Brimscombe Mill community loses its home

NEWS: Brimscombe Mill Community Loses Its Home

Brimscombe Mill, a beacon of community spirit, social enterprise and collaboration, faces a pivotal moment. Home to The Long Table, Kids Stuff, Furniture Bank, Bike Drop, and the pioneering Grace Network Team, this hopeful hub of local innovation and support needs to find a new home following a recent, secretive sale of the property to a local business.

This was a shock as we had been trying to engage with our old landlord to purchase the building or extend the lease, but he decided to sell it without giving us a chance to counter. We have spoken to the new landlord, but he has no interest in letting us stay on site.

A broken system:

As a team we are exploring other options for a home but as yet we haven’t found anything viable, putting the social enterprises and 53 jobs at risk. The Brimscombe Mill community is at risk of being lost to become warehousing.

Our chance to secure Brimscombe Mill's future has been bypassed, putting the crucial work we do at risk. We feel this isn't just an the end of a lease; it's a matter of land justice, that impacts a community built on countless hours renovating the property to make it fit for use, and significant investment in materials. This community asset, developed by 1000s of people over the past few years is at risk of being lost due to the way land laws work and the way the “system” works. It doesn’t feel transparent, fair or right and we now face extinction. This new community economic model is at risk of being broken apart.

Community Call to Action:

Whilst we move on, help us thrive: The best thing everyone can do to show us continued support is to help us thrive until we are being told we have to leave this site on 25th August. Come in for a meal, buy furniture, get your bike repaired and buy some kids stuff. Keep visiting and using us as much as possible, maximising social impact, supporting local jobs and furthering social enterprise development. Until we move it’s business as usual and when you join in, you help us showcase the vitality of Brimscombe Mill and the community in it.

Engage with our Relocation Events: To help us work out what we can do next we will be hosting a couple of events in our newly refurbished Sanctuary space at Brimscombe Mill;

1)      What’s next for the Brimscombe Mill community? This will be at 6-8pm Thursday 21st March. Support us further, why not join us for dinner beforehand.

2)      Wednesday 10th April 6-8pm we will be hosting a Community Planning Session.

These events will help us better understand our options and find justice and a way forward together. 

Partnerships: Your support can help sustain the services vital to our district. If you feel your organisation might be able to help us, please let us know.

New home: If you know of a large building in the Stroud area that is suitable for us as a new home please do let us know.

Unwavering Commitment:

We are deeply grateful for your ongoing support and solidarity. Our values and community have guided us through many challenges before, and we believe that together we can navigate this situation and will emerge even stronger. Thank you for standing with us. Despite this challenge, our resolve is stronger than ever to serve our community. If we are going to get through this we will need to do it together. If you want to help please come to one of our events, sign up for news or contact us via email to give us any ideas or support. Any ideas are welcome and we will sort them through and trust that through this process good will prevail.

For more information please sign up to our email newsletter at bottom of the page.

And email us at stroud@thegracenetwork.org.uk 

Thanks for all your support,

The Brimscombe Mill, Grace Network, Long Table, Furniture Bank, Kids Stuff and Bike Drop teams