Saving Our Eco village – final script

TC & On  screen                                                                 commentary,

10.00.00 Aerial shots,  music

                                                                    The Preseli mountains , Pembrokeshire.

A land of prehistoric settlements

Source of the Bluestones of Stonehenge

And  more recently, 

10.00.20 Aerial of farm

popular for those seeking self sufficiency, the Good Life

10.00.26 chicken on fence

Tucked away in the foothills of the Preselis

one eco community lives here completely off grid,

10.00.35 Heather pulling onions

Shots & sync of sola panels, veg bed, goats ,  wind turbines, compost loos etc

 ……growing their food,

10.00.38 kid goats

 ……rearing their animals

10.00.42 ext gv compost loo

…….composting their waste,

10.00.44 aerial of wind turine

…….generating their own electricity

10.00.48 water gv

and with their own water supply.

10.00.51 boy blowing hunting horn

10.00.57 woman fiddler & dancers

Successive residents at Brithdir Mawr have enjoyed this independence for 25 years,

often opening their doors to visitors and volunteers

eager to learn about their sustainable way of life,

10.01.09 ext tony wrench working with wood frame

As well as,  leading the way in new eco housing laws, after a lengthy,  notorious , planning dispute.

10.01.16 BBC archive of planning protest

10.01.19 ext dancers

But now change is coming.

They have to embrace the world of business,

  if they want to stay.

10.01.26 dancing with Lea Trainer  overlay

“the lease is up at the end of the year and we don’t want it to go to a private buyer

10.01.32. Lea in vision

“ we want it to be in a trust so it can benefit future generations to come .”

10.01.35 Boy with kite

 The owner is selling up

10.01.39 ext farmhouse & gv’s pf farm

- the old farmhouse, the converted cowsheds, detached eco houses and the 85 acres of land, will all go on the open market,

  if the community can’t raise a million pounds to buy their homes.

10.01.52 overlay Eve Mathers

“You know what I have no doubt it would sell and it wold become a second home a holiday home

10.01.58 Eve in vision

“a holiday home “

10.02.00 aerial farm to title

It’s a make or break year, for saving their ecovillage.

10.02.02 Title – Saving Our Eco-village

10.02.10 Gvs Newport Xmas

December the 21^st and the north Pembrokeshire coastal town of Newport is busy with Christmas shoppers.

10.02.26 cu Robin bird & fam gv’s

 Just  a mile up the road however,

in the ecovillage of Brithdir Mawr,

 they’re doing something different ,

already preparing for their big feast that evening,

the Winter Solstice.

01.02.36 gv’s of veg patch

More than 80 per cent of the food consumed by the community

 is grown by them

10.02.42 Lea walking  to pick up cabbage

and even in winter

fresh veg can be harvested.

Lea Trainer used to work all hours in the London area as a project manager for the restaurant industry.

10.02.51 Lea overlay

“Doing 9 to 5 but it was more 4 o’clock in the morning until 10 at night, doing stuff together at weekends as a family

10.03.01 Lea in vision with Kirsty

“And kirst home schools the kids

10.03.03 caption Lea & krsty

“so she was busy all during the week so essentially we wer living 2 separate lives side by side

10.03.11 kids on go cart Lea overaly

“But now living at Brithdir we do everything together now”

10.03.16 Lea going into house

Lea,  Kirsty and their two children, like most of the seventeen residents,

live in rented converted cowsheds and barns  around the shared farmhouse

10.03.27 Lea chopping cabbage

“We’re preparing for our winter solstice meal. People  in their own living spaces preparing different parts of the menu if you like

10.03.38 Lea in visionin sync

“then we will come together this evening with all the dishes we’ve prepared for one big feast.”

 

10.03.42 cu Xmas decorations

10.03.46 ext farmhouse at night

Across the yard

Eve, Ben and their three children,

10.03.49 Eve, Ben & children in kitchen gvs

 who moved from their ex- council house in Suffolk,

are also busy doing their bit for the communal feast.

10.03.56 Eve  sync

“ I am in charge of the Xmas puddings  and the brandy butter and Ben has been doing he roast potatoes and gravy.

