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'Hobbit-style' houses created in Wales
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E-mail CNTV, June 11, 2012
A small community in the UK is shunning modern life by creating an eco-village made up of "hobbit-style" houses. The buildings, which have no mains electricity or water, are all hand built using materials from the natural environment. Nestled among the Preseli mountains of west Wales, it’s a remarkable hidden community, whose residents live a life far removed from the modern world.
These incredible dwellings at the Tir y Gafel eco village in Pembrokeshire have been dubbed "Hobbit Houses" - after those in JRRTolkien’s books - The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.
Each house offers an enchanting and somewhat surreal existence.
It all began with Simon Dale. He moved his family to the hillside community to be more in touch with nature.
Once he’d found a plot, he quite literally started carving an existence out of the hillside. In just four months, he’d built his "hobbit house", using nothing but basic tools -- and all for a cost of no more than 6,500 US dollars.
Simon Dale, president of Tir Y Gafel Eco village says, "The roof frame is made with timber from our woodland which is about 500 metres away. So I did fell nearly all of it by hand, I went out there with an axe and a two-man saw and we chopped them down and dragged them back."
Next door, someone else is busy building their new house. They’ve also decided the eco-village offers a better life.
Andy Gipson, resident of Tir Y Gafel Eco village says, "Yeah, I loved living in the city - San Francisco was like a revelation, I moved there when I was 11 from the suburbs. And so I thought I’d live and die in the city, and now I’m here in the countryside in Wales and I could live and die here and be buried under that tree and be quite happy with that!"
All residents of the village are completely dependent on a nearby spring for their drinking water. They collect rainwater to wash clothes and water gardens. They also grow crops, which they sell to earn money.
Casandra Lishman, resident of Tir Y Gafel Eco village says, "For me this is a lot to do with the connection to the land and being able to provide for myself and my family, and not going to the supermarket and buying it pre-packaged."
More and more of these "hobbit homes" are being built all the time as the village continues to grow. Residents hope other communities might be inspired by what they’ve achieved.
