…one of the things that had attracted me to the group was the chance to sort of try out being a parent; to be allowed to build a relationship with some kids that was more meaningful than just kicking a ball about or reading them a story now and again. Continue reading Your Children are Not Your Children
A DERELICT cornmill will one day be the home of a “good life” workers co-operative. But until then, members of the Burnley group People In Common, are having to endure the hard life converting it into living accommodation. Continue reading Doing Up The Mill (part 3)
The barmaid at the local pub once told me that she ‘knew’ that we “must be in and out of each others beds all the time”. I have a feeling that there were far more sexual shenanigans going on amongst the locals she was serving than were going on at PIC. Continue reading The Price of Free Love
It was a big blow to realise that we wouldn’t get any grant funding to help us renovate the Mill. There was talk of selling it and focussing on the houses in Burnley. But that seemed too much like giving up on a dream. Continue reading Doing Up The Mill (part 2)
…and then there is what you might call domestic anarchy – the mild sort of messiness of most peoples lives and homes. This last sort of anarchy tends to get amplified in communal settings. Continue reading Knocking-up, Support and other things we were supposed to do
So how do you turn a derelict mill into a thriving community with a handful of semi-skilled enthusiasts, no money, whilst bringing up small children (some of them being home schooled.) and at the same time being involved in local political campaigning ? Continue reading Doing Up The Mill (part 1)
If you had asked me in the past what our decision making process was at People in Common I would have said we used consensus, or more correctly I would now say we used the unanimity form of consensus process that was prevelant at the time. Continue reading So how did we decide that
At PIC when I arrived the only music that was going on was that Barbara was learning to play Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer on an old upright piano she had jammed into her to tiny downstairs front room bedroom Continue reading Singing for our lives
So we set up Altham Workers Co-op and set off on something of an adventure in running our own business. There was definitely an element of making it up as we went along. Continue reading “No toilet and what if I got pregnant ?”
A year or so before I joined People in Common had bought a derelict cornmill with a three and half acre field on the banks of the River Calder some five miles from the houses in Burnley. Continue reading Mill owners out on a stroll