10.04.08 potatoes c oming out of oven.  Eve overlay

“this marks the change of the sun coming back the warmth coming back thinking about what we are going to do next year.

10.04.17 girl with pudding mix , Ben overlay

 “Yeh we have got a lot of energy to move things forward

10.04.21 Ben in sync

“and change the way things have happened here and to kind of  to look more outwards and not just be about producing food and being self sufficient , but actually having an impact in the wider community.”

10.04.36 ext farmhouse at night , cooking gv’s

10.04.45 gv’s cooking & lighting candles

Many of the community are newly arrived young families

searching for a better quality of life,

time, space and freedom, especially for their children

10.04.55 Lea overlay

“When we joined  the community I was probably a little bit blinkered  to the demands of what it would be because I really wanted it.”

10.05.03 sync  Lea and Kirsty intv

“I don’t think I looked at the things like that much.”

10.05.07 Kirsty sync

“ Your plan was very rose tinted , weren’t it, you didn’t think of any potential hiccups, but I only think of hiccups , that’s my role , in like our marriage , I’m the real pessimist so I told him , you know we’re going to have to deal with this, what if this happens,  and he’d be oh you know it’ll be great.  (both laugh) so it’s a bit of both.”

10.05.27 gvs food & eating Heather and George

Heather and George are the latest arrivals,  

only in their second month,

still settling in.

10.05 36 Intv Heather Baker and George Frankland, heather overlay

“we me in Edinburgh and living very much a city existence there ,

10.05.42 in vision & sync

 “really wanted to make a big change in our lives and I think we had always spoken about wanting to live in a community and the idea of living in isolated bubble in flats really didn’t appeal to us.”

10.05.55 meal gvs Heather overlay

“We then set about looking for where we wanted to live and came here for a volunteer week, we were cycling a way & we were sort of pulled back and this sort of felt

10.06.04 Heather and George in vision

“like it could be home .”

10.06.06 Nick at table

While Nick is one of the more established residents

who welcomes the new families bringing fresh energy and  ideas .

10.06.14 Nick at table & overlay

“The newbies are fantastic

10.06.16 Nick in vison sync

“So we are really lucky to have this new influx. We have decided as a community to hold, so we are not going to look for new members for a while until we have managed to get over this steep hurdle of trying to raise the money  to buy the place.”

10.06.31 Nick at meal & overlay

“Came to visit friend over here and total fell in love with west Wales and the rugged wild scenery that you have here and the amazing coastline and yeo have been here  since.”

 

10.06.42 gvs of meal

                                                                  The community’s 25 year lease expires in just a few days time.

but the landowner has given them a few more months

 to find the money to buy him out.

10.06.54 Lea speech overlay & sync

“The sun starts to rise and we can start to gain energy going into 2020 and setting us on the path to try and buy the land here . Let’s have a good year . Cheers.”

10.07.09  through window shot  & fade to black

10.07.15  Aerial of brown farm landscape

Text on screen- January 2020

10.07.22 Kitchen gathering coffee gvs, writing on table

Every Wednesday, the whole community gets together

 for group discussions and decisions.

10.07.27 Kirsty overlay and in vision sync

“The decision making is really difficult . You’ve got to put it on the agenda, you’ve got to hear what people want to say about it , you then got to wait a week  while people mull it over and look at it again,  and you do get a lot back in return but if you are someone who just like to get up and get on, it’s hard.”

 

10. 07.44 gvs of kitchen & people

Although most have part time jobs off site,

everyone is expected to contribute about 20 hours a week

and take a lead role in one part of the community.

10.07.56  Chickens on loose

For Kirsty, it’s poultry

10.07.59  Music  & chicken gv

10.08 06 Kirsty sync & overlay with chickens gvs

“you know its really good for their enrichment that they get out and walk around but for this amount we cant have them doing that full time you know . We just found a gap so they could be getting through there but some are flying over. And it doesn’t take long when the ground is so wet for them to annihilate it.

