Kesoberi Community Farm
20 acres of formerly intensive farmland in recovery, held by a small community of five adults and two children who are building something from the ground up - no blueprint, no finished model, just people deciding what the land becomes.
Kesoberi is one of the harder places to categorise, which is probably why it matters. It is not a cohousing scheme, not a CLT in the formal sense, not a finished project with a website and a waiting list. It is 20 acres of land on the edge of the village of Paul in West Penwith - land that was farmed intensively for decades, drenched in pesticides, and handed down in a state that needed undoing before it could become anything else. That undoing is still happening. Thousands of trees planted. The soil working its way back. Five adults and two children living on it, figuring things out.
I came to Kesoberi through Charles Lewis at Resonance. Fi, one of the people living and working on the site, got in touch in early 2026. We spoke on a call before I got to Cornwall - the kind of conversation where you realise quickly that someone is thinking carefully about land and community without having a polished answer to give you. That is exactly where I want to be.
Why This Is In The Project
Most of the sites in This Was Tomorrow are established - they have histories, governance structures, names that mean something in the sector. Kesoberi is different. It is early-stage in the truest sense: the decisions that will shape what this place becomes are being made now, by the people on it, under pressure and without a map. That is not a weakness in the project - it is part of the argument. The question TWT keeps asking is not just “does this work?” but “what does it take to start?” Kesoberi is an answer to that second question.
There is also something specific to the Cornwall strand here. West Penwith is not an easy place to hold land collectively. The cost of rural land in Cornwall, the planning pressures, the tourism economy that has reshaped villages like Paul and Mousehole over decades - all of that is context for what Kesoberi is trying to do. Holding 20 acres outside the private market, even informally, even incompletely, is a statement.
The Land Itself
The site sits above the fishing villages of Mousehole and Newlyn, with views across Mount’s Bay. The land is off-grid. What infrastructure exists is basic - composting loos, a gas-powered shower. The campsite, which the community runs to generate some income, is a pop-up operation, deliberately low-impact. Bell tents. Fireplaces. Wheelbarrows to carry your kit across the field.
For years before the current community took it on, the land was managed for yield, not health. The recovery is visible but slow. Trees are in. The soil is healing. This is land that requires patience, which may be the right kind of land for a project that requires the same.
Status
Initial call with Fi: late March 2026.
Field visit: to be confirmed as part of Cornwall cluster visit, late May / June 2026.
Contact introduced by Charles Lewis, Resonance.