BRYNDERWEN
VEGAN COMMUNITY
Website
updated January 2012
The photos above show the house, front garden, and sea view. Click
here to see
more photos (house, garden, people, visitors, local area, etc).
BRYNDERWEN
(Welsh for oak tree
hill) is a spacious 4-5 bedroom detached house set in a semi-rural area
on the outskirts of Swansea in South Wales. It's on an elevated site
with views across the Bristol Channel, and has a large double garage
(which could at some point be converted to further accommodation or a
workshop, or both) - and we have a caravan too. There's a frequent bus
service into Swansea, and the bus stop is only five minutes walk away.
Although we're
currently full, we sometimes
have space for vegans or potential vegans to join us and live at
Brynderwen (but non-smokers, and moderate drinkers only). Rent is
negotiable, and there are sometimes opportunities for
people to
work in lieu of rent.
We realise that veganism can be
interpreted in a variety of ways, and so discussion (and some
tolerance) is needed over what may and may not be acceptable regarding
food, clothing, children, companion animals, vegan-organic growing, etc.
Brynderwen
was established in 2002 and we've slowly expanded. Our
current age
range is 40s to early 60s (with children often staying), but people of
all ages are very welcome to get involved.
LIVING
NEARBY
Some people may wish to
live independently nearby, rather than at Brynderwen itself, in which
case we can help and advise. Properties locally are relatively cheap to
buy or rent.
There's been some debate about exactly what we mean
by "community". In one narrow sense the community consists of those
people living at Brynderwen; in a wider sense the community extends
outwards and includes those people who visit often, and who interact
with us and each other. A number of vegans have moved into
the Swansea
area in recent years (and many are part of the Swansea Vegans group).
THE LOCAL AREA This is an
attractive
part of the country to live in - the sea is visible from Brynderwen,
the beautiful Gower Peninsula lies nearby, and the Black
Mountains/Brecon Beacons are a little way north. So plenty of
great
walks! In Swansea itself there's one fully vegetarian
restaurant,
Govinda's, two health food shops, and also a lively Environment Centre
with small shop and cafe.
SWANSEA VEGANS We're
closely involved
with Swansea Vegans, a social,
educational and campaigning group, who
usually meet monthly.
OTHER LOCAL GROUPS We also have two
national vegan
organisations
based not far from Swansea: Vegfam ("feeding the hungry
without
exploiting animals"), and the Movement for
Compassionate Living.
VEGAN
SUMMER GATHERING We used to
run the annual Vegan Summer
Gathering in
nearby Mumbles and you can see photos (mainly from the 2004 and 2005
events) on the Vegan Summer
Gathering
website.
VEGAN
VIEWS MAGAZINE (the host for
this web page) is a not-for-profit
UK magazine
that we're involved in and very closely connected to. It began in 1975
and is an informal forum for vegan views and news - you can download
free pdf copies of each issue from the Vegan Views website (printed copies are available
on subscription).
VISITING
We have always encouraged visitors in the past, but it's difficult for
us to accept visitors just at the moment, as not only do we have
limited space but also we have a huge mess in the garden and on the
adjoining land to slowly clear up! However we don't want to
put
off any committed vegans who are serious about, for example, moving to
the Swansea area or finding out what is happening locally - so please
do get in touch in cases like these.
OTHER COMMUNITIES For details
of other communities in
the UK (some vegetarian and a few vegan) go to the Diggers
&
Dreamers
website.
Brynderwen Vegan Community
Tel: 01792-792442
Email:
Malcolm Horne
