A community

    Many years ago, in fact in 1972 I was one of a dozen craftsmen and women who established the UK's first residential craft commune. I gave freely of my time and expertise as a 'carpenter' to help renovate the property in erecting 22 ledge and brace doors and a long refectory table with a dozen or so Glastonbury chairs all in the spirit of this exciting new co-operative and just in return for my food. My workshop rent was nominal and I recall there was a budget for modestly equipping the woodworking workshop where I was obliged to allow members of the public learn alongside me whilst I attempted to make a living creating my furniture designs. We had a communal gallery and the dream was that a van would collect our craft wares on a Friday and take them away and sell them. 

   The commune was called "The Dove Centre of Creativity" not far from Glastonbury and we were written about in the Colour Supplements as a pioneer model. The twelve craftspeople including myself agreed to a modest percentage markup on our produce to be sold through the commune's gallery. Very soon the harsh reality of commercial survival kicked in and a two-tier markup was introduced by the commune's charismatic leader whereby the 'strong crafts' such as furniture making supported the weaker crafts such as printmaking. Some craftspeople stayed in bed til late whilst others were disciplined early risers. It was inherently unfair that one craft should support another nor was it correct that one craft was stronger than another as it all boiled down to the individual.

    I had invested my time in this venture (and others had given all their savings) and although it was in my heart I found I was actually restricted from making a living by needing to sell outside the commune, yet prevented, and I was forced to leave. I was the first which was quite painful and at the time I was accused of abandoning the philosophy and spreading panic around the centre as others were soon to follow. It was a naive dream but I have no regrets and amicably met up for a re-union twenty five years later and made a film about it called "Silver Dove".
    Interestingly we were in theory a community of like-minded people, all creatives, but very quickly it fell apart and individual private enterprise and self-determination took over. When David Cameron walked away from the Eurozone summit it kind of reminded me of when I was the first to see the reality behind the dream all those years ago. But even then there was no certainty ahead.

Jeremy Broun at the Dove Centre in 1972

The table and chairs built by Jeremy Broun at the centre

The Dove Centre of Creativity