A Medieval story

by Rhys Howitt

As you're driving down the Hume Highway, you may one day see a medieval castle flying heraldic pennants. The Crossroads Medieval Village Co-operative was registered in 1992 and has been quietly working away on building a medieval village. They bought 178 hectares (440 acres) near Yass in 1994, adjoining a nature reserve. The property includes a mountain and gets good snow cover about once a year.

Medieval Battle Re-enactment

By 1996 the co-op had a plan to take to the local council: a campground with cabins for medieval events, a residential area with a medieval theme, a re-creation of a small castle for education and tourist purposes, and a medieval crafts centre. Council was initially supportive, and requested that the whole project be approved together, but in the end the size of the project proved indigestible and the approval period ran out without final clearance being achieved.

The co-op has always had about 60 members, and the wrangles with Council took up a lot of time as well as expensive consultancies. The group was exhausted and broke, and took some years to recover. The good news is that in recent years Council has been willing to look at individual elements of the vision, and has approved everything asked of them. The visitor cabins have been approved, and this has allowed the construction of a Guild Hall, with a massive timber frame all held together with wooden pegs. The walls are built of medieval 'torchis' (straw and mud covered with an earth/lime render).

The co-op has also attracted the Rowany Festival, the largest annual medievalist event in Australia. For the past two years, huge numbers of medievalists from across Australia and overseas have gathered and lived medievally over Easter. In 2004, there were over 800 campers and 200 day visitors.

The castle is waiting on the proceeds from the residential subdivision. Much of the planning work for the subdivision has been done, and the co-op gets many enquiries about it. The co-op is working to find the capital funds to put in the required infrastructure. House lots will be 'Community Title' and only sold to co-op members.

Medieval Dancing

Crossroads is working with an architect to develop a modular method of constructing strawbale houses with a medieval appearance. Participants would attend a strawbale building workshop and receive supervision from a specialist strawbale builder in building their own houses using the standard designs. Their work effort would, in effect, become their deposit for a conventional mortgage. If this proposal goes ahead, we will report on it further.

Crossroads is a small group, and more than half its members have been directors at one point or another. The co-op is now looking further a field for volunteers willing to become directors -- contact them directly if you are interested. Crossroads is always keen to co-operate with other co-ops for mutual benefit.

The co-op's website is www.crossroads.org.au.