Our Community Landlord

We have a very unique relationship with our landlord The Fordhall Community Land Initiative (FCLI). Ben and Charlotte Hollins are currently the tenant farmers. They have a 100-year tenancy agreement which started in September 2006, following the farms pioneering move into community ownership. The siblings grew up at Fordhall as did their father, Arthur Hollins, and many generations before them.

The FCLI run the Arthurs Farm Kitchen, the Youth project and the Care farm. The Society has the following charitable objectives:

• To ensure permanently affordable access to the farm for farmers and the community.
• To advance education and provide facilities for recreation and other leisure time occupation in the interests of social welfare for the inhabitants of Market Drayton and the wider community, in organic farming methods, conservation, biodiversity, health, access, country life, heritage, wildlife and related subjects with the object of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.
• To ensure farmland is managed sustainably for community benefit with the appropriate management for access, and to research sustainable farming through community land trusteeship, public involvement and other methods.