Yeh I’ve kept hens for years we’ve had them as pets so they all had names you know but I am refraining from doing that here because some them do end up in a pot so we don’t get double attached to them but actually its amazing how quickly you can re evaluate and think actually this works. I couldn’t imagine looking after an animal we were going to eat before we came here that was just really foreign to me.

But actually now it feels natural . Its really strange because I didn’t think that would be the case before. Because I don’t still eat the chickens but still vegetarian but the kids do and Lea does and hearing from people here is that actually its really important they know where their meat is from and the life its had.

“I reckon its once every couple of weeks there’s a few chickens that are killed.  The kids have taken part in it so that was quite important for me. If they are going to eat then its really nice that they see what goes into it .

10.09 27 group walking along lane

10.09.30 aerial Sheep arrival in trailer

10.0932 child sync

“mummy we are all going to name them.” “this is fluffy.” “That’s called lucky”

10.09.36 Eve at trailer sync

 “Remember some of them are going to be eaten so don’t get too attached . You could  them lamb chop.”

10.09.44 Kirsty at trailer  sync

“Yeh like cutlet and stuff may be do that.”

10.09.48 Unloading sheep. Kirsty overlay. “In a lot of environments, in a lot of locations, eating vegan would be the most sustainable way , not in west Wales, we cant grow a protein source here we don’t have the land we cant do it

10.10.02 Kirsty in sync

“So for us here, eating sustainably

10.10.06  Kirsty Overlay sheep in field

“ is to rear animals using the pasture we have otherwise the grass is just a dead resource.”

   10.10.14. Goose gv’s

There is also Keith,  the pilgrim goose.

He lost two female companions to a fox

and has had to be penned in

 to prevent him pecking everyone

 while new companions are found.

10.10.28 gv goat

And,  there are several goats,  for milk and cheese.

10.10.34 Heather in sync & overlay milking goats

“apart from liking goats I have never milked before, is amazing milking them and then go and drink it  straight away that’s how I like to be living just that close to our food  and the kind of way of life I would like to continue living really.

 

10.10.55 Heather in sync & overlay goat gv’s

“It’s just adjust to a different way of life a community life, the dynamics of being round a lot of people all the time is a really interesting one . It just takes up a lot of your energy because if you live in a flat you are just a round a few people & you can save your energy but here there are more interactions all the time  , always quite interesting cos your always helping someone out or looking after the kids for a bit or going to milk or things that pop we just think woow its surprising that it can be quite like tiring in a way always being round people , but the amount that we have learned… just every day learning something new.”

 

10.11.35 Wet window & business planning meeting gvs

Most came here to escape to the land

but now they have to turn entrepreneurs to survive

so have asked an advisor to help them write and sell a business plan for the future.

10.11.55 Intv - Paul Stepczak, Business Development Advisor, Wales Co-operative Centre,  overlay

“Rather than trying to sell what  is here at Brithdir Maw

10.12.00 Paul in vison synce

“It’s what they can give back to the wider society, the knowledge that they’ve got. An I think that is their key selling point.”

10.12.05 Paul overlay on card exercise

“They live in this particular way and this is something special with the climate change agenda at the moment and his is something we may need to change to .”

10.12.18 card exercise nat sync

10.12.22 Aerials of roundhouse  (sign of roundhouse)

Wrestling with the requirements of the outside world is nothing new.

In the late nineties the eco-community originally included

a grassed rooved round house

but when National Park planners too to the air they spotted its solar panels.

10.12.38 Intv Tony Wrench,  Roundhouse owner overlay

“They said this was in total breach of planning rules because you cant build in the open countryside

10.12.45 Tony in vision

“And I said why not. Because this area once was full of smallholders.”

10.12.52 Tony overlay over gvs of roundhouse.

“with may be an acre or 2. This went on for about 8 years.”

10.12.58  BBC news archive of planning protest,

The community rallied around Tony, protesting to the planners and sparking news headlines

Archive sync

10.13.06 Tony overlay & in vision sync.

“We had a kind of ceasefire while they got their policy together. The Welsh Assembly was producing this new policy of One Planet Development which is that you can build in the open countryside providing that you live a One Planet lifestyle, you got to be carbon neutral , you’ve got to live sustainably, not everybody wants to live like this or could live like this .”

