Current members
WHO WE ARE
We are Tir Cyffredin, currently Ailsa, Badger, Gareth and Sadie, with pending member JoJo. Most of us have been living together at Bryn Tyrnol for well over two years, and some for much longer than that! We live in a spirit of community, cooking and eating together most evenings. We have lots of different interests, but we share common values and care deeply about each another’s wellbeing.
OUR VISION
“A thriving sanctuary from which to serve and play”
Through many fireside visioning sessions we found that the following values form our 'common ground' as a group:
Harmony
Respect
Compassion
Fun/Creativity
Clear honest communication
Diversity
Hospitality
Reflection
Responsibility/Accountability
Social & Ecological Engagement
Ailsa Mair Hughes (aka Fox) has lived at Bryn Tyrnol for over 5 years and has always had a strong connection with the Dyfi Valley, through all of her grandparents living here. She is a freelance professional musician (singing cellist) and emergent storyteller who is passionate about engaging with the surrounding landscape and cultural heritage.
Her hobbies include crafting (spinning, dyeing wool with natural pigments, weaving & crotchet), foraging and folk-herbalism, and lots of outside adventures with a flask of tea and her journal. Ailsa has often performed at community events, has been involved with local Climate Fayres and played music at many direct actions over the years for environmental and social change. She is a higher-level Welsh learner, aiming for fluency in coming years.
Barnaby Badger Brown is a musician, songwriter, teacher and music producer. Born in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, he lived for many years in London where he taught in schools and played in several bands. Since moving to Mid Wales, he has been teaching music to adults, and running group sessions for learning traditional folk music. He was the member of a Ceilidh band called the Badgers Set, which often played in support of social justice and environmental campaigns such as The Landworkers Alliance and Extinction Rebellion events. He is also a founding member of the Machynlleth folk session, which brings together musicians from all parts of the community. He enjoys supporting people in the community with their musical endeavors.
Gareth moved to Bryn Tyrnol in Spring 2019, after living and working in the Dyfi Valley for the past 7 years. He works primarily in social forestry, combining green woodcraft and carpentry as a gate-maker, with various mental and physical health and well-being projects (MIND mental health, Forest school, Dyfed Drug and Alcohol) based in local woodlands.
He is a passionate and committed social and environmental activist, and leads meditation groups and healing spaces for young people (IBeMe), elders, and the wider community, as founder member of the local worker’s co-operative ‘Calon Meddwl Corff’. Gareth loves drumming with the local samba collective ‘Rhythms of Resistance’, growing food, baking bread, and cycling through the beautiful local countryside.
Sadie has lived at Bryn Tyrnol since November 2019. She works as a freelance project coordinator, recently helping launch an online marketplace for local producers. She is passionate about building community resilience through growing food. Sadie grows salad for local sale, and volunteers with several community action and food-growing initiatives. This includes coordinating the Land Army, which organises volunteer workdays on local farms and gardens, so people can get outside and experience the benefits of growing together.
Sadie’s long term goal is to become a horticultural therapist, and she hopes to start her Masters in Counselling later this year. In her free time, Sadie loves exploring the Welsh coastline and learning to play the banjo.
JoJo is the newest member of the coop having only lived at Tir Ciffredin since March 2021. In 2018 she left her roots near Manchester and embarked on a 12 month adventure which lead her to now being in Machynlleth. Jojo volunteered on Workaway projects, learning more about sustainability, helping set up eco campsites, working more outdoors on tree planting projects and helping out on an organic cider farm in Mid Wales. JoJo's career has mainly been dedicated to working with people with Autism and currently works within the Social Care sector as a support worker. Jo is passionate about British Sign Language and joins in with the BSL coffee mornings in Mach. In her spare time you can find her practicing guitar and photography and admiring the local scenery . Jojo set up the local samba drumming group that play "Rhythms of Resistance" in Jan 2020 and enjoys drumming with friends who also want to support demos for change and justice.
Finally, this is Patch, our honourary co-op member of the more-than-human world...
