Child of the Commune

What was it like to live in a commune? What was it like to grow up in a commune?

NANCY THOMPSON came to the Bureau to tell us. She was born in The Shrubb Family Commune - one that was set up in a big old farmhouse in rural Norfolk in 1970 - and, remarkably, one that is still going today.

In the early to mid '60s many Western cities were magnets drawing the young and hip in from the regions, shaking off the austerity of the '50s, joining their urban peers in experimenting with new and radical ways of loving and living. Communes and squats sprung up all over places like London.

But as the '60s drew to a close, there was a reverse movement and many left the cities heading back out into the shires to try to build a new kind of sociey in the quieter, slower life of village and market town.  Some settled in North Suffolk and South Norfolk, an open countryside of low hills and wide plains with few towns and many villages where a commune movement had been established from 1965.

Nancy's is a complex, tumultous tale  - at times a rather bewildering tapestry of overlapping relationships and familes, the British class system, rural life, travellers, gypsies and the gentry, encounter groups, blackmail, rogue psychiatrists, lsd - and horses..

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*For more on Nancy and her childhood in the commune, check out her Substack HERE

*For more on the British commune and intentional community culture of the 60s and 70s see below

The countercultural movement of the 1960s and 1970s in Britain gave rise to a surge of communal living experiments known as hippy communes or intentional communities. These collectives emerged as an alternative to mainstream society, rejecting consumerism, conventionality, and materialism in favor of a more liberated, eco-friendly, and cooperative way of life.

The origins of this communal living trend can be traced back to the mid 60s, when a confluence of social, political, and cultural factors created an environment ripe for such experiments. The rise of the hippie counterculture, and the burgeoning environmental and back-to-the-land movements all contributed to the growth of communal living arrangements.

One of the earliest and most influential British hippy communes was Findhorn in Scotland, established in 1962 by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean. Originally a small caravan park, Findhorn evolved into a thriving spiritual community centered around principles of sustainability, meditation, and harmony with nature. Its success inspired many other like-minded groups to establish their own communes across Britain.

As the movement gained momentum in the late 1960s, a wave of new communes emerged, each with its own unique philosophy and approach to communal living. Some, like The Diggers in Cornwall and the Laurieston Hall community in Scotland, focused on self-sufficiency through organic farming and sustainable living practices. Others, like the Freestone community in Essex and the Newbold Trust in Worcestershire, emphasized artistic expression, alternative spirituality, and personal growth.

Many of these communes adopted a back-to-the-land ethos, seeking to reconnect with nature and escape the constraints of urban living. They often established themselves in rural areas, repurposing abandoned farmhouses, old mills, or purchasing inexpensive land to build their communities from scratch. This allowed them to embrace a more self-reliant and environmentally conscious lifestyle, growing their own food, generating their own energy, and living off the land as much as possible.

While each commune had its own unique character and rules, they shared several common principles. Communal living, non-hierarchical decision-making processes, shared resources