Caraboo Projects, in Bristol run a fantastic series of podcasts called Loops, and I was chuffed to have been invited to create an episode to further explore my ongoing research around the Plotlanders. You can listen to the episode here

In this episode I was able to continue my exploration into the DIY community, The Plotlanders who resided in my hometown of Basildon, Essex and what they’re story can tell us about current issues of land ownership, the self-build movement, and artist projects that re-address our relationship with land, agriculture and each other.

To get a better idea of who the Plotlanders were we spoke with local historian Ken Porter, and author Deanna Walker who has written two books all about her family's life as weekend plotlanders between the 1950s and early 1980s, artist Georgia Gendall about her project Residency in a Shed on her allotment in Cornwall, and Grizedale Arts who centre collaborative production and functional art in the Lake District. We also spoke with architect Bart De Hartog about new types of self-building in Holland and artist Julia Heslop about issues around land ownership in the UK and a self-build project - Protohome with the homeless charity Crisis.

Contributors & Credits
Thanks so much to our incredible contributors:
Ken Porter – www.basildonheritage.org.uk + www.laindonhistory.org.uk/
Deanna Walker – www1.essex.ac.uk/news/event.aspx?e_id=6049
Georgia Grendall – www.georgiagendall.co.uk/
Bart de Hartog – http://www.bartdehartog.nl/ + https://zooofthefuture.com/
Adam Sutherland – www.grizedale.org/
Julia Heslop – www.juliaheslop.com/