The community shop
At the heart of Danby village is the Health Shop, selling organic vegetables and bread, health supplements, eco-friendly household and beauty products. It’s an Aladdin’s cave of carefully curated items – every day store cupboard staples and eye-catching things to buy as presents.
It’s run by volunteers of all abilities from the Esk Valley Camphill Community, a group of nineteen households in Danby Dale where co-workers – often families with children – share their lives with adults with learning disabilities, all of whom work and contribute daily in the shop and on the five acres of land they farm to feed themselves and supply produce for the shop.
“Everyone has a contribution to make - the work is meaningful and necessary for sustaining the community. This means we each rely on one another, no matter what our ‘ability’” says Mark, a co-worker who lives with his young family in one of the shared houses.
There are typically around six to ten people living in each household, which is comprised of two to three people who have a learning disability, one or two Camphill co-workers (with their family or children) and a Volunteer Carer. The principle is to work to maintain and encourage dignity and a sense of purpose – and promote the culture of self-sufficiency. Volunteers come from all over the world to become part of the Esk Valley family.
Homefield, the biodynamic managed land at the rear of one of the shared houses has a fabulous herb and flower garden and vegetable plot (with a workshop converted from an old stable to process the herbs) and they’re currently undertaking a rewilding initiative. A brood of about 50 hens potter about happily, providing eggs for everyone. It’s a beautiful space, with far-reaching views across fields to the moorland beyond.
“Working on the land every day, all year round gives all members of the community the chance to care for and be responsible for their environment, gaining skills and growing in confidence” says Mark.
There’s a bakery too, in Whitby, in the back rooms of the Future Health Store. It has grown over time from a micro-bakery, and a range of artisan sourdough and yeasted bread are sold through several outlets locally and delivered to community houses.
Community members are celebrating winning a North Yorkshire Moors Association Conservation award for their habitat restoration work in Danby Dale; the team spent two winters planting four micro woodlands connected by wildlife corridors through meadows managed for wildflowers.