We are a supported living provider based in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire.
Supporting adults with learning disabilities to live independent lives. Together we create healthy homes and rich social, cultural and spiritual life.
We offer opportunities for independence through our different accommodation styles. Flats and shared home options are available depending on an individual’s needs and wishes. There are plenty of opportunities to develop different skills within the community through our workshops and activities.
Our values are present in everything we do:
We value the uniqueness of each individual
We value meaningful work and the experience of lifelong learning
We value shared lives in the community
We value and care for the land and the wider environment that surrounds us
Our Staff Team
Our team contributes to the ongoing work of our community through a range of contributions. These include administration, support work, craft activities, volunteering and trusteeship.
Our CEO Cecilie Bradshaw
Cecilie is the Chief Executive Officer and Registered Manager of The Hatch and Orchard Leigh. She has lived and worked in Camphill for almost 20 years and has managed the Hatch since 2011.
She has a background in nursing and business management. She enjoys holidaying in the Elan Valley in Wales, spending time with family, walking her dog, reading and cooking.
Cecilie Bradshaw
CEO
Our Trustees
Anthony
Chair of Thornleigh Camphill Communities
Anthony is Chair of Thornleigh Camphill Communities and has been a Trustee since 2015. He trained as a doctor working in hospitals and public health, and later worked on computer systems to help care for people. He has a daughter who lives at the Hatch and has been involved in supporting people with learning disabilities for over 30 years. He enjoys cooking, fixing things, and music, singing in choirs, on stage in operas, and even in pantomimes.
John
Chair of Life Communities
John is the Chair of the Life Communities Group and has been a Trustee for the Hatch since 2014. He has worked in care for several years and was previously a Registered Manager within a Camphill community. He now works as a Social Care Consultant and is enjoying semi-retirement with his wife, cats and his garden gnomes.
Graham
Treasurer
Graham has been a Trustee and the Treasurer of Thornleigh Camphill Communities since 2017. His background is in finance, working as an actuary for 30 years specialising in pensions. More recently he has been a part-time University lecturer in economics. He enjoys hiking, wild swimming, cross-country running and vegan cooking.
Ian
Trustee
Ian is a Trustee for Thornleigh Camphill Communities, having previously been a Trustee for Orchard Leigh Community. He has lived and worked in Camphill for over 30 years, starting off milking cows. He retired in 2019 but is still very much involved in Camphill and biodynamics, and recently helped to establish a Shared Lives Community.
OUR HISTORY AND CAMPHILL
The Hatch Community was established in Thornbury in 1983. We are part of Thornleigh Camphill Communities which also consists of Orchard Leigh Camphill Community near Stroud and The Sheiling School. We are a member of The Association of Camphill Communities in the UK and Ireland.
The Camphill Movement is now an international movement that was started in 1939 near Aberdeen in Scotland by Doctor Karl König, an Austrian paediatrician. He was accompanied by a number of young people, who were escaping the outbreak of the Second World War. The group had first come together in Vienna, where they had studied the work of Rudolf Steiner, and started to make plans to set up a community based on his ideals. Their work went on to create communities in which vulnerable people with learning disabilities live, learn and work with others in healthy social relationships based on mutual care and respect.
Camphill is inspired by Christian ideals as articulated by Rudolf Steiner. He offered insights which have inspired others to new approaches to education, medicine, agriculture, the arts, religion, architecture, social life and economics. This spiritual science has the name Anthroposophy – the wisdom of man.
The work of Camphill is based on the acceptance of the spiritual uniqueness of each human being; regardless of disability, religious or racial background.
This person-centred approach to community is beautifully reflected in Rudolf Steiner’s Social Ethic:
“The healthy social life is found when in the mirror of each human soul the whole community finds its reflection and when in the community the virtue of each one is living.”