Whiteway Colony is a
settlement in the Cotswolds
in the parish of Miserden
near
Stroud
, Gloucestershire
, UK
. It was set up in 1898 by
Tolstoyan anarchists who purchased 40 acres
(162,000 m²) of land, then burnt the property deeds on the end
of a
pitchfork in a symbolic rejection of
the notion of
property, and then went to
court to prove that nobody owned the legal title. The property
still exists today. The early settlers built a number of wooden
buildings on what was then open fields. Over the years it has
housed many people including immigrant
anarchists,
conscientious objectors and refugees
from the
Spanish Civil War, as
well as co-operative ventures such as Protheroe's Bakery (known in
the local area for the quality of its bread), the Cotswold
Co-operative Handicraft guild and the Co-operative Gardening Group.
For a period the Anarchist newspaper
Freedom was produced here by Thomas
Keel.
Early life in the colony was spartan and idealistic - piped water
did not arrive until 1949 and
electricity until 1954. The site was originally
open land but is now heavily wooded and home to a collection of
mainly wooden buildings - as no one owns the land, mortgages could
not be obtained so people had to build their own houses. A communal
hall was built by residents in 1924 to house social activities and
a school, and a swimming pool was built in 1969. Whiteway Colony is
still in existence today and houses, among others, descendants of
its original settlers. Though it no longer has an explicitly
anarchist character, today's residents are
aware, and proud, of its origins. Traces of them run through the
community still, the best examples being the continued use and
maintenance of communal facilities (hall,
swimming pool and
playing field). In addition, the governance of
the community is still done by a
general
meeting of its residents.
See also
Further Reading
- Thacker, J. (1993) Whiteway Colony, the social history of a
Tolstoyan community Published by the author ISBN 978
0952176008
External links
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