Our story so far...
Lancaster is a great little city. Once you have been here for a while you discover it’s strength as a community of communities. Anyone who takes part in anything sooner or later runs into familiar faces, and when this keeps happening over time, deeper connections can develop. If a group of these friends start daydreaming about a future vision, one day someone will issue a challenge: this isn’t just campfire yarning any more is it? We’re going to have to do something about this, aren’t we?
In our case, most of these dreamers were living in rented accommodation (some of them at the same address) or as modern-day nomads. Someone called our bluff on the daydreaming and a housing cooperative was conceived that eventually came to be called the Lapwing Housing Cooperative. After a year of meeting outdoors during the 2020 pandemic, the following Vision, Purpose, Mission and Core Values were agreed - laying the foundations for the Lapwing Housing Cooperative.
Lapwing completed the purchase of its first home in Halton on 5 November 2024.
Our vision
A welcoming home in the heart of our community; shaped by many hands and built on the foundations of healthy human and planetary relationships.
Mission
Informed by the Permaculture ethics of “Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares”, the Lapwing Housing Co-op is an intentional community run as a housing cooperative. We plan and manage our commonly held resources and our community life with the firm intention of finding ways to implement our core values and the twelve Permaculture principles.
Widening this circle of ‘home’, the wellbeing of the earth, our fellow inhabitants of the planet, and future generations are taken into account when making decisions and taking action - by embedding our core values into our decision making processes.
Our group decisions are consented using sociocratic processes. In doing so we seek to cultivate a healthy decision making culture that allows for every member’s voice to be heard and objections to be embraced.
All members actively participate in the creation, development, and day to day running of the home (as well as sharing skills and resources).
We continually seek ways to realise our core values and will support members to experiment and live with more environmental consciousness and contribute to social change; facilitating right livelihoods.
By collectively pooling its material resources, the housing coop is seeking to reduce its collective consumption. The home is run as a vegan household and seeks to source local and sustainable produce wherever possible.
The housing coop seeks to be financially viable and transparent in order to offer an affordable and secure living environment. Financial surpluses are used to further the coop’s vision and core values.
By promoting and sharing learning, a ripple effect is created that sees others inspired to build and live more sustainably.
Our Values
Lapwing Housing Co-op’s core values are embodied in all we do:
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We place the wellbeing of people & relationships at the heart of the home.
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We will leave our tiny part of the earth, our home, in a better state than we found it.
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We openly challenge structures of oppression.
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We act with honesty, understanding and kindness.
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We support each other’s uniqueness to bloom.
Why Lapwing?
When dreaming up a name, pioneer members were seeking a critter or plant that is unique to Lancaster, that also embodied the coop's vision and values. They ended up choosing the Lapwing...
Lapwings are found in the local area but are currently in decline as their preferred habitat becomes less common. They thrive where healthy relationships exist between farmers and the wider ecosystems they steward. They prefer mixed farming systems, extensively managed wet grasslands and wide open landscapes during the breeding season. As Halton is surrounded by intensively managed agricultural land, this is the exact sort of diversity and agricultural landscape the housing coop seeks to see cultivated.
