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Dreaming up Summerhouse Farm

In February 2025 LESS, a Lancaster based community organisation, bought three acres of agricultural land known as Summerhouse Farm. This land purchase was made possible by a local Charitable Trust and UK Shared Prosperity funding from the UK Government. Thank you!

This agricultural piece of land borders Lancaster canal, is home to a large modern barn and open fields and is within walking distance from Lancaster City Centre. It was bought as part of a wider FoodFutures strategy and dream to see more land put into community ownership and being used for education and growing healthy soils and sustainable food for local residents.

LESS is now organising this survey and series of events over the autumn and winter to invite visions for the site, to welcome visitors to get to know it and its surrounding communities, and to co-create a permaculture design that enables:

  • Food growing
  • Education and training
  • Community building

To help shape how the site develops, please complete this short survey by 26 September 2026. Your response will directly feed into the site’s permaculture design and how it develops going forward. If you would also like to be kept in the loop about Summerhouse Farm activities, workshops and other events, please share your email address and answer fully the questions around your interests in getting involved.
1.Your Name
2.Your postcode
3.At what email address would you like to be contacted?
4.What would you like to see at Summerhouse Farm? Please share your wildest dreams for this new community farm!
5.Which of the following would you like to see at Summerhouse Farm?
6.What activities would you like to see offered at Summerhouse Farm?
7.What would you like Summerhouse Farm to look like? e.g. wild, formal, organic, curvy, symmetrical, beautiful, accessible, designed in zones etc etc. If there are images that capture what you would love to see, please share links to them or email them to foodfutures@lessuk.org
8.Would you be interested in volunteering or supporting activities in other ways at Summerhouse Farm?
9.If you answered yes to question 8, what would you be interested in doing?
10.If you answered yes to question 8, what level of involvement would you like to have in the site's decision making, design and day to day management?
11.What sort of training (if any) would you like to see offered at Summerhouse Farm?
12.The site is currently called Summerhouse Farm (because of the proximity of a Summerhouse where TB patients were brought to see the views and take the air!), but it doesn’t need to stay this way. Do you think the farm should remain Summerhouse Farm, or do you have suggestions for other names?
13.Any other comments?