A secure home and productive plot within 77 acres of community-owned woodland, pasture and shared land in the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, Wales

Coed Talylan Land Trust is looking for people interested in establishing a long-term home, smallholding and land-based livelihood within our 77-acre holding near Bethlehem, Carmarthenshire.

We are developing a small community with a housing and subsistence plot within a much larger area of shared woodland, pasture and other common land.

Each household has its own defined plot, providing space for a home, garden and productive activities, while also having access to land, infrastructure and resources managed collectively across the wider holding.

The basic principle is simple:

Your home and plot are your own space. The wider land is held permanently in common by Coed Talylan Land Trust.

This is not intended to be a commune where households share their income, work or everyday lives. Equally, it is not a conventional property development where land is divided into private freeholds and subsequently traded on the housing market.

We are trying to create something closer to a modern smallholder commons: secure individual homes and livelihoods embedded within a larger landscape that is collectively stewarded and protected for the future.

The opportunity

We currently have a plot available for people interested in developing low-impact homes and land-based livelihoods through appropriate planning routes, including One Planet Development (OPD) and Rural Enterprise Dwelling where applicable.

Each household would have a clearly defined housing and productive area that could accommodate a dwelling, garden, growing space and other infrastructure appropriate to their livelihood.

Beyond the individual plots lies the much larger shared landscape.

Coed Talylan extends to approximately 77 acres, comprising woodland and pasture. Around 26 acres are being dedicated primarily to woodland conservation and ecological restoration, while much of the remaining land forms the productive and shared landscape associated with the housing plots and wider activities of the Land Trust.

Depending on the activity and the management agreement involved, this means a household may potentially have access to around 40 acres beyond its immediate plot for appropriate woodland, horticultural, grazing, conservation or other land-based activities.

Your plot is therefore only part of the opportunity.

A place to establish a livelihood

We are particularly interested in people who want to combine living here with practical involvement in the land.

Possible activities might include:

• horticulture and food production;
• tree growing and plant propagation;
• woodland management and ecological restoration;
• coppice and woodland products;
• small livestock or grazing;
• craft and green woodworking;
• food processing;
• fungi and mushroom cultivation;
• ecological education and training;
• other appropriate small-scale rural enterprises.

We particularly welcome people bringing useful practical skills or a credible idea they would like to develop.

There is no expectation that everybody undertakes the same work or pools their income. Individual businesses remain individual businesses.

Where residents choose to cooperate, for example, by sharing machinery, infrastructure, land or marketing there is also potential for collaborative enterprises to develop.

Your home and plot

Each household has its own private domestic and productive space of around 1-2 acres to develop their home, garden and livelihood with a substantial degree of independence.

We don’t want ordinary decisions about people’s homes, gardens or businesses to require continual collective decision-making.

Instead, the common framework deals with those things that genuinely affect everybody: access, infrastructure, planning, ecological stewardship, neighbouring households and management of shared resources.

The objective is household autonomy within a shared landscape.

Low-impact self-build

Homes at Coed Talylan are intended to be low-impact, highly energy-efficient buildings that respond appropriately to their woodland setting.

The first dwelling at Coed Talylan has already received planning permission through the One Planet Development route, providing useful experience and a planning precedent for further applications.

Because of the particular access, landscape and planning circumstances of the site, there are constraints on the form and dimensions of dwellings. The existing design uses a single-storey, mono-pitch structure with a green roof and natural cladding designed to sit unobtrusively within the landscape.

Detailed information about the planning position, dwelling parameters, previous surveys, drawings and existing planning application can be provided to serious applicants.

There is also considerable practical experience within the project of self-building, timber construction and low-impact building, allowing knowledge, equipment and practical assistance to be shared between households where desired.

The commons

One of the most important differences between Coed Talylan and purchasing a conventional smallholding is access to a much larger shared landscape.

Rather than four households each attempting to own every piece of machinery, workshop or acre of productive land they might occasionally need, some resources can be held and managed collectively.

