I thought I would give you my history of Marley Head to give you an insight as to why I am fighting so hard to save it and why we all need your help to keep this community going!

In January 2007 a group of families including 14 children moved on to a plot of land at Marley Head in South Brent, Devon.  The site had been derelict for many years.  They paid to have skip loads of fly tipped rubbish removed and enrolled their children into school.  For the last two years they have led a peaceful, low impact lifestyle, enjoying a close knit community in which they can rely on their neighbours day or night.

In September 2008 we received a letter from Dartmoor National Park Authority stating that we were in breach of planning and that an enforcement notice would be served.  Eviction!  We met with Dartmoor National Park and they advised us to apply for planning.  We all clubbed together, friends, family and other promoters got involved and we managed to raise the £335 needed to submit the planning application.

Dartmoor National Park have advised us that our application is complicated which means we will likely have to appeal and various hearings.  This is going to cost us around £600 in total.  We need you to help us raise this money by coming to the benefit gigs we're organising.  Come and enjoy the entertainment.  Most of the bands and acts are playing for free to help our campaign.  Alternatively you could organise your own fundraising events, raffles etc.  We appreciate any help you can give us.  Thank you x


MY EXPERIENCE

I moved there eighteen months ago after losing my house.  Being single with no dependants I was looking at a minimum of 4 - 5 years on a council waiting list and living in various hostels until then.  So I bought a caravan and joined their community.  I have since moved into a bus so that I can enjoy the luxury of a sofa :)

I admit I was scared.  My fears were unfounded though.  On day one I was welcomed.  My neighbours asked me if I needed anything.  Helped me set up my new home.  Cooked food for me and invited me to join them round a communal campfire that evening.

Some people were playing acoustic instruments and we sat and sang old folk songs and shared stories under a beautiful star lit sky.  I will never forget that evening.  A few days later I went back to work knowing that I had made some new good friends for life.  My Nan used to speak about how in her day there was a sense of community.  I believed that had been lost in her era until I moved to Marley Head.  Thank you everyone!

Eighteen months later my views haven't changed.  The friendships and sense of community have only grown stronger.  Don't get me wrong we all have our differences but we all sort them out again, usually around the fire...

The big changes I have noticed in my lifestyle is how much I respect the things I took for granted in a house such as energy and water usage.  When I first moved on I bought a generator.  This made me realise how much energy and money I was using just to power a small stereo and TV, let alone a whole house!  I now rarely use my generator.  My lighting is all solar powered (£14.99 each with mini solar panel) I put these in the bus windows and that is sufficient for the evening. I use a 12 volt car stereo for my music and an inverter (£35) to run my telly and DVD player which are powered off of leisure batteries.  My neighbours charge for these me from their solar panels.  (One day I will save enough to buy my own large solar panel and be completely self sufficient.)  I had a 12 volt fridge but that used loads of energy so now I don't have a fridge.  This means all my food is fresh.  I eat meat on payday and really appreciate it!  The rest of the month is vegetables and pasta which means I am much healthier than before.  In the height of summer I have a box which I put water in the bottom and put things like milk and cheese in there on top of a breeze block. The evaporation of the water in the breeze creates it's own cooling and saves me money. 

I am luck that there is a toilet block on site from when it used to be an old petrol station. This means I still have the luxury of running water and flushing sewerage.  However, one day I know I'm going to have to learn how to build a composting toilet, which I suppose environmentally will be better.  Because I have to go and collect my water now I have noticed that I use much less.  The changes are not that drastic. I suppose the big difference is that I no longer shower every day.  Instead I bought an old jug and bowl like in the Victorian days from a charity shop for £3.  Every morning I use my kettle and every evening I use my wood burner to heat the water and have a good wash.  Having long hair this only gets washed once a week which is fine.  I still even manage to dye it bright red without to much hassle.  When I visit my old friends who live in houses I REALLY ENJOY a good long soak in a bath!

I used to put the central heating on as soon as I got home.  Now I put on an extra jumper and when it's really cold or damp I collect dead wood, old broken pallets etc.  for fuel.  I have built myself a saw horse out of some ash poles which saves your back when sawing up the wood to fit in the burner.  It doesn't take long to make the bus nice and toasty.  It also saves a lot of gas because I can use the top of the burner to cook.

I was never allowed chickens when living in a house so when a local small holder gave me the opportunity to have some chicks I quickly accepted her offer.  They eat my compost waste and in return I enjoy 3 fresh eggs a day.  Fantastic.  One day it would be nice to find a friendly farmer who would let me live in a small corner of their land so that I could grow my own vegetables as well!  We do have a greenhouse on site but of course one green house doesn't feed all of site, but we all get some really tasty tomatoes :)

The other big change I have noticed is in recycling.  Especially when I first moved on to the site and before the locals insisted that we were provided with Wheelie bins (which they are now complaining that we don't pay for!)  In a house I threw everything away, didn't really think about it.  I had a bin outside my back door which regularly got emptied...  I now use old cardboard packaging to light my burner,  I remove any extra packing in the shop for them to deal with. Hopefully this will help to highlight just how much waste goes into modern marketing.  Glass, plastics and tins get recycled and the rest, which really isn't much, I used to take to work and use their bins or the public bins provided around town.  Before the chickens I used to compost my veg waste which is now used in the greenhouse.  Now that the bins are there I still recycle it's just more convenient for me to get rid of the small amount of waste I produce.

So there you go that's my experience of eighteen months.  A huge amount of the general public (and myself not too long ago) think that travellers a smelly, thieving, tax dodging, benefit claiming scum who dispose of their waste (and other peoples) on local playing fields.  I am sure there are some in the travelling and settled communities alike that are.  However, on this site the majority of us are environmentally conscious, self employed hard workers.  There was one gentleman who has moved on now that I had to nearly frog march down to the job centre because he was too proud to sign on.  I had to explaining to him that one of the reasons he had paid income tax all these years was to help people like him now.  His business wasn't generating its usual income and the community was supporting him.  This is the attitude of most travellers that I have met since choosing this lifestyle.

Since experiencing this community I would never consider moving back into a house again.  10 years ago I would never have considered moving on to a travellers site.  Funny how circumstances make you understand.

Cher

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