This document discusses alternative communities that have formed in rural Wales. It begins by challenging the dominant view of the countryside as conservative, instead finding evidence of thriving non-traditional lifestyles. Examples are given of eco-hamlets like Lammas and walking tours of eco-homes. Rural Wales is described as attractive to alternatives due to its affordable land, welcoming culture, and difference from English norms. The 1970s saw pioneers like John Seymour establish communities. Today's alternative settlements build on this countercultural legacy while aligning with Wales' mission of sustainable development.

1. ‘Alternative’ communities in rural
Wales
Dr Keith Halfacree
Department of Geography
Swansea University
k.h.halfacree@swansea.ac.uk
1. A ‘conservative’ countryside?
2. Countercultural landscapes of
rural Wales
3. Why rural Wales?
4. Pioneers of the 1970s
5. Conclusion: where next?

2. 1. A ‘conservative’ countryside?
‘a rural of associations’ (Bell 2007: 408)
Dominant representation
Rural idyll - rooted
• Timeless, tradition
• Organic community
• Settled landscape
• Rest, relaxation, repose
• Cultural homogeneity
• Conservative & elderly
• Nature over culture
• Being

3. But ‘Reading for difference rather than dominance’ to
uncover ‘what is possible but obscured from view’
(Gibson-Graham 2006, xxxi-xxxii)
• Mormont (1987, 1990) - rurality as ‘prominent
aspiration’
• Wright (1985: 78): ‘national heritage involves positive
energies which certainly can’t be written off as
ideology. It engages hopes, dissatisfactions, feelings
of tradition & freedom’
• Excavating the ‘extraordinary ordinary’ within e.g.
mainstream counterurbanisation (Halfacree 2007)
 Beneath a supposedly staid, quiet, conservative
exterior, rural Wales contains thriving geographies of
‘alternative’ lifestyles or alterity

4. 2. Countercultural landscapes of rural Wales
The Rough Guide to Wales ‘Alternative, New Age &
Green Wales’ section
Introduced thus:
‘Possibly more than any other part of Britain, Wales –
the mid and west in particular – has become
something of a haven for those searching for
alternative lifestyles’ (Le Nevez et al., 2009: 58)
Academic work has some way to go in drawing together
this sense of difference, presenting it coherently, and
interrogating it (cf. Osmond & Graham 1984)

5. E.g. Lammas eco-hamlet, near
Glandwr, Pembrokeshire
• Proposal from 2005 following
imminent emergence of Section 52
of Joint Unitary Development Plan
for Pembrokeshire
• Considerable preparation,
consultation and other groundwork
• ‘the most ambitious low impact
development yet proposed in the
UK’ (Fairlie 2009: 156)
• Obtained approval via Welsh
Assembly planning inspector in
August 2009
• Phase 1 - new settlement of nine
smallholdings, campsite &
community hub building
• Site: 31ha mixed pasture &
woodland

6. E.g. Eco-homes walking tour
• Monthly walk that visits
several places on a seven-
mile Sunday ramble
• Vicky Moller (John Seymour)
• Brithdir Mawr, former sheep
& dairy farm, 1993-

7. Others

8. 3. Why rural Wales?
‘Except in the most Anglicized urban enclaves... in
fundamentals everything is different in Wales even
now. The history is different, the talk is different even in
English, and so is the manner of life’ (Morris 1986: 245)
Within imaginative geographies of UK, Wales
expressing ‘difference’ from dominant English
mainstream... & on the ground

9. Imaginative ‘offer’:
• Strong sense of community – gwerin
• Cultural richness & resilience
• Nature / site of Romantic sublime
On the ground:
• Low population & population density
• Land & property available & relatively affordable
• Social environment welcoming / relatively
nonplussed (cf. conflict)
• Relative poverty resonating with ‘locals’
• Higher education facilities
• Existential physicality, nature & affective dimensions

10. 4. Pioneers of the 1970s
John Seymour, Pembrokeshire 1964-
1970s ‘alternative realities’ (Rigby 1974)
• Selene Community, Pembs, then
22ha dilapidated hill farm near
Llanbedr, Gwynedd
• Incredible String Band 1968 -
Penwern commune near Newport
• Tipi Valley, 1976, near Llanfynydd,
Carmarthenshire - ‘one of the
longest-serving alternative
traveller lifestyle sites in Britain’
(McKay 1996: 53)

11. • Organic pioneers e.g. Patrick Holden,
Tregaron, 1973-
• Nant-Y-Cwm Steiner school in
Rhydwilym, Pembrokeshire
• Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT),
Machynlleth 1973-
• Richard Kemp, with partner Christine Bott
to Tregaron in 1975 ‘to practise their
hippie ideas and manufacture high
quality LSD in seclusion’ (Roberts 2008: 181)
• Numerous other individuals & groups

12. 5. Conclusion: where next?
Building on ‘countercultural milieu’ (Longhurst 2010)
Legacy:
• Cultural / experiential
• Economic – spin offs & tourism
• Saying something different...
S79 Govt of Wales Act 2006: to promote sustainable
development  One Wales: One Planet (2009)
Lammas etc. constructed in this context  rural not so
‘conservative’