Whiteway
| Whiteway | |
| Gloucestershire | |
|---|---|
 Whiteway Village | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SO920102 |
| Location: | 51°47’26"N, 2°7’1"W |
| Data | |
| Postcode: | GL6 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Stroud |
Whiteway is a village in Gloucestershire of unusual origin. It is found in the heart of the Cotswolds, north-east of Stroud and south-east of Gloucester.
The village was founded in the late nineteenth century as the 'Whiteway Colony': a settlement built on utopian principles by 'Tolstoyan' anarchists but its idealistic foundation never realised a utopian achievement, and it has long since become a normal village of private houses.[1][2]
Whiteway Colony
Whiteway Colony was a residential community in the Cotswolds in the parish of Miserden, founded in 1898 by Tolstoyans. Their ideal was to create a place of co-operative, communal living with no money nor private property.
The founder was a Quaker journalist, Samuel Veale Bracher. Along with other Tolstoyans. Bracher purchased 41 acres along with seeds, tools, materials and provisions. The colonists then burnt the property deeds on the end of a pitchfork in a symbolic rejection of the notion of property. Aylmer Maude led the founding board of trustees for the colony.
The early settlers had utopian ideals, sharing provisions and going back-to-the-land. The founding colonists numbered about eight but over time the community rose to forty with anyone welcome.
Bracher, his family and other founders left the colony soon afterwards as they became increasingly frustrated with the other residents' idleness.[1][3]
The colony attracted many visitors, including Mohandas Gandhi in 1909. As the colony abandoned Tolstoy's philosophy it has been regarded by many, including Gandhi, as a failed experiment.[4]
Life in the colony
Early life in the colony was spartan with some residents using a barn as shelter - piped water did not arrive until 1949 and electricity not until 1954. The site was originally open land surrounding Whiteway House but is now heavily wooded and home to a collection of mainly wooden buildings - as no one owns the land, mortgages could not be obtained so people had to build their own houses.
A communal hall was built by residents in 1924 to house social activities and a school, and a swimming pool was built in 1969.
Over the years residents have included immigrant anarchists, conscientious objectors and refugees from the Spanish Civil War, as well as co-operative ventures such as Protheroe's Bakery (known in the local area for the quality of its bread), the Cotswold Co-operative Handicraft guild and the Co-operative Gardening Group. For a period the anarchist newspaper Freedom was produced here by Thomas Keell.
Today
The Whiteway Colony has ceased to follow the ideas for which it has founded and has become a more normal village. Today it houses, among others, descendants of its original settlers. Though it no longer has an explicitly anarchist character, today's residents are aware of its origins and traces of them run through the community still, the best examples being the continued use and maintenance of communal facilities (hall, swimming pool and playing field). In addition, the governance of the community is still done by a general meeting of its residents.
Outside links
- Utopia Britannica
- George Walford: Review of Whiteway Colony, the social history of a Tolstoyan community by Joy Thacker
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 'Tolstoy's Guiding Light': Charlotte Alston in History Today 10 October 2010
- ↑ 'What a carry-on in the Cotswolds': Sarah Edghill in The Telegraph 1 February 2003
- ↑ Hart, W. C. (1906). Confessions of an anarchist. E. Grant Richards. pp. 79–81. https://archive.org/stream/confessionsofana00hartrich#page/78/mode/2up.
- ↑ Hunt, James D. (2005). An American Looks at Gandhi: Essays in Satyagraha, Civil Rights, and Peace. Bibliophile South Asia. pp. 43–. ISBN 978-81-85002-35-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=kNvTdX52nw8C&pg=PA43.
- Shaw, Nellie (1935). Whiteway: A Colony on the Cotswolds. C.W. Daniel Company. https://books.google.com/books?id=qUJWHQAACAAJ.
- Thacker, Joy (1993). Whiteway Colony: The Social History of a Tolstoyan Community. Joy Thacker. ISBN 978-0-9521760-0-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=k7HaAAAAMAAJ.