All about the Trust
This page tells you all about what do and how we do it.
If you want even more detail, there are links ... better still get in touch using the contact form below and come talk with us.
Please help with our current project
Our current project will renovate the former Bishop's Castle Abattoir behind Stars on the High Street and give new life to a long-unused building by creating secure community storage space for local organisations, events and residents.
Many local groups struggle to store equipment, materials and event resources safely and affordably. This project will create a secure, accessible space that can support community activity across the town for years to come. The Trust is leading a community-driven project to renovate the former Abattoir and transform it into a practical storage and shared-use space for local organisations, volunteers and community groups.
The old Abattoir has stood empty now for 46 years - a reminder of the town’s working history and the people who built this community before us. Like many old buildings, it has slowly fallen out of use, but local people believe it still has an important role to play.
This is about more than bricks and mortar. It is about local people coming together to protect a historic building, reduce waste by reusing what already exists, and create something genuinely useful for the community. Every donation helps bring an empty building back into meaningful use — supporting local projects, strengthening community life and ensuring this piece of Bishop’s Castle’s history continues to serve future generations.
With your support, the old Abattoir can become a valuable community asset once again.
Our existing projects
The Trust's first project was launched in 2009. Architect Jonathan Greig designed 1 and 2 Kings Head Yard, and together with his wife, Clair, made the project possible by selling the land to the Trust at a generously discounted price.
The design incorporates extra insulation, triple glazing and heat recovery, and the project was built by Welshpool firm PYC Construction.
The two homes have proved to be a real asset to the town since their completion in 2012.
In 2019, with the aid of a generous legacy from local solicitor, Bill Bainbridge, the Trust bought 68-70 Church Street, a derelict ex-Stars newsagents shop in the centre of the town.
A four year project brought it back to life, and the Stars community shop is now a thriving, popular hub.
Community groups and charities of all sorts hold coffee mornings and fundraising events here; and entrepreneurs and artists exhibit and sell their wares and their work.
The spaces above and behind the Stars shop were also renovated and converted into one single and one family flat by local building firm, Jukes & Sons.
Various other local craftsmen and many volunteers were involved in the shop renovation and design.
What is a Community Land Trust?
The following article was contributed by our trustee Gee Davies
A Community Land Trust (CLT) is a democratic, non profit organisation that owns and develops land for the benefit of the community. A CLT typically provides affordable homes, community gardens, civic buildings, pubs, shops, shared workspace, energy schemes and conservation landscapes.
Run by ordinary people
It is a community organisation run by ordinary people who want to make a difference to their local community, putting control of assets into the hands of local people. They can be set up by the community or a landowner, developer or council.
Protecting community assets forever
It ensures that at least some homes in a community are permanently and genuinely affordable. A CLT acts as a long-term stewards of land and the assets on it. The CLT ensures that it is put to the benefit of the local community, not just for now but for every future occupier.
A CLT usually doesn’t decide at some point in the future to sell an asset to a private developer to “cash in”. If it did so, the funds from the sale would have to be re-spent on providing more community assets for the purpose set out in the CLTs founding definition. A CLT is a “one way valve” for the value of land or buildings to move out of private ownership and into control of the community, for the benefit of the community.
A look back in history.
To understand the significance of CLTs in the UK, it helps to look back in history…a long way back: hundreds of years. There was a time when the concept of legal “ownership” (ie rights and control) of land started to form. This legal right helps stop someone with more strength and threat from just taking it off you. Around that time, a lot of land was described as “commons”, in other words agreed as “belonging” to the community, and for the use of anyone in that community (subject to the users abiding by the formal and informal rules of use set by the community). This worked well because it benefitted everyone in the community, and also stopped anyone from abusing the benefits of the land (e.g. from diverting a river for their own sole benefit). But from about the Middle Ages, Kings and Barons started to take control of common land (often by force) for their own purposes, depriving the community of the benefits. This is called “enclosures”, since typically the land was fenced off to prevent public access. And from the 1700s, the UK Parliament passed laws to enable enclosures. Less and less land was owned by communities, and more and more of it by rich landowners rewarded by the government.
And in the modern context
You might think that sort of unfair practice doesn’t happen anymore in the 2000s…but you’d be wrong. The process we call “privatisation” is a modern form of enclosure. A public- or government-owned asset (like the railways, or water companies, or a leisure centre of hospital or large parcel of Council-owned land) is sold off to a private company. The price gained from that is often below normal market rates, because we are told that these deals are to public advantage because the service will be run “more efficiently” by the private sector.
We’ve seen actually what happens, for example with our water companies…the value from the asset is milked by the private owners, while the long-term quality and function of the asset is allowed to decay. That’s because many private owners are more interested in today’s income, rather than the value of the asset to future generations, or even to the people it serves. Recently, County Councils have been starved of funds by central government for political purposes: this has driven many of them to even give away publicly-owned assets because they simply can’t afford to run them whatever the benefits to the public. This overwhelmingly private ownership of value-generating assets is one of the things causing poverty and social tension in our society today.
So here's the point:
Community Land Trusts are here to reverse that trend. They are bringing land and assets back into community ownership: “recapturing the commons”. They focus on long-term value of the asset to the community, and put the benefits to the community first.
The idea of putting community thriving and community value front-and-centre is very much aligned with the values that Bishop’s Castle has kept alive and put into practice for generations.
See here for more information about CLTs and their history:
https://www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/
Who we are
The Bishop’s Castle Community Land Trust is owned by over 300 shareholders; people from Bishop’s Castle and the surrounding area who care about the stewardship of community assets and local initiatives.
The Trust is supported by a wonderful pool of local volunteers who contribute their time, ideas and energy across a wide range of projects and activities. Community involvement is at the heart of what we do, and we are always pleased to welcome new volunteers. If you care about the future of our community and would like to get involved, we would love to hear from you. Please contact us using the form below.
Our work is managed and governed by a voluntary board of trustees made up of local people who share a commitment to supporting a thriving, resilient and connected community. Trustees bring a range of experience and perspectives, helping to oversee the Trust’s projects, properties and long-term vision.
For more detail, please use this button.