About us
We are a group of people, all in different stages in our lives, who are working towards this aim on a volunteer basis. Born out of ‘the co housing group’, one of the many volunteer groups working together to get things done on the farm, we have formed a CIC to take this work forward.
Our group is made up of Full Members, who are also directors of the CIC, and Active Participants who are newer joiners. All full members and active participants are prospective residents of the site.
Geoff Haslam
Geoff is retired from a successful career as a community architect and project manager. He set up his own project management practice, Local Agenda Ltd, which he ran for over twenty years.
Through his company, he has been responsible for the commissioning of construction projects including schools, churches, colleges and housing.
In addition to many community-led projects, mainly in the South Wales mining valleys, he has been actively involved with a number of cohousing projects in London and the southwest.
He has recently trained as an accredited Community-led Housing Adviser with CCH, the Confederation of Co-operative Housing.
Lyn Holland
Lyn trained in Fine Art at a prestigious art college and became a teacher early in her career. She has worked in a number of interiors businesses and ultimately set up and run several small businesses of her own. They were in the fields of interior & fashion/knitwear design – the latter exporting work globally. Lyn has been actively involved in farm activities since joining the co-housing group and continues to teach small art classes in her retirement.
Rahima Fitzwilliam
Rahima is Co-founder of Heartwood Projects, a small not-for-profit delivering forest school and nature-based interventions. She oversees all aspects, including strategy, delivery, and finances. She is also the outdoor curriculum lead at Bridge Farm’s neighbouring primary school, where she runs a ‘pig therapy’ programme with the Bridge farm pigs.
Rahima previously sat on the boards of two CICs: The Brixton Pound, a community currency scheme she helped launch and govern in its early years, and The Brixton Market Traders Federation, where she developed and delivered a community engagement and inclusion programme with the local council.
She is a trained neighbourhood disputes mediator, has completed community facilitation training (including The Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter), and a course on therapeutic group facilitation.
Rahima is drawn to community projects for the people. She recognised Bridge Farm as something special and became involved in various areas of farm life alongside the co-housing group. Since moving to Bristol in 2014, Rahima has lived in six rented homes and experienced the challenges of housing insecurity and high rents—motivating her involvement in community-led housing.
Daniel Key
Daniel has been interested in living in community for the past two decades. He was a Fundraising Director for Rural Urban Synthesis Society back 2015-2017, a Community Land Trust in London which has gone on to build 36 sustainable homes.
Daniel dreams of building my own home, and worked on three builds with Adrian of Wholewoods. He then became a qualified carpenter, working on new build Passive House eco homes with Earthwise Construction and Snug Homes in Bristol, as well as working independently on large construction sites.
Daniel lived at the pioneering Hope Rise as a Community Builder, helping build a community with young Bristolian care leavers.
A neck injury has recently led Daniel to pursue a career in accountancy. He works as a Management Accountant in the NHS, and ia a qualified Level 4 AAT Accountant. Daniel look after Little Bridges annual accounts.