HERE'S one straw house the Big Bad Wolf won't be able to blow down.

Parents helped build the new classroom at Sturts Farm using "bricks" made of straw with a rigid, weatherproof covering - another step along the way to the community's wish to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

Sturts Farm, where young adults with severe disabilities are cared for following the principles of Rudolf Steiner, is also a working organic farm which uses Steiner's biodynamic method of agriculture.

Spokesperson, Ulf Nilsson, said: "We needed a craft building, an educational facility for the Sheiling Trust and we wanted to make it in an environmentally friendly way.

"It's been our dream to put up a straw building like this for many years. It's an really just an extension of our organic farming."

The farm, on the edge of West Moors, has a sweet-smelling reed bed as its biological sewage plant and has received government grants for its solar panels.

"This is one more step along the road," Ulf said.

"We're using re-usable materials. Straw is actually waste material and farmers aren't allowed to burn it any more.

"I don't think we are aware of the pollution we create using concrete.

"Straw's insulation value is very high and the building is cheaper. It's the walls that are cheaper."

The classroom was erected by a mixture of volunteers and professionals.

Houses built using straw bales have been pioneered in the United States but have not received much publicity in the UK, Ulf added.

First published: October 3