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Purdown is a favourite spot in east Bristol to escape the noise and smog of the M32. Just ten minutes up the hill and across its green expanse, bluebell woods behind and panoramic city views spreading out in front make a claustrophobic urbanite feel like they're on top of the world.
And the hill has another surprise in store to wrench a visitor out of their urban reality. Horns poking out above a hedge, a clump of coarse hair or a bleat on the breeze give the game away: goats.
They're the last animal a passerby would expect to see in the middle of the city, and yet surely one of the most welcome: with their nodding gait, wild eyes and wispy beards, their endearing furry presence has come to be seen as a part of this landscape. Not a natural part exactly, more a fun addition.
But they're not just here for fun. The goats provide a vital service, naturally grazing back the vociferous scrubby plants and encouraging new species to spring up, which also benefit pollinators and overwintering insects. Biodiversity net gain!
Their guardians are Street Goat, a collective which views itself as an urban arm of the regenerative farming movement, now celebrating its tenth year of rearing goats in the city, and turning neglected green spaces into rich, healthy ecosystems while supporting sustainable food production.
For some sites the goats have been transformative. Hengrove Mounds, a nature reserve in south Bristol developed over a former landfill site, has become a wildlife and wildflower haven since the goats arrived in 2023.
"There were six feet high brambles in tons of places," says Carol Laslett, a longstanding Street Goat member. "Over time, with the goats eating them, we've seen orchids re-emerging from the seed bed, growing right where the brambles had been. Taking out the rough scrub allows life and space for the smaller broadleaf plants and flowers to grow. You get more and different plants coming up, therefore more food and different plants for insects. We have seen that landscape change so much."
While they started out on just two sites, one for grazing and one for milking, the project has grown as landowners have realised the benefits of using animals over machines. At its height it had around 70 goats in the herd and three or four milking groups requiring ten milkers each, a demanding workload for a voluntary organisation.
Now they've slimmed to a more manageable 40-ish goats across one milking site and a handful of grazing sites including overgrown allotments, peri-urban farms and nature reserves. They are careful to match the size of land and amount of vegetation to the number of goats placed on it, enabling the herd to be kept in natural forage to avoid resorting to grains or hard feed. The project takes responsibility for the animals from birth to death, ensuring the goats 'only ever have one bad day' when the males – either born to the milkers or bought as 'waste' from dairy farms - that have been grazing parcels of land are big enough to produce enough meat to cover their own abattoir processing costs and are taken to slaughter, providing ethical high-welfare local meat that sells by word of mouth, and skins which are sold, often to drum makers, after being treated at a natural tannery.
Conservation grazing has risen hugely in popularity in the last decade says Laslett, though that has to come with an acceptance of a different way of working: "With machines you can make a plan. Animals won't necessarily eat what you want or where. If you really want an animal-led landscape which is good for biodiversity then you've got to let the animals do what they want, to a certain extent, and be led by that. Otherwise we're just doing what we want again which is what has led us into problems in the first place!"
Laslett says they've been lucky in that the landowners, particularly the council, Avon Wildlife Trust and local park rangers, have sought them out. But Rowan Dumper-Pollard, a member for four years with a background in goat farming, offers a different perspective:
"In terms of what's made us a success, we've had some bold and brave individuals who've gone out to organisations we're trying to get access to land from and asked how can we make it work. They've just gone along and done it. These are people who don't have reservations about asking for help and collaborating. None of us are going to be buying land any time soon, a lot of us are renters and don't have huge amounts of capital to sink into something like this. So it requires a lot of ability to go out, talk to people and negotiate the arrangements."
It was the opportunity to get involved in farming with flexibility that attracted Rowan to the project when he moved to Bristol seven years ago.
"It's not the perfect model, it has its challenges, but having experienced goat farming at home in Devon - there aren't holidays, everything falls on you, you can't have a proper break unless you spend ages training someone up," he says. "Coming to Street Goat where I can live my other life as well as do this is pretty amazing.
"It's not exactly what farming's like but it's a close idea. Leaving the countryside and coming to the city, I meet a lot of people who haven't spent any time with animals at all. That part is invaluable."
And, while animal connection coupled with access to local, sustainable milk and meat are initially a prime motivation for members, the project offers a real opportunity to gain a rounded practical experience.
"We glibly say 'urban farming' and we maybe think of the urban bit, but we don't think of the farming bit, which is 24/7, 365 days a year," says Carol. "We're thinking now of milking as the tip of the iceberg. It takes a lot to get an animal to the milking stand. You can't just go in, milk a goat and go away expecting it to be alright."
