A New
Quaker
Community
at Bamford

Aims

Retreats

Membership

Short stays 		The Quaker Community was set up in Bamford in 1988. We have space for 20 residents in houses, flats and single rooms. We are in beautiful surroundings, with hill and riverside walks. We have over 10 acres of reclaimed land including woodland, a meadow and wetland as well as fruit and vegetable growing areas.

In early 2010 several community members decided to leave. The remaining members agreed to lay down the existing group and advertise for Friends to form a new one. Following a series of weekend gatherings a new vision and plans for the community have emerged.

Four Friends – Jasmine, Jinny, Laurie and Valda – are now living at Bamford and others are planning to move in later this year. We aim to roughly double this number of residents, with the rest of the space in the community being used for groups and individual Friends on retreats and short stays.

Affirming Our Purpose

We see developing a community on Quaker principles as a radical witness in a competitive, individualised and materialistic world. The community aims:
• to deepen our corporate spiritual experience through daily worship together, and
• to give expression to Quaker testimony through projects involving education, sustainability and supporting people’s spiritual journeys.

Retreats and Courses

We are developing a programme of retreats, which range from silence to seasonal celebrations, and from gardening to discussing Quaker responses in Palestine and Israel. We are also offering writing, art and singing retreats. Our short courses focus on Quaker spirituality and Quaker approaches to sustainability and community. If you would like to offer a course here, please do get in touch.

Joining the Community

We welcome enquiries from Quakers and Attenders. We hope you will take the chance to visit us, if possible staying a few days, to explore what it might mean for you to live in the community.

Please get in touch for our current schedule of enquirers’ weekends. These are opportunities to meet community members and to work, eat and worship with us.

Community means many things: living thoughtfully and lovingly with others, sharing daily tasks, using the gifts and skills we have, being a ‘willing learner’ in other areas, perhaps most of all being open to change and growth.

Staying at the Community

We welcome individuals and groups for short and longer stays. We can accommodate 15 visitors in single rooms, more if you can share. There is space for camping and also accommodation on the land in comfortable sheds with wood stoves and cooking facilities.

We welcome visitors’ involvement in the life of the community, and in particular hope you will attend our Quaker worship at 7.45 a.m. and 9 p.m.

We normally ask guests to be self-catering, unless you visit at an enquirers’ weekend when we eat together. Visitors are also welcome at our twice-weekly community meals.

Our normal overnight rate is £15 (not including food). We are establishing a bursary fund to help those who cannot afford this; contributions are welcome. We also ask you to pay for any community food you consume (for breakfast, teas, coffees etc., and for community meals).

To arrange your visit e-mail us at:
mail@quakercommunity.org.uk
or call us on 01433 650085.