10.13.33 gvs of eco house

The Welsh Government’s unique One Planet planning law

approving genuinely sustainable development 

led to the growth of other eco-villages

and is now seen as pioneering.

10.13.46 intr roundhouse gvs Tony overlay & in vision sync

“I have always loved roundhouses & always wanted to live in a roundhouse and so I looked through a lot of round houses through history really , how they had been designed. We’ve got 150 straw bales in the roof tied together in a spiral then earth on top of that. Grapes grow on the roof, I get about 15 kilos of grapes off the roof every year . Warm water from the sun and electricity from the sun , it’s worked quite well. I do not want to live in this world and just take I want explore the potential of living with the earth instead of against it .

10.14.08 Tony working on wooden frame and exrtr roundhouse

Tony’s  round house is now secure,

His plot next door to the community is now owned by a trust

and attracts visitors from around the world.

10.14.41  sign &  building  & rain GVs

Text on screen February

 One of the farm buildings is used a classroom

for both the wider community and residents.

10.14.56 Lea & Kirsty enter classroom

10.15.00 overlay Kirsty “We’ve started learning Welsh as a start to intergrate so we do that with the kids and a few other people once a week.

Sync

10.15.12 Interview in vision Dewi Rhys-Jones, Welsh Language Teacher

“I think it is fantastic absolutely great. But it fits in to the philosophy here because there some very nice people here who are trying to do something extremely important they are trying to live in harmony with nature, with the environment and they understand that the language and the part of the world they have come to live is part of that so I think they are absolutely wonderful.”

10.15.33 Heather arriving , George overlay

“slowly progressing on the Welsh, it’s taken a bit of time.”

10.15.41 George in vision sync

“But getting there, getting the very basics really interesting to learn.”

1010.15.47 Sync classroom teaching

10.15.56 Dewi overlay & in vison sync

“And to us it’s not meaningful to talk about the environment unless the language is included in that. The environment has been named going back 1000’s o years ad of course the most famous prose tales from Wales are the Mabinogion tales

10.16.16 overlay over extr gv’s

“A large part of the Mabinogion happens in this part of Wales .”

10.16.22 aerials of Preseli mountains and coast,  burial chamber gv’s

The Mabinogion, the Medieval collection of Welsh myths and legends,

tells of an Arthurian battle here with a giant boar killing the king’s sons.

There is something mystic and primeval in this rugged  landscape

With the exact source of the Bluestone inner circle of Stonehenge  nearby

10.16.46 white stone cu, stones in field  then Aerial stone circle

The farm’s name itself, ‘Brithdir Maw’ meaning  ‘ big mottled land ’

may well be derived from the bluestones strewn around the land.

In one field they’ve have been re-erected,

 into what’s believed to be the original Bronze Age circle,

providing a spiritual centre for some residents and visitors.

 

10.17.09 Ben and daughter  walking into stones

10.17.11 Ben overlay and in vision sync

“It’s pretty amazing that thousands of years ago they moved stones from here down to Wiltshire, that’s incredible really. It’s completely different to a lot of the farms around so it has that kind of ancient feel.

10.17.27 Ben in vision in sync and overlay of daughter on stones

 “Especially this part of the farm when you look around  You look up to the mountain and it just look timeless. This setting could be from a thousand years ago really and it definitely has that feel to it it’s very , it’s mor e than just a place it’s very rooted in the past.”

10.17.49 aerial of farm, volunteers working gv’s

Text on screen  - March

Each month the community hosts a volunteers’ week

where a group come to work on the land unpaid

in exchange for training in self sufficiency skills.

10.18.03 Nick Ward,  in field interview

“Its part of our remit that we ‘ve got this fabulous 85 acres in a fantastic location which we want to share with as many people as possible and also share the benefits and the problems of community living .

10.18 16 Nick overlay of volunteers working

“So hopefully they go away with a little idea of how they can live sustainably , how community life works .”

10 .18.25 Interviews Holly Budgen, volunteer in vison sync

“This is my first time living somewhere like Brithdir Mawr where  there is people living in a community so that is very special .

