HELICOPTER pilots flying over West Swindon might think they've lost their bearings when they look down and see fields, ponds, a flock of hens and black mountain sheep.

A farm is not the kind of feature you expect to find in a modern 'town' with 11,242 homes, a dozen schools, five churches, seven pubs, a large leisure complex, a sports centre and some of Britain's most futuristic industrial buildings.

But the livestock and the three acres of meadow and gardens at Lower Shaw Farm are an important part of the bricks, concrete and tarmac which make up one of Europe's largest town development schemes.

Owned by Swindon Borough Council it is leased and run by 54-year-old Matt Holland and his wife Andrea Hirsch, 42.

With the help of a network of volunteers they have turned it into an educational centre for children, a residential centre for people who attend its wide range of adult weekend courses, and a place where families can relax, make new friends and have fun.

The Holland children, 16-year-old Rosa and twins Jacob and Anna, 14, are a vital part of the Lower Shaw Farm team.

Visitors flock from all over Swindon, Wiltshire, the rest of Britain and even from France, Belgium and Germany for classes in just about everything from organic cooking to juggling, gardening, basket weaving, woodwork and fungus hunting.

It may sound like a haven for long-haired bead-wearers in kaftans.

But Matt, who is also the founder and organiser of Swindon Festival of Literature, is quick to stamp on the notion that he, his family and their volunteer helpers and supporters are a bunch of hippies.

"We meticulously keep our accounts, pay our bills, wear shirts and ties, and go about our business like everyone else," he said.

They also encourage people to stop and smell the roses and enjoy some of the interests, fulfilments, new experiences and satisfactions which life at the farm has to offer.

For some of the Swindon children who go there at weekends and during the school holidays that means finding out that eggs are not made in a food factory before being packed into boxes.

They help to collect them from where the Lower Shaw hens have laid them.

It also means coming face to face with sheep and seeing vegetables and apples growing.

They taste home-baked bread, made by Andrea, straight from the oven and go on story walks around the farm with Matt, as well as feed the ducks, make puppets, masks and music in what he calls the big shed.

Grown-ups can study astronomy and yoga, master stretching and Alexander technique exercises, learn how to make do and mend, master the art of sowing and sewing, produce willow baskets, and acquire juggling and circus skills.

From September 28 to 30 students can go on a fungus foray and find, name, learn how to use and enjoy eating mushrooms.

"There are 3,000 different species in Britain and we have found over 100 different kinds in the fields of North Wiltshire," said Matt.

Next month Lower Shaw Farm is even holding a weekend course called Living With Dying.

With psychotherapist Christine Heal, director of the Natural Death Centre, people will be able to study modern attitudes towards death and examine their feelings about their own mortality.