The Sanctuary Farms.

One per county. Held for the community. Forever growing.

As donations to Common Wealth Common Ground accumulate, the charity acquires land — one Sanctuary Farm per county across the UK and eventually worldwide.

Each farm is then gifted to a County Land Trust and held in trust for that county with ongoing community stewardship. The land is not owned by a corporation, a council, or a wealthy individual. It belongs to the people of that county — governed by them, for them, for all generations to come.

This is not a utopian dream. It is a practical, legally structured, step-by-step process. One farm at a time. One county at a time.

What each Sanctuary Farm becomes

Food Forest and Food Abundance

Designed using permaculture and food forest principles — trees, plants, and growing systems that produce abundance with minimal intervention. Food grown here feeds the community freely. Nobody goes hungry when there is a Sanctuary Farm nearby.

Homeless Recovery Centre

Not a shelter. A home. A place of dignity where people in crisis find stability, support, community, and a path forward. Residents participate in the farm, learn skills, and — when ready — join CommonGround as full members. Their voice in governing the land is equal to anyone else's.

Healing Spaces

Spaces for trauma recovery, mental health support, addiction healing, and wellbeing. Outdoors and indoors. Nature-based and community-based. Professional support woven with peer support and the healing power of belonging.

Community Resilience Zone

Workshops, makerspaces, skill-sharing spaces. Where the Kindness exchange becomes physical — where people learn to grow food, fix things, build things, and make things. Where the community becomes genuinely self-sufficient.

Sites of Worship

Every faith. No faith. All traditions honoured and welcomed. A sacred space that belongs to everyone — where people of every background find a place to gather, to reflect, and to connect with something larger than themselves.

CommonGround Physical Hub

The place where the digital meets the real. Where Community Pillars meet. Where exchanges are celebrated. Where new members are welcomed. The heart of the local CommonGround community made physical.

The County Land Trust

Each farm is governed by a County Land Trust — a body of trustees elected from across the community:

  • • CommonGround Community Pillars from that county
  • • Representatives from partner organisations (timebanks, community centres, WI, Men's Sheds, churches, food banks)
  • • Residents of the Sanctuary Farm itself — including those in recovery and healing programmes
  • • Elected members from the general CommonGround community in that county

No local government. No corporations. No outside bodies with their own agendas.

The person who arrived at the farm homeless and in crisis has equal standing as a trustee to anyone else once they are ready to take that role. That is not just inclusion. That is genuine power returned to people who've had none.

Land held
In trust for the county with ongoing community stewardship
Governed by
The community itself
Can it be sold?
Only by a unanimous trustee vote with full community consultation — and only to another community organisation, never to a private buyer
How trustees are chosen and held to account

Where are we now?

Every county begins as Seeking — donations building toward its first Sanctuary Farm. As farms are acquired, this becomes a living map of progress.

  • Seeking

    No farm yet — donations building.

  • Active

    Farm acquired, community stewardship underway.

  • Established

    Farm fully operational.

All counties show 🌱 Seeking at launch — this page will update as farms are acquired, with a donation progress bar for each county.