10.18.32 Holly overlay

“I think people really like their way of life I think the second thing is they practice what they preach living in a very natural way.”

volunteers Tim Dickens & Amanda Vaughan)

10.18.44 Amanda overlay over loo & in vison

“It’s becoming very common place compost loos but once you go in here people are often pleasantly surprised because they think there is going to be this horrible experience then they get there and they really enjoy it because they realise that its all in harmony with nature and it doesn’t stink . Often there is a lot better view than if you were going into a toilet in someone’s house.”

10.19.04 Tim Dickens in sync

“You’ve got poo with a view here.”

10.19.11 solar roof gv

Meanwhile Lea is busy improving electricity  generating capacity with a new solar roof.

10.19.20 roof aerial  and gv’s overlay Lea then in vision & sync

“The difference this is going to make to us is more energy productions , 3 times more than we are already producing so it means we’ll be able to run power tools and more appliances  at any one time.”

10.19.33 George overlay then  in vision on roof

“Nice to use power tools. I like using hand tools and stuff but nice to use a saw, an electric saw now and then would be handy.”

Lea overlay then in vision & sync

“we would like businesses to be started on the land so we are putting in the infrastructure beforehand so we can move forward with other plans be it an educational facility, a retreat when they come to hold the courses & stuff.”

10.20.04 sign of door gvs

But before the month is out,  it’s lock down.

Fund raising plans are postponed

And the community decides to treat itself as  one big family.

10.20.15 people outside farmhouse gvs

 No visitors or volunteers are allowed.

 In the outside world, there’s panic buying,

long queues and empty shelves in supermarkets,

 desolate streets , ….and fear.

10.20.30 George with power tool on solar roof, overly by Lea

“For us life hasn’t really changed that much , what I think we have is our natural life.

10.20.37 Lea in vision & sync

“What’s positive about this at the moment, I think personally is that I thin it gives people a chance to reflect on what is important in life and slow down , just slow down. “

  

10.20.51  gv’s and music

10.21.02 Iphone of wood shed pov

Text on screen – April

Text on screen – Lockdown video diary

Lea with selfie stick overlay & ptc  Children sawing

“Morning all on this sunny day. Today’s task is loading the wood bays, kids are out here bow sawing and Kirst is stacking and I get the hard job of filming.”

 

10.21.19 iphone of children with books

All the children are now being schooled at home

Lea overlay

“what are doing today kids ?”

Kids reply

“drawing dragons.”

10.21.27 Eve Mathers overlay of children then in vision & sync

“we have 3 children  and they have absolutely thrived here, as you can imagine they have access to all this land

10.21.36 gvs of kids in field

“they have places to play, people to support them yeh they absolutely love it .”

10.21.44. iphone gvs of goose

Lea overlay

“Either sitting on the eggs of outside protecting the nest, they’re mating there look.

10.21.54 iphone shots of eggs Lea overlay

“There’s 2, 3, shall we cover it back up .”

10.21.59 goat extr gv then intr

“this is a great day, this is Bridget, alright Bridgit ?, this one is Cecelia so she’s got one.”

10.22.11  newborn goat overlay kid

“Our goat Dazzle gave birth to 2 twins.”

Lea

“How exciting was that?”

Kid in vision & sync

“Really exciting .”

10.22.19. gvs of new born goat with sync

10.22.36 aerials of poly tunnels

Text on screen May

Cane work gvs

Despite their idyllic surrounding the residents are not immune to the pandemic,

Three are keyworkers,

carers in local homes and colleges for vulnerable  and special needs people,

And  doing extra long shifts in the crisis. .

10.22.57  Heather walking  working on cane and overlay then in vision & sync

“I kind of started work the week of the Corona thing which was a bit bizarre. I was wondering what job I would do while I was living here so it has been nice to find that role and to feel more settled here and I guess starting work really makes me feel I live her and building a life and things.”

10.23 15 Overlay Eve with cane work then in vision & sync.

“When you go off site to work, speaking with my colleagues and experiencing their experiences of coronavirus and lock down,  then it’s a very different.

