From Field To Woodland

Today was a good day. Today , together with my version 2.0 child, trees were finally planted. It has been a long time coming this day, I have pondered it and hoped the day would come - for over 20 years. Being able to share the day with my 16 year old Daisy made it even better. She will hopefully see more changes to this land than I will given my advancing years. Anyway, it os March and I haven't got a full plan for the site yet, so there isn't much we can plant. I had to scratch that itch though and get something  in that we could watch grow over the summer. Willow was the obvious choice as we have a boggy area that it will enjoy and it will help dry the ground a little. I found a farmer (Simon) a 30 minute bike ride from home,  that had some willow growing for biomass (I think). I had tried to buy the willow copies land from him several years ago thinking I could clear it and re-plant woodland given it wasn't being utilised, but he didn't want to sell as he ...

Mr Armitage, the previous owner, was very kind and sent me a little history from the field.  The irony that 60+ years ago, the government paid Mr Armitages father to bulldoze this land and remove trees , shrubs and wildlife to make way for farming.  Fast forward to the present day and they are paying farmers to do the opposite. 

So, in these times of both austerity and virus outbreaks when money is tight, just how much might this project cost? Well, which ever way you look at it, it's a bit of a luxury - not for the earth or the wildlife, it is essential for that, but for me and probably a lot of people, this isn't a trivial purchase. I have historically bid on land at auctions and with estate agents quite a few times and I was always outbid. Its expensive stuff at around £10k per acre in this area. Often wealthy locals who would like a horse for one of their kids will pay well beyond that sort of price for a small parcel of land, so it isn't easy. It doesn't come up for sale very often either. My strategy was to try and find a land owner, with land for sale, that understood my dream and saw some value in it (or felt sorry for me). That took 20 years and Mr Armitage, the gent that finally made the dream come true , from our first conversation said "the last time I sold some land I did...

On 19th March 2020, despite the best efforts of incompetent estate agents (Simon Blyth Estate Agents since you ask) before the solicitors all left their offices to self isolate, they managed to complete the contract and the plot of land became mine (well "ours" as I am constantly corrected by my wife). She insisted today that she was only going to be allowed to own the "boggy bit". The journey has started. A plan needs to be made over the summer but at last it might just be possible to see this woodland grow before I die. Watch this space.... Google Map Link