We want to share a profoundly inspirational story about the very first two Camphill MK residents – Nigel and Mervyn. Nigel was a resident at the Delrow Community but chose to come to Milton Keynes to help set up the new community in 1980 and be considered a founder member. He initially lived in the recycling shop in Olney with the first co-workers before moving to Oberlin once the community had acquired the Pennyland Houses. Nigel was something of a celebrity, and his story is quite an astonishing one that deserves to be told! Nigel lived with Down Syndrome, which was often associated with severe intellectual disability and shorted life spans, often resulting in them being admitted to institutions or separated from society. Nigel had a very dedicated parent who taught him to read and write at a young age and even encouraged him to keep diaries. In 1967 while he was living in a Camphill Community, he wrote a book called “Diary of a Mongoloid Youth” (the accepted term for those living with Down Syndrome was indeed “Mongoloid” not so long ago). In the same year he was also the subject of a BBC Documentary called “The Special World of Nigel Hunt” (you can still watch it here). Given that this was the 60s, a person living with down syndrome having a book and documentary published was quite remarkable. There is still some information about Nigel online – in particular, an account from one of the owners of the recycling shop who recalled: “It was our good fortune that Nigel came to work with us when the Camphill Village Trust was setting up a new community in Milton Keynes during 1980-81. Nigel stayed for nearly a year but in his own modest way it was some time before we discovered he’d written a book, and even longer before we were able to obtain a copy of it as the library was out of print. It seemed to us that this book was in urgent need of recycling. Nigel made an enormous difference to the working of the company.” Nigel stayed with the new community for a few years before moving to Ireland in the mid-80s, but it’s interesting to note that CMKC’s first resident was in fact, a bit of a celebrity – pretty remarkable. The other resident was Mervyn Thomas. Mervyn was a keen gardener and would role …
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