Making Local Food Work has published a new guide for communities looking to set up and run a community-owned farm.

The guide was written by Charlotte Hollins, founder of Fordhall Community Land Initiative, and draws on her experiences of saving the family farm through co-operation.

Charlotte grew up at Fordhall Farm in North Shropshire. After leaving university in 2003 she led the high profile campaign that saved Fordhall Farm from development in 2006: raising an amazing £800,000 in less than six months. Fordhall’s plight touched people across the world, and 8,000 individuals came forward to purchase a £50 non-profit making share and become a member of England’s first ever community-owned farm.

Peter Couchman, Director of Making Local Food Work and Chief Executive of Plunkett Foundation said: “This guide has been very kindly put together by Charlotte Hollins, who, together with her brother Ben, were the first people in the country to use community ownership to save their family’s farm so that it could be of benefit to everyone. The purpose of the guide is to share Charlotte’s experiences of setting up Fordhall Community Land Initiative in a practical way, to help others to do something similar. It is aimed at groups of people looking to set up a community farm, and at farmers who may be interested in developing a different relationship with their local community.”

The guide can be downloaded from the Making Local Food Work website as a PDF (follow link below) or requested as a hard copy by emailing info@makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk.