for a few months, we will have it!

What's so special about an old farm?

Trecadwgan is a beautiful collection of historic farm buildings, some as old the 14th century. It's only 10 minutes walk above the village of Solva, on a peninsula in west Wales jutting out into the Irish Sea.

The farm sits on a meeting place of paths, tracks and country lanes leading to the land which has fed the area for hundreds of years.

Though it belongs to the local authority as a Council farm to help young farmer tenants have access to land and a livelihood. The council want to sell; they can no longer afford to repair it. But we think that’s a terrible lost opportunity to our community.  

Says who?

We are a band of local volunteers comprised of farmers, growers, teachers, chefs, bakers, health workers and professionals - on a mission.

Only 2 weeks ago we heard that the farm was up for public auction – then we found it belongs to the council. We were shocked not to have heard earlier.

A group of us quickly met at the farm as soon as we heard about the auction...

What’s the rush?

The auction is set for July 17th. That means we have less than 3 weeks to stop the sale.

We need to raise £50,000 deposit in less than 2 weeks to work with the council to buy the farm.

OK, now the council have changed the deposit deadline to the 9th of July!

If the community can raise £50,000 before then, the council have pledged to halt the auction and negotiate a sale with us - over 12 months. We will use the funds raised to pay the deposit necessary to stop the auction, and then it will help towards the final price.

The council have promised to take into account the social benefits and ‘services’ the community propose to provide in order to agree a fair sale price.

Once we have stopped the auction we can access the investment needed to purchase the farm through heritage funding to save and restore the beautiful old buildings alongside our Community Share offer.

A Solva Community Owned Farm could help young people, isolated farmers, well being and nature

The peninsula is losing its young people in search of meaningful work. Farmers talk of hidden poverty, soaring suicide rates and despair.

Small farms are being swept into larger and larger holdings which means youngsters cannot come to the land.

A photo of some of our group video-calling Fordhall Community Farm for advice last week. One of the many meetings we have had in the farm yard. 

There are great solutions being proved on other community owned farms in the UK offering healthier food, and a better deal for small farms and producers. We want to use the best ideas to run a community owned enterprise with democratic decision making:

• to bring young people back to the land, to work with older farmers and their store of knowledge;
• to run a smart mixed-use farm combining arable, market garden and animal husbandry, reducing the need for costly or chemical inputs;
• to set up a food hub adding value to local produce and supporting other small farms in the area;
• to farm ecologically: building soils and carbon, reducing flooding and fossil fuel use;
• to run educational and research facilities, building knowledge and keeping skills alive;
• to run training programmes around restoring heritage buildings using a combination of traditional and modern materials and eco design;
• to promote local health and well being opportunities whenever possible and partner with local social projects such as Solva Care;
• to increase biodiversity on the land;
• to give access to visitors through a venue, farm shop and/or cafe facilities;
• to feed people locally and healthily.

This farm has a really special history 

An old picture found by a local resident.

TreCadwgan means the ‘place of Cadwgan’, one of the last heroic Princes of West Wales who fought against the Norman invaders and was known for his fair hand and bravery. The current farmhouse dates, in part, to the 14th Century whilst records of a farm go back to at least the 11th century.

Nestled above the community of Solva and its natural harbour on the iconic St Davids peninsula, Trecadwgan is perfectly positioned to serve the community bioregion and its visitors - as it would have done through the ages. And thanks to you, it will continue to do so again for future generations.

Let's do it! 

The Solva community only just became aware of the auction, so, like our hero we must rally to do our part to preserve and breathe life into this valuable community resource. Together, we will do it.

Get in touch to invest in this evolutionary community project. 

For more information - head to https://www.savetrecadwganfarm.org/

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-trecadwgan-farm-for-the-community

Pledge what you can today and together we will save Trecadwgan for tomorrow!

This project successfully funded on 12th July 2019