Directions - Goffin Land - Exeter

Church Hill  EX4 9JL  .......... Directions & plan below

An oasis from the steel and concrete stress of the modern built environment based on 96 acres of meadows and woodland overlooking northern Exeter. Access by foot from Beacon Heath, by transport, from the hill line bordering the city.

“a beautiful site consisting of ancient woodland and long established pasture with views out to the Exe estuary. It really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and when we occasionally came over the brow of a hill to catch a glimpse of the city it always came as a surprise”

Caroline Aitkin,

 (Colleague of the great but sadly late, Patrick Whitefield)

Goffin Land is just above Pinhoe/Beacon Heath.

The northern access is Church Hill,  Exeter, EX4 9JL. 

If you look on Google Maps with that post code you will see a drive running south off Church Hill - sometimes to Udder House, which is now called Goffin  Farm House. A sat nav will take you there, way past the Goffin Land entrance which is directly in front of the barn complex you see once you turn off from Church Hill.

You may see Mid Devon Chili Farm or Goffin Farm House, depends on the browser etc.

From Exeter take Stoke Hill to Stoke Post junction. Church Hill is to the right, sign posted Pinhoe.

From the North,  take the A396  Tiverton - Exeter road. Immediately south of the bridge after Stoke Cannon take left fork, Stoke Hill to Stoke Post where there are two turnings to the left. Take the second, sign posted Pinhoe. 

The first right hand turning, 300 metres from Stoke Post, is the drive to Goffin Land. At present a Stags FOR SALE sign is on this junction

The southern access is via a 400 metre bridle path from Pinwood Lane / junction of Beacon Heath & Beacon Lane EX4

How it works

By offering mixed opportunity for desired goals to core participants, providing housing for some, employment for others, social and therapeutic activity for all, in general agreement with Buckminster Fuller idea that:

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.

To change something, build a new model that

makes the existing model obsolete.” 

As a gathering zone for enquiring minds open to learning, developing and sharing new and rediscovered creative practices that benefit our species and our natural environment whilst respecting other life forms.

Through active engagement of all these parties in developing a shared philosophy that collaborative communities, constantly honing their individual and collective cognitive abilities, offers us and our progeny the best hope of a safe and enriching journey into the future.

This biodiverse sanctuary offers a broad range of activities to core and visiting participants for skill & knowledge exchange - emphasising continuity of involvement and co-operation - conscious of Robert Axelrod’s thought that

 “The foundation of cooperation is not really trust, but the durability of the relationship.”

“Whether the players trust each other or not is less important in the long run than whether the conditions are ripe for them to build a stable pattern of co-operation” (providing mutual benefit)

“For cooperation to prove stable, the future must have a sufficiently large shadow ... the importance of the next encounter between the same two individuals must be great enough to make noncooperation an unprofitable strategy."

What is it?

City farm, based on appropriate permaculture practices, features animal husbandry, market garden, eco cohousing settlement, community learning zone, stimulating play scape,  & therapeutic training facility. A meeting place, wholesome food canteen featuring home produced dishes and a convivial space for serendipitous occasion.

Supported by a camp site plus eco cottages in micro hamlets in the woods & meadows serving as visitor retreats and accommodation for range of activities.

Elements

Affordable housing 

An eco cohousing settlement with a range of common facilities  based on an ethos of durable affordability and shared equity. The settlement is entwined with co-operative enterprises dedicated to the following activities:

Permaculture & husbandry - horticulture & market gardening.

Producing chemical free food for the local market, on site use in a canteen and in “pop-up” camping kitchens. Food production systems support range of courses and involvement opportunities for learning, relaxation and therapeutic benefit. Featuring renowned tutors and practitioners. Community involvement is integrated with sessions on food preparation and cooking skills linked to weight loss and guides to healthy life styles for youth and elders alike.

Woodland creation & management

An evolving story of trees. Trees and woods filter our air, cool our cities, purify our water and enrich our soil. They should be home to a host of animal and bird life, plants and fungi.

