This obituary is offered with permission from Pam’s close family.

It is with great sadness that I need to share with the Ecovillage Findhorn community that Pam Rodway, of Wester Lawrenceton Farm, Califer Hill, died peacefully with her family present on 10th June 2025. She was preceded by her beloved husband Nick, who died in 2021.

Pam and Nick took up the running of Wester Lawrenceton as an organic farm in 1995, though they never owned it. Neither of them believed in private ownership as their way of life. The farm was “owned” by a group of forward thinking investors.

Many of you would know Nick better than Pam, as he was the one who regularly delivered organic eggs and cheeses from the farm to both the Phoenix shop and later to the Bakehouse.

Though neither of them were members of the New Findhorn Association, they in fact constantly supplied a variety of top class local, organic food to the community for 25 years … and were a very much loved part of the wider local community network. This was especially the case when Nick Molnar and “Earthshare” grew vegetables in the field next to the farm. Nick Molnar ploughed that steep field with a pair of Clydesdale horses.

Pam and Nick were producers of cows cheese, goats cheese, eggs, meat, wool products, fruit, vegetables and cereals; all to Soil Association organic standards. Their award winning produce from the farm supplied shops and restaurants locally, nationally and internationally.

They were both lifelong supporters of the Soil Association. Their goats cheese won a prestigious award and prompted a visit from Prince Charles in the early 1990s.

Pam and Nick provided training, work and volunteering opportunities for local people, especially young people. The farm was always full of animals: cows, goats, hens, sheep, alpacas, running ducks, a dog, cats and many wild birds … and flowers of all species…

Although not a driver herself, Pam latterly travelled widely in the Highlands to promote organic agriculture. She helped to found the Soil Association Scotland office, and through her work with Crofting Connections and the Food for Life project she visited the Inner and Outer Hebrides and became friends with  many crofters there. The project’s aim was to improve school meals and general education about local good food growing. She was also one of a small group who set up and promoted Slow Food Scotland.

This was especially relevant to me as I was a great friend of Lady Kay Oldfield, neé Balfour, while living in East Lothian. She, together with her well-known sister Lady Eve Balfour, and Kay Langdon, founded the original UK Soil Association in 1946. Their third sister, Mary Balfour, also was involved with the Soil Association and had a keen interest in the ‘Findhorn experiment’. She visited Findhorn with Robert Ogilvie Crombie (ROC). In the early days, when the Soil Association was invited to test the soil composition of the Findhorn Community Original Garden they were astounded by its balanced composition and health.

Most recently, in 2024-5, Pam continued Nick’s legacy work in the Grow Blocks trials, an initiative to reduce the use of both peat and plastic in horticulture. There is vast overuse of plastic pots in horticulture, which they wanted to reduce.

Pam was a cradle Catholic. She and Nick were regular members of the Pluscarden Abbey local congregation. The Pluscarden monks often visited and exchanged garden tips and good local apple graftings. Pam was educated by Irish nuns in Kenya, and sponsored a Kenyan farmer to attend COP26 in Glasgow. Her interest in, and reverence for, Bridget the Celtic saint and mythic foster mother of Christ, led to Pam and Nick holding traditional Bridget day ceremonies at the farm on 2nd February. These were deeply magical and artistic events, which included prayers, pinning Bridget crosses to the farm boundary fence posts and processing the “Bride” in a group of women dressed in black, red, and white, to the hearth fire. Unforgettable!

Pam was also a close friend of Joanna Legard, who lived with them on the farm for 3 years and retained an enduring friendship. They died within a week of each other and were born in the same year,1948.

Pam was an educated, welcoming, sincere and delightful person with a wonderful Good Food legacy. She will be greatly missed by her family and all who knew her, and knew Wester Lawrenceton farm.

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Photo credit: Hannah Rodway

Please click here for a lovely short video of an interview with Pam for Slow Food UK.

Pam Rodway Slow Food Interview

Pam Rodway photo Slow Food UK