Fordhall Organic Farm near Market Drayton celebrates 20 years in community ownership

In 2006 two young siblings, Ben and Charlotte Hollins, persuaded more than 8,000 people to buy the land around their family's tenanted farm near Market Drayton and save it from industrial development. Twenty years on, Fordhall Organic Farm is thriving as England's first community-owned farm, and it is setting its sights on helping others follow.

The farm was the life's work of their father, tenant farmer Arthur Hollins, who turned away from artificial fertilisers just after the Second World War. That organic ethos is still central today. The farm is owned by the Fordhall Community Land Initiative, a charitable society, and Ben farms it under a 100-year Farm Business Tenancy.

Fordhall now employs up to 150 local people and hosts a care farm, a youth project, educational visits, free farm trails, a café, weddings and glamping, alongside the working organic livestock farm and its award-winning shop.

That shop has had a remarkable run. At the 2025 Great Taste Awards, Fordhall Farm Shop won the Golden Fork for Sustainability, an invitation-only honour for businesses that have already earned a top three-star rating. Its three stars came for a pasture-fed Gloucester Old Spot pork shoulder that judges called "extraordinarily tasty". In October 2026 the farm also won Bronze at the Great British Food Awards for its beef brisket on the bone.

To mark its 20th year, Fordhall has launched a new share offer and a target of 1,000 new community shareholders in the next 12 months, with the aim of safeguarding more farms and farming livelihoods through 100-year tenancies. The plan was shared at birthday celebrations in July attended by 400 supporters.

"By placing the farm into community-ownership for perpetuity, we have been able to uniquely think and plan long-term," said Charlotte Hollins, manager of the Fordhall Community Land Initiative. "Whilst technically known as shareholders, we like to call our members 'custodians'."

Ben added: "I know that every tree planted and every bit of soil nurtured will benefit my life here and that of my children."

Entry to Fordhall Organic Farm is free. The shop, café and trails are open Tuesday to Sunday, and details of opening hours, events and the share offer are on the Fordhall Farm website.