‘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

D

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.