Utopia in Lincolnshire: the pacifists who built a farm – and stayed

During the second world war, a group of conscientious objectors including Jim Broadbent’s father, Roy, set up a farming community. A new play starring their descendants tells their story

The descendants of a small farming community of conscientious objectors who settled in a quiet corner of Lincolnshire will gather next weekend in a converted Methodist chapel to see the extraordinary history of their forefathers played out on stage.

The little-known story of the community, which grew up during the second world war in the villages of Legsby and Holton cum Beckering in the West Lindsey area, has been documented in a new play called Remembrance. It tells the story of a group of idealistic young men and women who refused to fight and registered as conscientious objectors, before setting up a farming cooperative in deepest Lincolnshire, where many of their children and grandchildren continue to live to this day.

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