Our Story
Shw'mae! We are Lily and Pete. We met in 2009. By 2011 we were married. That year, we moved into a truck, beginning a project that would change the trajectory of our lives forever. We didn't know it at the time, but we were on a quest for Cynefin...
A quest for home
Disillusioned by a culture of consumption and alienation, and with a child on the way, we set off on a journey around the UK, in search of the seeds of a different story...
Over the next three years, we crowd-funded, filmed and edited our first (and only!) feature length film.
Released in 2016, Wetheuncivilised: A Life Story is an award-winning ecological documentary and community project that has screened in over 200 communities worldwide.
We toured this grass-roots project with our own solar-powered cinema and workshop space, supporting people to explore practical responses to the challenges of our time.
In 2017, with a clear vision of what we wanted to create, we began looking for a place to draw together everything we’d been learning. In a serendipitous convergence of events, we found ourselves living in the Herefordshire/Monmouthshire borderlands, and began to put down roots. Lockdown and a second child slowed life down, and our dream for a land-based project began to feel like it might never happen...
But how could we afford to buy 16acres?
In 2021, Lily's mum and step-dad sold their home in Brockely, South East London. The house had been bought collectively by Lily's mum and two friends in the early 80's as a response to being single parents after meeting at the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp. Between 1984 and 2021, the house was home to many people. In the mid-80’s it was run as a communal household with shared chilcare responsibilities. By the 90s Lily's mum had met Lily’s step-dad and they had become sole owners through a series of re-shuffles and buy-outs. Still, the house remained busy with lodgers, student exchanges and also as a foster home. After the sale of the house, Lily's late mum and step-dad went on to set up a co-housing project Cannock Mill co-housing and Lily inherited sufficient funds so that when, we saw the advert on right move, for 16 acres of pasture and woodland, right here, in the heart of our community, we were able to make an offer. We spent a summer here without running water and one solar panel in a small touring caravan as we applied for planning to begin to establish the basic infrastructure, and to build the tiny home (a converted 7.5ton lorry box), where we now live under the caravan act.
It is our intention to use this privilege to create something that will serve the local ecology, the local community and our family now and for years to come.
We have found our Cynefin. We can’t wait to share it with you!
And so, the next chapter begins...
Lily and Pete x
So, how were we able to buy 16-acres?
In 2021, Lily's mum and step-dad sold their home in Brockely, South East London. The house had been bought collectively by Lily's mum and two friends in the early 80's - after meeting at the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp - as a response to being single parents. Between 1984 and 2021, the house was home to many people. In the mid-80’s it was run as a communal household with shared childcare responsibilities.
By the 90s Lily's mum had met Lily’s step-dad and they had become sole owners through a series of re-shuffles and buy-outs. Still, the house remained busy with lodgers, student exchanges and also as a foster home. After the sale of the house, Lily's late mum and step-dad went on to set up a co-housing project Cannock Mill co-housing,
meanwhile, enabling us to action our dream.
When we saw the advert for 16-acres of pasture and woodland - right here in the heart of our community - we were able to make an offer. We spent a summer here without running water and one solar panel in a small touring caravan as we applied for planning to begin to establish basic infrastructure, and to bring on our temporary home, a converted 7.5ton lorry box, where we now live under the Caravan Act.
It is our intention to use this opportunity to continue with the spirit of Lily's childhood home - something that stretches beyond the needs of the nuclear family. It has always been our plan to create something that will serve the local ecology, the community and our family - now and for years to come.
We have found our Cynefin. We can't wait to share it with you!
Lily & Pete x