Rather, there are considerations around mucking out, checking stores, food availability and salt lick, monitoring impacts on the land, regular health checks and infrastructure maintenance, as well as the twice daily milking.
Members, currently at around 15, pay a small yearly subscription fee and, after signing a milker's agreement, take on one or two milking shifts of roughly 45 minutes each per week. They receive training in animal husbandry and are expected to attend monthly workdays and members meetings.
A lighter touch option is the unofficial 'community goatherder' role taken on by around a dozen people living near grazing sites who check on the goats when out with the dog or on walks round the neighbourhood.
While the group operates non-hierarchically Rowan, a food systems researcher with the Organic Research Centre, says necessary knowledge and responsibility add complications to the informal set up:
"In academia the cooperative model is very favourable so I've always had a positive view on it. But with livestock farming in particular, sometimes you have to make quick decisions or something could go really wrong. There are times when you can't get a consensus and you just have to crack on.
"With livestock there is an element of responsibility - one of them could die, so there's always more weight to the decision making and, quite naturally, one would always defer to someone who has more experience.
"We need to get better at educating people who are part of Street Goat so they feel more able to make those decisions. But truthfully, I grew up on a goat farm and it takes years to learn the detail around animal health."
He also stresses the considerable behind-the-scenes workload essential to keep the community interest company (CIC) operational: "It's a big factor. There are lots of normal farming administrative tasks we have to undertake. We have to be compliant, so we have a holding number registered with Defra for our fields and also grazing licences, provided by the council or landowner. We have to maintain those records. Every time we move an animal we have to do a movement form – which is a lot!
"There are requirements for a CIC in terms of managing finances, having a directorship and so on. There's a lot that ticks along in the background that definitely should be borne in mind.
"Every exciting food organisation will have fun tasks and others which aren't so fun. It's easy to get a volunteer to come along to milk a goat or clip hooves. Trying to catch goats is an exciting way to spend a weekend. Then there's all the admin which supports that, which enables all the good public facing stuff but is a bit of a burden."
Still, for Street Goat that burden is outweighed by the benefits of living alongside goats in the city which are being increasingly recognised, perhaps a symptom of nature-starved urban lifestyles or a drive towards localised food and land management systems. Rowan mentions messages from people in Durham, Edinburgh, London and Bath looking for advice in setting up a similar project.
"I think it is replicable," he says, referencing Grazing Management, a commercial company where "the goats have a job, to eat down and clear the land," while Carol suggests in another model families work together, each taking responsibility for the goats for one day per week. "There are different ways of doing it," she enthuses.
And, of course, there are countless examples worldwide to draw from: "The idea of the community working together to look after livestock isn't new at all," says Rowan, namechecking his barber who is from Kurdistan: "He wasn't fazed when I explained what I'd been doing and why I might have smelt a bit when I came for a cut! It's novel here, but definitely not globally."
Back in the UK, with authorities waking up to regenerative practices, new projects are more likely to find local landowners open to the idea of goat grazing: "Slowly councils are starting to understand this is a great way to manage their land," says Rowan, mentioning Carmarthenshire as one place this change is being seen.
"People exposed to animals, learning about food, managing spaces, making them feel safer... It ticks a lot of boxes for them."
Both members are enthusiastic about the idea of new Street Goats popping up across the country but suggest that, whatever group structure is chosen, there are a few essential bits of guidance to follow when starting out.
Going into the project clear-eyed is essential, says Carol: "Be realistic about how much work it will be. You need people to realise what they are committing to. So long as everybody does their bit, it works! Finding land and enough people are the key things to start with, and to be very clear about what you expect from each other."
Active community building is crucial: "Make things easy and clear for people coming into the project. Have meaningful tasks ready for them so they can feel part of something quickly. That takes a lot of capacity, dedication, time, and developing clear structures that all agree on," says Rowan.
"Find a group of people with similar principles and aims," adds Carol. "Put boundaries down when you recruit the team, because it can be just one foot in front of the other and you can lose sight of where you're going. Be tough around setting out aims and objectives and reviewing them."
But, she says, don't forget to keep one thing top of mind: "Enjoy the goats! It is possible to miss that because you become so task focused. But it's what motivates us, always.
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STREET GOAT’s model is intended to be adaptable to almost any urban context: find out more and contact them via www.streetgoat.co.uk
Ursula Billington is a freelance journalist working with Bristol247.com. Rosanna Morris is a printmaker and illustrator, also based in Bristol. https://rosannamorris.com