To the new landlord of Brimscombe Mill, 

On the 14th March, our social media platforms exploded with the news that your company had bought Brimscombe Mill, evicting the residents and giving them until August to find a new home.

We are groups of parents of young children who come together to eat and play at the Long Table and Kids Stuff; families who either can’t afford to furnish our homes from traditional outlets, or who are committed to reducing the impact of throwaway consumerism by buying second hand from Furniture Bank; recreational, environmental, and first-set-of-wheels cyclists who have bought our bikes from the Bike Drop; culture geeks who get our favourite local arts newspaper delivered to our doorstep by those same lovely people; individuals living on the breadline for whom the Freezers of Love that the Long Table run are a lifeline; mothers, fathers, elders, teens and everything in between who come to contemplate the river in peace from the Grace Network’s retreat space, or just to spend time in the place that they have created, visiting the organisations they provide an umbrella for, with the people they have made to feel so welcome. 

At a time when almost every aspect of our lives is ruled by the logic of profit, consumerism and growth at any cost, the Grace Network and the organisations it has nurtured offer an alternative. We are deeply concerned about the loss of a community space that has become a haven.

We are writing to you now in the hope that our combined voices will help you to understand what Brimscombe Mill means to us as a community. Collectively we hope a solution can be found which means that this loved, and very much needed, community resource can remain at Brimscombe Mill. If that is without possibility, then we implore you to allow them more time to find a new location to recreate the wonderful and essential hub they have worked so hard to build.

Yours sincerely,