‘Why here?’: inside mid-Wales village where far-right figure has created a settlement

Woodlander Initiative provokes mixed reactions in Llanafan Fawr as critics say aim is to build racially exclusive communities

uring the middle ages, monks would travel to the village of Llanafan Fawr in mid-Wales to visit the church and relics of St Afan, a son of the king of Gwynedd, martyred by foreign pirates centuries before.

Today, a different sort of pilgrim can be found there. Two hilly, wooded parcels of land in Llanafan Fawr were bought by the Woodlander Initiative (TWI), a land-buying scheme led by Simon Birkett, a far-right figure with links to Patriotic Alternative, the UK’s largest fascist group. Critics say Wiltshire-based Birkett’s aim is to create a racially exclusive settlement; he has cited Orania, a whites-only town in South Africa, as an inspiration for the project.

TWI successfully bought the two small plots totalling a few acres from a local farmer late last year, after attempts in Cumbria and East Sussex fell through. Since launching in 2023, the group has raised £165,000 of a goal of £1m – money Birkett plans to use to buy land or property in every county in Britain.

“We need to start building that alternative, our own businesses, our own institutions,” Birkett said during an address at Patriotic Alternative’s annual conference last October. “We need our own schools, with our own rules.”