Today I'd like to show you what I found when I returned to the site last week, two days after the community had been evicted by local property developer Mr Brian Bennett. As usual, you can click on any of the images to see a bigger version.
Last time I was here, this debris and ash was a home in a tree that looked like this:
The home below was a geodome structure.
A number of little houses have existed on this pretty spot:
One of my favourite homes on the site was a home built in a boat.
Of course, when the young environmental activists arrived at Yorkley Court in June 2012, there were none of these little homes. The whole site had been abandoned for years and was overgrown with brambles and weeds that had to be cleared by the community before they could plant their vegetables and build their homes. A couple of big structures were already there, remainders from when this property had been an MOD site. Of these pre-existing, industrial structures, the huge hangar was the most impressive.
Here's what a walk round the site is like now...
For me, the most depressing aspect of this situation was the knowledge that this beautiful corner of the forest, alive with songbirds, trees and flowers, would never again be in the hands of people who would care so deeply for it. For four years the people who have lived on this site had nurtured the land and the living things that it sheltered. They designed their lives and their movements to be in harmony with this natural space and to limit their impact on the plants and animals with whom we share this land. This loving and nurturing community, committed to a future in which man can live peacefull with the rest of the natural world had been pushed out, and big machinery had come in to erase their homes. The calous brutality of the destruction that was unleashed on this peaceful site was shocking to me. The homes have gone, they are obliterated, turned to dust. But where are the people? |
The community farm has been destroyed. Wiped from the map.
The community continues and will rise again.