Existing and proposed shared resources include:

• woodland and pasture;
• spring-fed water;
• tracks and access infrastructure;
• workshop space;
• covered outdoor woodworking space;
• food-processing and storage facilities;
• propagation facilities;
• machinery and land-management equipment;
• renewable-energy infrastructure.

There is already a small compact tractor for woodland and general land work, a two-wheel BCS tractor and various other tools and equipment.

A gravity-fed spring supplies water throughout the site with good pressure.

Tracks and access ways have already been established, with material for their maintenance available from a small gravel quarry on the holding.

There is planning permission for an extension to the existing barn and a large propagation greenhouse. The proposed barn facilities include space for food processing, fermentation, preserving, drying and storage alongside workshop and teaching space.

Individual plots can have their own renewable-energy systems, while there is also potential to connect into shared infrastructure and further develop the existing renewable-energy systems, including possible hydro generation.

Some shared resources would simply be available to residents; others would have specific management or use agreements. The intention is to make useful resources accessible without requiring everything to be collectively organised.

Woodland, conservation and stewardship

Living at Coed Talylan means becoming part of the stewardship of a much larger piece of land.

Approximately 26 acres are being developed primarily for woodland conservation and ecological restoration.

Plot holders would not be required to make the conservation project their livelihood or principal activity, but we hope residents will value living alongside an area managed substantially for ecological recovery and biodiversity.

The remaining woodland and pasture provide opportunities for productive management alongside conservation.

We are therefore particularly interested in people attracted by woodland life, practical land stewardship and the possibility of making a livelihood while improving rather than exhausting the ecological resources on which that livelihood depends.

Shared life without communal living

Coed Talylan is not a commune.

Households have their own homes, incomes, businesses, gardens, families and daily routines.

At the same time, this is intended to be more than four unrelated properties sharing an access track.

Residents share responsibility for those things that genuinely benefit from being managed together: the commons, tracks, water systems, shared buildings, machinery and the long-term stewardship of the holding.

Some contribution towards maintaining these resources will therefore be expected, through an agreed combination of shared costs and occasional shared work.

Beyond these basic responsibilities, participation in other people’s enterprises and projects is voluntary.

The aim is to create a culture of cooperation and mutual assistance without unnecessary collectivisation of people’s lives.

Education, courses and other activities

Coed Talylan has also developed as a place for practical education around land-based skills and ecological living.

Courses and events over recent years have included carpentry and construction, mushroom cultivation, fermentation, One Planet Development and renewable-energy technologies.

People joining the project would be welcome to develop educational activities connected with their own skills or businesses if they wished.

This is not a requirement. However, prospective residents should be comfortable with the fact that courses, workshops and occasional groups form part of the wider activities taking place on the holding, with designated areas used for these purposes.

How ownership and security work

The land itself is owned by Coed Talylan Land Trust, a Community Benefit Society established to hold land for long-term community benefit.

Individual plots are therefore not sold as conventional freehold building plots.

Instead, households become Home Members of the Land Trust and receive secure, long-term rights over their defined housing and productive plot.

This structure is intended to achieve two things that are often difficult to reconcile:

Security for the household and permanent protection of the land.

People need enough security to invest years of work and money in creating a home, garden and livelihood. The arrangements therefore need to recognise the financial interest households create through their dwelling and other eligible improvements.

At the same time, increases in the speculative value of the underlying land should not gradually transform the plots into conventional rural properties that future generations can no longer afford.

The mechanisms governing household investment, valuation, inheritance and leaving the project have been incorporated into a long-term lease agreement developed by the Land Trust, with assistance from Cwmpas (formerly the Wales Co-operative Centre) and the Confederation of Co-operative Housing. The agreement is designed to provide households with long-term security and a recognised financial interest in their home and eligible improvements, while ensuring that the underlying land remains permanently held by the Land Trust for community benefit.

The underlying principle is that households should retain fair value for what they create, while the land itself remains permanently held by the Trust and outside the speculative property market.

Applicants will be given full information about these arrangements before making any financial commitment.

Cost

The current premium associated with taking on a plot is £50,000.

This contributes towards securing the land and provides the basis for the household’s long-term interest in the project and plot.

Because this is not the purchase of a conventional freehold property, we think it is important that prospective residents fully understand the financial and legal arrangements before proceeding.

We are therefore open to discussing the structure and timing of payments with suitable applicants, while the final leasehold, equity, service-charge and exit arrangements will be clearly documented before commitment.

The intention is to create a structure that provides meaningful long-term security without privatising the underlying land.

Who we are looking for

There is no single type of person or household we are looking for.

However, Coed Talylan is likely to suit people who:

• genuinely want to establish a long-term home connected to land;
• are interested in producing at least some of what they need and/or developing a land-based livelihood;
• value ecological stewardship and low-impact living;
• enjoy a degree of independence and self-reliance;
• are comfortable sharing responsibility for common resources;
• can cooperate with neighbours while respecting household autonomy;
• understand that joining a Community Land Trust is different from purchasing a conventional property;
• are interested in helping shape a project that is still developing.

Practical skills in horticulture, forestry, building, crafts, ecology or rural enterprise are particularly welcome, but enthusiasm, commitment and a credible plan for developing a livelihood can be equally important.

Getting to know each other

Finding the right people matters considerably more than filling plots quickly.

Before somebody commits financially or begins a planning application, we therefore have a joining period intended to allow both the applicant and existing members to discover whether Coed Talylan is genuinely the right fit.

This normally takes around three months.

Where accommodation is available, prospective members may be able to spend time living at Coed Talylan while getting to know the project. Alternatively, people can remain living elsewhere and participate through regular visits and shared workdays.

The purpose is not to create a test of ideological commitment. It is simply difficult to know whether you want to share responsibility for land with people, or whether they want to share it with you, without spending some meaningful time together.

Planning

One One Planet Development at Coed Talylan has already received planning permission.

A substantial amount of planning work has therefore already been undertaken, including surveys, mapping and house design work that may be useful in preparing subsequent applications.

Further plots could potentially proceed through One Planet Development or Rural Enterprise planning routes, depending upon the household, proposed enterprise and circumstances of the particular plot.

Planning permission cannot be guaranteed, and prospective residents will need to develop a viable proposal appropriate to the planning route they pursue.

However, applicants would not be starting from scratch. They would be joining a project with practical experience of taking a low-impact dwelling through the planning system at this particular site.

An opportunity to help shape the next stage

Coed Talylan is an established Land Trust, but the plot smallholder model described here represents the next stage in its development.

We are therefore looking for people who want more than simply an inexpensive route to a rural house.

We are looking for people interested in making a place: establishing a home and livelihood, growing food, managing woodland, building useful infrastructure, sharing resources with neighbours and contributing to the long-term stewardship of a beautiful piece of land.

In return, the project offers something increasingly difficult to find, a secure home and meaningful access to productive land without having to privately purchase an entire smallholding.

Individual households can have their own homes, gardens, livelihoods and private lives while sharing those things that genuinely make sense to share.

That is the model we are trying to build at Coed Talylan.

Interested?

The best way to understand the opportunity is to come and see the land, meet us and talk through how the plots and wider commons could work.

A map showing the holding and proposed plot areas is available here:

MAP – PLOT OUTLINES

If you are interested in this opportunity please fill in this Expression of Interest form below.

Coed Talylan: OPD Plot – Expression of Interest

Further information about the Land Trust, the legal and financial model, planning position and individual plots can then be provided to prospective applicants.

We welcome expressions of interest from individuals, couples and families who think this might offer the kind of relationship with home, land and community they are looking for.

Our next Open Day is:

Saturday 17th October