A little bit about us…
Our girls grew up, started full-time school, and this opened up more time and space for us to explore new interests and potential farm projects. Tom developed his carpentry and woodworking skills, while Caz began making willow baskets, and later on, coffins. In and amongst many other on and off-farm jobs, both The Straw Roundhouse and the rewilding project came to fruition in Spring 2025, two big developments that are continuing to grow and evolve in surprising ways.
As the years have passed by, so have we become more rooted both in the land here and our local community. We have also come to be more and more aware of how many other people feel an attachment to, and connection with, the farm, and just what an important part it plays in the daily lives of so many wonderful local people. The farm is home to numerous humans besides ourselves, while others come here for work, and many more besides utilise the land for educational, recreational and even healing experiences.
In truth, we have always felt uncomfortable ‘owning’ such a lot of land, and not a day goes by when we don’t recognise our huge privilege to be in the position we are. Hence, how truly heartened we feel when we see and hear of so many others who also draw a lot of nourishment from being here. We really hope to keep finding ways (both individually and collectively) to allow for more people to experience the unique beauty of Leasowe Farm long into the future, as well as nurturing an environment in which all life can thrive.
We are Tom and Caz Ingall, and Leasowe Farm has been our home since 2002, after we finished our degrees and returned to the UK, having spent some months living and working in Tanzania. We both studied Social Anthropology at University, living, at times, in various countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, and very much imagined that we would return there to live and work. It was through moving (temporarily, we believed at the time!) to the farm here, with the blessing and support of Tom’s parents, Jane and John, starting to connect with both the land and our local community, combined with Tom studying an MSc in Human Ecology, that our hearts began to shift to a very different future.
Through his course, Tom learned about CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), which led us to co-founding Canalside Community Food alongside some other wonderful local food activists. This all happened at the same time as us starting our own family, having our two daughters, Tallis and Keri, deciding to home educate them, and learning how to farm organically. Over the course of these 10 years or so, we planted thousands of trees, in the form of new hedgerows, Tallis Wood, and our Hazel, Walnut and Heartnut orchards.
For some years, after converting the land to organic, we continued growing arable crops, even having some success with producing bread flour-grade wheat which we had milled locally. We also raised pigs and chickens, selling meat and eggs mainly through the community that had built up through Canalside. By 2014, though, with the insecurities and challenges of this way of farming, mixed with a desire to try something different as a family, we decided to leave the farm to experience another kind of life. After some overseas adventures, we ended up returning to the farm, and started dreaming a new vision.