Tinker's Bubble is an intentional community located at Norton Covert in

Little Norton Norton-sub-Hamdon is a village and civil parish in the South Somerset district of the English county of Somerset, situated five miles west of Yeovil. The village has a population of 743. The village of Chiselborough is to the south, and the v ...

near

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somerset's southern border with ...

in south

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England. It was established in 1994 on of land consisting of about of woodland as well as

orchards An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of lar ...

and

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

. The woods are mostly Douglas fir and

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...

but with patches of

native species In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equ ...

such as ash trees. Much of the pasture is maintained traditionally using

scythe A scythe ( ) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. It is historically used to cut down or reap edible grains, before the process of threshing. The scythe has been largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor mac ...

s for

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

making. Tinker's Bubble earns a small income by selling

organically grown Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and re ...

produce at local

farmers' market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...

s and selling sustainably produced timber which is felled by hand, logged by horse and sawn by a wood-fired steam-engine driven

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. The community has a ban on the use of fossil fuels on site (with the exception of lighting such as paraffin lamps) and use solar powered 12v electricity. The buildings are temporary structures built with a very low environmental impact when compared to conventional housing. The community fought very hard for planning consent for dwellings on the site and now has permission for temporary dwellings with limitations such as to the number of vehicles owned by the community. The community are

WWOOF World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF, ), or World Wide Organization of Organic Farms, is a loose network of national organizations that facilitate homestays on organic farms. , Australia with 2,600 hosts has the most host farms an ...

hosts and accept working visits from WWOOF members as a chance to experience their way of life. Nine‑year‑old Eve, from the community, features in a short documentary depicting her daily life, her school experiences, and a speech she made at an environmental rally in London. Video 00:21:06. A production by Gallivant Film. Features the Tizard family, the Community of Tinkers Bubble, and Castle Primary School.

References

External links

Tinkers Bubble
{{coord, 50, 56, N, 2, 44, W, display=title Intentional communities in the United Kingdom 1994 establishments in England

See also

References

External links