Everyone is thinking now they’ve been at home a while with a little bit of space they are making their front gardens into little raised beds aren’t they , an seeing what they can do at home and grow for themselves

10 23. 38 Eve in vison

“ I think it will be really interesting an a lovely thing to be involved with in supporting communities and people to continue that exploration.”

10.23.55 cu flower

Text on screen June

With summer fresh fruit and veg is starting to appear.

10.24.03 Heather in Garden with strawberries in sync

“so we’ve got some of the first strawberries of the year which is kind of exciting , So far throughout the year we haven’t had any fruit. (eats strawberry) mmm this is really good.

10.24.18 Heather intv in vison then overlay

“I think in the past I tried to grow thing and it turned out like a big pile of weeds which I had been watering for months on end.

“Last week I kind of ate my first broad beans which is the first thing I have ever grown for myself . Yeh its been really exciting.

10.24.33  field of cows gvs

Lockdown has also allowed the community time to develop their business plan

with some new ideas on raising cash .

10.24.45 Lea in field in sync overlay of field shots

“In this field the lake field, this section at the bottom end,  we are going to convert into community supported agriculture . The reason why we done that is because is 1 the pandemic  has been a bit of a stumbling block with regards  original plans in getting it off the ground  but also in the area there has been this real drive for food security. So we want to look at localising the local food supply chains and one ay of doing that is a veg box scheme where we can use this amount of land here  for seasonal veg.

10.25 21 apple tree cu’s Ben overlay  then walking sequence

“So our plan is to plant at least 3 acres of orchards so we will producing a significant amount of cider, apple juice and vinegar, and then in between the apple trees plant rows of strawberries and raspberries, you know they are high value crops, and it’s a popular pastime growing and picking fruit and there is not really anything else in the area.

In vision

“so behind that line over there which will be a hedgerow we are planning a car park , the road is just behind that hedge there which comes up from Newport, . So this will be the first section of orchard that we ‘ll be planting.”

10.26.05 tractor

But they need more time to put their plans into action and attract investors.

10.26.14 ws Bradford upon Avon

Now living in Wiltshire, Brithdir’s owner,

 has examined the business plan and made a new agreement.

 

10.26.21 Intv Julian  Orbach , owner Brithdir Mawr  , overlay wood bays & sawing

“This business plan is the first time that really something has come forward that matches the  possibilities of the place, That they have thought about it , they have got together something that has been discussed that is legally founded and it puts them in the centre of everything they want to do and I am really impressed, really glad they are going ahead , so we’ve extended the time , you’ve got 5 or 6 years really to raise the money .

In vision

“I don’t want to die owning Brithdir , I want the community to own and to go independent and really run with it and that’s the hope.”

10.27.00 extr farmhouse

10.27.00 Ben mincing chicken in sync

“Summer solstice today, basically having a big barbacue, so these are a few of old layers who aren’t very good layers anymore. I thought chicken burgers?”

Heather and gong

Nen at fire serving

10.27.22 Eve with plate of food. With close ups

“We’ve got Ben’s chicken burger. Some feta and halloumi cheese made form our goat’s milk, then we’ve got some hummus from our beans from the bottom garden, our coleslaw is cabbage from bottom garden, beetroot from the poly tunnels si its basically a whole plate of Brithdir food here.”

10.27.44 fire and eating gv

10.27.49 Ben in vision

“We’ve got a pretty good busines plan together now and over the next 5 years I feel pretty confident that we’re going to be able to set these businesses up and I feel people will ant to invest in that.

10.28.00 Eve in vison sync

“Now its secure then all the things we came here with, all the ideas we came here with, this 5 year lease now allows us to do that rather than a dream, so yeh I think we’ll crack on.”

 

10.28.13 Lea beside fire in vsion and overlay of bbq gv’s

“I ‘d say it has been saved yes. It’s not going to be going on the market and that was the biggest worry for every. So yes it’s been saved.”

Pull out aerial

“ the message will be going out to the wider community watch this space let’s see what we can do, it’s going to be great .”

 

10. 28 35 credits

10.29.00 end