Meanwhile at Fordhall Farm, in 2006, 24-year-old Charlotte Hollins and her brother Ben, 22, were facing eviction from the farm their family had stewarded for hundreds of years. Their father Arthur had begun farming in line with organic principles in the 1940s, and was an early supporter of the Soil Association. He was adamant that farming could work in harmony with nature and he spent his whole life reinforcing this idea.

It seemed, however, that Arthur’s legacy at Fordhall Farm, near Market Drayton in North Shropshire, was at risk. Charlotte and Ben were tenant farmers, and the owner of the farmland wanted to develop the site.

As the end of their tenancy approached Charlotte and Ben asked those living around them for help and inspiration, and came up with the idea of putting the farm into community ownership by offering non-profit shares of £50 each to build a fund of £800,000.

A race against time to save Fordhall Farm

As the final deadline loomed in July 2006, Charlotte and Ben were falling short of their target and needed a mortgage to fill the gap. This is when Triodos stepped in and raced to complete a loan just 24 hours before the deadline that would have seen the 12^th-century organic farm destroyed by industrial development.

Fordhall Farm became England’s first community-owned farm, a thriving community land initiative – one farmer with 8,000 landlords.

Farming finance requires constant flexibility in response to the seasons and harvests, but Triodos wanted to test its 35 years of expertise supporting organic farmers. Relationship Manager Sarah Allen explains why Triodos was keen to support the initiative:

“Transforming the way we feed ourselves is an area of focus for Triodos. So, we felt it was vitally important not to lose the organic land at Fordhall to development, and the investment in community shares showed the level of support from the local area. Our Credit Team worked hard to meet the deadline and we made it with 24 hours to spare.”

Compared to other banks Triodos thinks differently – it’s not just a business to Charlotte and Ben, it’s their lifestyle and that has led to nearly 20 years of success.

Charlotte Hollins says the Triodos team’s support was crucial: “ We were young, we had had lots of ‘no’s’, and Triodos sat down with us, listened, talked to people who were supporting the farm, talked to our board members, and said ‘we can make this work’. I don’t think we could have done it without that encouragement.”    

Faith in farming, faith in community

Now, Charlotte is the General Manager of the Fordhall Community Land Initiative, which owns the farm, with a staff of 35 and 100 volunteers. Ben was given a 100-year lease on the land, continuing the system of ‘foggage farming’ that his father established – rotating livestock around the farm to graze the rich pasture that results from this permaculture-based system.

“We were offered a mortgage of £200,000 by Triodos but in the end we only needed £100,000 to meet the target. We’ve continued to invest into every aspect of the farm so that £100,000 has enabled more than £1,000,000 of investment in creating a diverse operation. Now we have a care farm that supports adults with learning disabilities, a youth project to build the self-esteem of vulnerable young people, a group for people with isolation and rural loneliness, and a cancer support group. We have a café and meeting room, we do weddings and have yurts for glamping. But at the heart of all this is a livelihood, a working farm with Ben as the tenant farmer.” 

“Triodos supported the diversification of the business with further loans in 2011 and 2019,” said Sarah Allen. “We’ve funded Ben to develop a thriving farm shop and an event catering business and now the site employs over 100 local people. Without diversification, a farm that size would employ only one or two.”

The community ownership structure is the DNA of Fordhall Farm, bringing significant benefits to both the farm and those that support it.

“Without all of our members, we wouldn’t have the privilege of still being here,” says Charlotte.  “They – and Triodos – gave us hope by having faith in us, and faith in farming is really important because it’s a challenging industry. And we’ve proved the power of small actions. Fordhall Farm wasn’t saved by a few people doing big things, it was lots of people doing small things: £50 a time from members and Triodos doing small things through their mentoring relationship and encouragement with tasks like the paperwork and their support for organic farming.”

“In return, members get the joy of seeing our success, and a sense of empowerment that without them we wouldn’t be here. 90% of members say they are more likely to get involved with other community-owned initiatives because of their link with us, and then there’s the long-term benefit that this farm will always be here, supporting nature, wildlife, food and community.”  

Championing the growth of community ownership

Triodos works to drive systemic change, so what is the wider impact of the Fordhall Farm experience?

“Community ownership is a complex thing to get going” says Triodos Bank UK’s Head of Nature, Food and Resource, Simon Crichton. “I know of about 12 farms that are structured like Fordhall, but there are many others looking at going down the same route. Fordhall pioneered this approach as the first community-owned farm in the country. If we are to create a society that has a more holistic view of prosperity then we also need ownership structures that value more than profit.

"In fact, Triodos itself has a distinctive community-based model: our shares are held in trust by a foundation and around 40,000 individuals and a number of institutions co-own Triodos Bank. So we are doing whatever we can to break down the barriers to community ownership throughout the system, through our support for things like the Community Right to Buy, the “We’re Right Here” campaign, and financing a wide range of community owned organisations.”

“We want to be a catalyst for change across the board,” says Charlotte. “It’s important to us to help others that are following our way because it was incredibly hard for us, but actually it shouldn’t have been that hard. We want to increase the network supporting stewards to get back onto the land… so that land can be used for the purpose for which it exists – to support our communities and nature and produce nourishing food. We’re really keen to support the spread of community ownership because it has brought us so much more than we ever thought it would.”