The Biophilia Project works to enrich the Goffin Lands with a diverse range of fruit and timber trees interspersed with new selections offering enriched year round beauty for the babbling brook sides, pretty woods, nooks and dells where guests and visitors can become one with a beautiful oasis from the steel and concrete of our modern built environment just a mile away.

  

On mindfulness, healthy living & well-being

Meditation and yoga are linked with social activity and therapeutic training with specialist support for wounded souls and those down on their luck. These activities are anchored on the accumulated knowledge of our species innate tendencies and the negative effects of modern western societal influences - indoctrinating education, Hollywood and the mass corporate media.

A recognition of the influences of early childhood and developmental years. Acknowledging the effect that low family income can have on these factors.

A recognition that as a species our brains are running 21st Century software on hardware mostly not updated for 50 000 years. This heritage results in a rigidly programmed pattern of behaviour labeled Sphexish:

“Our species possesses an ancient heritage, forces of evolution honed and sculpted our bodies and our minds - [the physical brain if you believe, more or less in the Darwinian theory of evolution].

This patrimony has enormous impact on how we see the world and how we live our lives”

David Livingston Smith

Full life learning on our Sphexish heritage.

We are all one but we are not the same and many personal traits can be recognised as part of our immediate, two / three hundred years, of family history. Our early childhood, later childhood, adolescents and adult life shape and reshape our being. Play is enormous part of learning and delight in living. Play will feature strongly in all aspects of the project's programmes.

Since the early 1990’s robust research has revealed that our brains and therefore our abilities and proclivities can evolve dramatically.

The education system in Finland, Save Our Childhood Movement UK and other pioneering initiatives are revealing amazing potential for raising our personal aspirations, intellectual abilities as well as revealing innate empathic, sharing and caring behaviours. When viewed as evolutionary skills central to our progress and now domination of this planet, this spiritually offers immense opportunity to develop new models of collective enterprise, responsibility and a new meaning to the word “democracy”. 

The project will develop opportunity for people of all ages to engage in especially via heuristic learning and play.

Eco building techniques

Learning, developing, teaching and constructing ecologically sound buildings. The focus is on utilising natural local resources, earth, timber, recycled waste for ongoing construction of eco lodges / vacation units to serve as essential income for the custodianship of the land & overall project and as a facility to link with courses and volunteering "off season".

Featuring eco cottages, micro homes, timber yurts, cob summer houses, earth ship biotecture and more. Off season these eco units also provide essential security for animal stock and the accommodation itself plus protects farming resources for vandalism.

Magical adventure trail

A puzzling and fun trail from Beacon Heath bridle path through Corinne's Wood following the Pin Brook and along Corinne's Way to Serendipity and the reciprocal framed Round House and Barn Canteen.

WHO IS IT FOR?

* Families and individuals seeking a more shared life in a cohousing eco village. This will include housing association tenants from the local community. (based on the example of Threshold Cohousing)

* The diverse range of people interested in living and working on the land. This includes participants on courses from sustainable building techniques to permaculture, chicken rearing, bush craft etc. 

* Directly and indirectly, NHS patients who might benefit from psychotherapy, mindfulness, meditation, yoga etc. enriched by a connection with the outdoors (eco psychology).

* Directly and indirectly, NHS patients who seek to combat obesity and acquire skills for greater wellbeing and healthy living. Target groups being adolescents and young adults.

* Ex servicemen effected by PTSD

* Students engaged in "Inclusion services".

* Over 50’s seeking to acquire skills to live a longer healthier later life. 

* Local school children via the education services or private engagement in forest school / play activity.

* Woodcraft Folk / Scouts movement.

* The ecological movements in Exeter and beyond for wide ranging activity

* Holiday makers seeking ecological / cultural engagement.

* The immediate local community of Beacon heath / Mincinglake related to many of the elements above.