Guest blog: Ruthanne Baxter on Gladden Village - a fictional village increasing the sense of connection, community and self-care.

Gladden Village Mart – Helping with, and through, Farming and Rural Life Heritage

By Ruthanne Baxter 

For many people the social benefits of being out and about can be restricted. Reasons can range from caring responsibilities to transport limitations, social anxiety or depression, to cost of living impacts, vulnerable immune systems to disabilities or geographical remoteness. 

Gladden Village, founded in January 2023, is a fictional online village all about utilising heritage stories as a trellis for supporting sense of connection and community and providing opportunities to contribute to ‘village life’, remotely. Becoming a villager is free and is open to anyone, anywhere, aged 18 and over, who feels they would enjoy and/or could benefit from this unique offering. 

You can be a Gladden villager if you happen to live in a remote part of Canada, are in a croft in the Scottish Highlands, or reside in Alicante city centre. Gladden villagers are international and intergenerational.

Gladden Village offers a Coffeehouse, Reading Room, Post Office and the Mart.

As a Gladden villager you receive a very warm welcome, monthly invites to the Coffeehouse and the Mart via Zoom, bi-annual issues of the Gladden Gazette and access to Gladden Reading Room, with its book, poetry and listening recommendations, 24/7.

Gladden Mart focuses on engaging villagers with, and through, the heritage of farming and rural life.  The 2025/26 Mart Programme kicks off on Wednesday 8 October, 7-8pm GMT and then runs the first Wednesday of the month until April. 

This season the programme will bring villagers the opportunity to ‘visit’ the Butter Museum in Co Cork, Ireland, to hear about the development of the Royal Welsh Show, discover the History of Sheep Farming in the Highlands of Scotland, compare the heritage of milk in the UK and Africa and discover a little about the ‘Edinburgh Four’, the first female vets who graduated from the Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies.

The Mart Programme has purposefully held two sessions this season as an opportunity to shine a light on your ‘Unsung Heritage Heroes and Heroines’ of farming and rural life. Human and non-human heroes/heroines are welcome. 

You might have historic records of a bull that had enormous impact on his breed, or records relating to the beginnings of your local agricultural or crofting society. You may have archive material relating to a local Livestock Market or maybe you’d like to shine a light on a farm building that was the first of its kind or has been utilised to respond to various community needs. You may want to raise the profile of a family member who was a Land Army Girl or a crofter in your area who deserves their story told for what contributions they brought to the community, or further afield.

If you would like to become a Gladden Villager and receive invites to the Mart sessions and/or be willing to get more information on how you could contribute to the Gladden Mart programme with your Unsung Heritage Hero or Heroine simply email gladdenvillage@gmail.com or check out https://gladdenvillage.org/

Notes 

The co-founders of Gladden Village are Ruthanne Baxter (ruthannebaxter@hotmail.com) UK-based and Paula Santervas, (santervaspaula@gmail.com) based in Spain. Both co-founders are happy to provide short biographies on request.

Gladden Village is based on the concept of social prescribing.

NHS England » Social prescribing

Nature-based, green prescribing and social prescribing through the arts, e.g., the benefits of music for dementia, are increasingly well-known but the benefits of utilising and engaging with heritage to reduce loneliness and isolation, and improve mental health, is an approach less acknowledged.