Our Members
At May 2025, we have 4 members, 3 trial members, and 2 others living here who may or may not become members (in total: 5 men and 4 women, aged from mid 20s to mid 60s, with 5 in their 30s).

There are currently no children living here.

Our Co-ops
We have 3 co-ops at Keveral. They are limited companies, with Keveral people as directors:

One Community Ltd is our housing co-op, which owns and manages the farmhouse, the other housing and the farm buildings.

Keveral Sustainable Land Holdings Ltd owns the farmland, about 25 acres.

Keveral Farmers Ltd is a worker's co-op, which oversees the management of the farmland, and manages the veg box business.

More info on our co-ops here

Our Housing
We live in a farmhouse, a barn conversion, 3 static caravans, and an extended static caravan.

In the communal farmhouse, there are eight bedrooms plus shared kitchen, dining room, lounge and conservatory.
(We usually leave one or two bedrooms available for visitors, so the house is rarely completely occupied).

The independent dwelling spaces allow greater personal space and choice.

We all pay rent and fuel payments to our housing co-op.

Our Work and Income
Many of us are self-employed, and work off the farm as well as on the farm.

We can rent areas of the farm in order to pursue our own projects and businesses. This includes outdoor plots and polytunnels for veg and fruit (for personal consumption and for sale through the weekly veg boxes); workshop spaces for tool storage or crafts (currently just woodwork); plus campsite, orchard and woodland.

Other members do other paid work in the local area, such as building, care work, hospitality, footpaths, and hair-wraps for tourists.

Not everyone works on the land.

We work together when we want to and need to.

Everyone is expected to do at least two hours per week of voluntary work for Keveral.

Our Decision-making
We usually have two community meetings per month which all members should attend, to discuss finances, work and other issues.

We aim for consensus, but if consensus cannot be reached after discussion at 3 meetings, we have a voting procedure which requires a two-thirds majority of the members for a proposal to be approved.
This means that a small minority of the group cannot veto something.
Knowing that we may need to compromise means that we have always reached an agreement and have never needed to vote.

New Members and Our Joining Procedure
We sometimes have vacancies for new members.

For more information, go here

The Occupancy Agreement
Everyone living here must sign our Occupancy Agreement - so you must agree with every word of it.

The main points in the Occupancy Agreement are:

• Co-operate with other members to maintain a mutually acceptable living environment;
  
• Not use language or behaviour that may offend or cause harm to any person due to their race, religion, sexuality, or disability;
  
• Refrain from bullying, intimidation, threats or violence;
  
• Have a commitment to engage in conflict resolution

If you do not agree with every word, you must say what you don't agree with and why. We may be able to make changes to accommodate your thoughts.

Living Together
The house-dwellers decide for themselves how they wish to live together.

Sound travels easily around the house, so noisy people may not be welcome.

We only occasionally eat together as a group.

We are not vegetarian - some of us eat meat.
We do not have any livestock, but we may have in the future.

Pets are allowed, but must not be a nuisance.
There are currently some cats but no dogs.

Communal areas of the house are non-smoking.

Other Rules and Policies
There are very few other rules and policies.

Our Objectives and Vision
There are different reasons why we each choose to live here, but our broad objectives are:

• to provide accommodation that is affordable and of a reasonable standard;
  
• to provide a safe and secure living environment;
  
• to manage the land productively and for nature, according to organic standards.

A Keveral visioning process in early 2019 concluded with this vision statement:

Keveral enables a thriving, intentional community now and for future generations.

We provide co-operatively managed housing.

We provide access to land that is managed organically and regeneratively.

We value ecological living and personal growth.

We provide opportunities for personal enterprises.

Our aim is to be a living inspiration through education and outreach.

[We have not done any educational events for several years, but we hope this will start again]

How Ecological Are We?
We grow only a small proportion of the food that we consume.
As individuals, we often buy non-organic and non-local food.

Heating is by firewood (from Keveral and other local woods), and by gas central heating in half of the house.

Our water comes from our own spring.

Our electricity comes from a green energy supplier. (We are not off-grid).

4 out of 9 Keveral people have our own motor vehicle.

Visiting
Visitors may come as personal guests, volunteers, prospective members or holidaying campers.

We have a Visitor's Barn, which has basic kitchen facilities plus a main room.
It is used by volunteers and campers, and occasionally by visiting groups and for events, and for table tennis.

In the past we have hosted groups who want to see what we do here (eg permaculture groups), or who want to stay here while visiting the local area.

The page was updated in May 2025.