Location
Earthworm Housing Cooperative, Wheatstone House, High Street
Leintwardine
Craven Arms
SY7 0LH
View on map
Opening times
Opening times: Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd October 10.30am-4pm with tours starting at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.
Please note:
There are 2 tours one which is fully accessible and one which involves steps and walking on grass/rough ground.
There is ground floor toilet which has some adaptations for those with limited mobility but not whealchair accessible.
This event has now finished.
Other Turn up for house tours at given times
Earthworm Housing Cooperative welcome you their home in Leintwardine, rural north Herefordshire on the Shropshire border. Together 11 adults live in, renovate and maintain their 3 buildings, static caravan and 7 acres to to reduce their impact on the planet.
Find out more here: https://earthwormhousingcooperative.org.uk/
The home
3 buildings:
- 1 x large house 17 rooms Built 1909
- 1 x 3 bed lodge house built 1850's, extended 1909 and 2020
- 1 x workshops GF/accommodation FF built 1909.
We are a housing cooperative so there is private and communal space.
Modifications:
- Installed WET system for sewage and grey water
- Wood fired (log) district heating system serving all 3 buildings
- Internal insulation (roof, wall, underfloor)
- Double glazing (lodge house) and secondary glazing (Large house)
- Electric vehicle charging point
- Extension to lodge house built using modern insulation, local wood clad and reuse of flooring and other materials
- Compost toilets
- Draft proofing to sash windows
- We have also used lime plaster extensively inside the lodge house
We have prioritised wall insulation over double glazing as we have some old big windows and the cost is impractical. Instead we are using secondary glazing which we are making ourselves. We have yet to pick a system for the external insulation of the Lodge House as it is a stone building we need to maintain it's breathability and have yet to settle on a system which is appropriate.
Motivations:
- To be environmentally friendly
- To make the buildings heatable
- To be more sustainable
- To enable life style changes and be more communal (Shared heating)
- To save money now and in the future
- To benefit wildlife (WET System)
Approximate costs:
TBC
Approximate energy savings:
TBC
Benefits:
Warmer, indoor toilets, saved time in heating buildings with wood- from lighting individual fires in each room to centralised heating system, which has freed up time to do other work on the buildings in our renovation project .
Who did the work?
Contractors J Abrams, T4 and Co-op members
Next steps:
We are currently looking into a solar array to generate electricity and back up batteries. We also intend to add solar hot water to two of our hot water tanks. We are limited by funds as a coop and currently have nothing left to invest other than in our gradual renovation of each room as we insulate it and add secondary glazing a room at a time. We would also like to externally insulate the Lodge house and have already had the roof fitted to accommodate this.
We are a housing co-op and are about to open for recruitment for the first time in 4 years.
Tea/Coffee/Soft Drinks and cake will be available for sale.
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