Wilder Woods

We are very grateful to SSDC Community Fund, the Charlton Mackrell Parish Council and the Charlton’s panto group CHADS who have all recently given grants and donations towards our access/planning conditions costs at Hallr Wood.

We are really pleased that the new Parish Council is supportive of our work in the community and thank them for their donation of £40 towards the costs of fullfilling our planning conditions at Hallr Wood. This money will be spent on landscaping the access and on hedging, helping us to minimize negative visual affect which is hard to avoid with highways insistence on a 5m access onto a 3m lane.

It was also especially wonderful that CHADs chose to support us, donating £500 from the proceeds of their recent, hilarious production ‘Inspector Drake’s Last Case’. A big thank you to them and all the villagers who attended the play.

We are still struggling with all the bureaucracy attached to meeting our planning conditions and are disappointed we are not yet in a position to proceed with the work. The tree surgeon has begun work around the access – removing a few damanged Norwegian maple trees. This work is fully covered by our Forestry Commission felling licence. The trees in our tree nursery are doing well and are ready to be planted in the hedge when the work is complete.

Anyone who wants to help with the planting or other jobs associated with this work – do get in touch.

We welcomed a steady stream of people – old friends and new faces to our Open Day at Hallr Wood on 19th June. Thankfully we dodged the showers and the afternoon was dry and even sunny at times. The wood looked enchanting and there was loads to do. There were woodland trails, chances to try out shave horses and spring pole lathe, a hammock challenge, crafty activities and plenty to eat from our beautiful Woodland cafe. We had a comfy seating area under our enormous cargo parachute and people could go and sit there and hear wonderful stories from Amanda and also Mark playing several tunes on his hammered dulcimer. Our raffle had attracted some great prizes – Sarah won the rocket stove (and can’t wait to try it out on their next camping trip to Exmoor) Azharah won the elm spoon, Jo Blunt won the lovely etching donated fron Nina Gronw- Lewis, Andy the chocs from Heather Barnes (healthy chocolate!) and Cherry won the bottles from Somerset Food Direct. Richard won the hammock challenge. We have raised nearly £200 towards the costs of our planning permision (works required). Big thank you to all our helpers- Ian & Torin, Azharah, Marty, Sarah, Jane, Lynda, Ed, Andy, Martyn, Amanda and her helpers, Juliet Lawn, our Wwoofers Ian, Colline and Matt and also those who came and ate cakes and strawberries. Do look at Ian’s photos which can be accessed via our Hallr Wood facebook page. Hopefully we will have some on our gallery soon too.

Today 13th April 2011, South Somerset District Councillors voted unanimously to grant us permission for mixed educational/ forestry use, access and parking. We will need to complete the works by the end of October 2011 so we will be starting a fund raising campaign to help us with the costs which are beyond our usual modest requirements to keep functioning. If anyone can help us with skills and suggestions please contact our volunteer co-ordinator Jane Wilson on 01458 446799. Thank you to everyone who has supported us through this difficult time.

We have had several articles over the last 6 months in the local press and today the Hallr Wood situation received national coverage because of the link to current interest in forest sell offs.

The Telegraph

Here is a link which shows you various articles in the Western Gazette and Central Somerset Gazette following the visit from our MP David Heath and also Tessa Munt neighbouring MP who has also visited.
Via Facebook

Our planning application to get the correct permissions for our use of Hallr Wood and also for our tool storage shed and compost toilet IS NOW IN. Because we also have to apply for change of use, Highways insist we provide on site car parking. This wasn’t something we wanted but our application includes access and parking, as sympathetically as possible.This permission if granted will allow us to carry on running Hallr Wood as a low impact conservation project involving volunteers of all abilities and young people . We need as much support as possible so do look at the application on line and consider supporting us by clicking on Comments. http://www.southsomerset.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-search/full-details.aspx?id=1100008FUL. Contact us if you require more information – forestschool@beccott.com

We are delighted to announce that we have received another Awards for All grant. Thank you Lottery!
This grant is for our environmental volunteering which we intend to make more inclusive at our sites. Volunteering outside can improve well being and also be a useful stepping stone to paid employment. We will support a wider range of volunteers, provide a variety of skills training and run more frequent volunteering days. Do get in touch with our Volunteer Co-ordinator Jane Wilson (01458 446799) if you would like more information.

We would like to congratulate Henry, Mark, Ryan, Korey, Ashleigh and Neill for achieving their John Muir Awards for conservation. Henry, Mark, Ryan and Korey will receive the second tier of this award – the Explorer Award and Neil and Ashley have completed the first level ‘Discovery’.

Part of the Explorer Award involved a days coppicing work for the National Trust at Ivythorn Wood. The boys have also built a coracle.

The Discovery Award has focused around the bird life at Hallr Wood. The boys have learnt more about the birds we have there and have made fat logs to help the birds through the colder spells.
We had a great term – to see photos check out the Hallr Wood gallery.

https://wilderwoods.org/gallery/wilderwoods/?albumid=5552324218775637089

We had a wonderful day in Drayton Woods on Sunday November 7th and lots of jobs got done.

15 adults and 9 young people helped. With 24 helpers this was the largest turn out at Drayton so far.

A new canvas shelter was put up with the expert guidance of Martyn Huxter  This has created an outdoor wood craft working area.

The new shelter stood up excellently to the storm we had on Sunday night/ Monday- it went up just in time!

Over the day lots of people planted 200 bluebells, 50 anemone and 50 narcissi bulbs.  We checked our bird boxes in the wood.  Two nests were found and the identification of egg remains revealed that coal tits had been using the boxes. The boxes were repaired and strengthened and put back with some new additions to make them more waterproof.

5 ash trees and a small leafed lime were planted, compost and wood ash was the woodland garden put on the woodland garden and bulbs planted. Brush & brambles around the fire area were cleared and logs sawed for firewood. Young volunteers put down woodchip around the campfire area in preparation for the wet weather & mud.  A vice that had been donated to the Forest School was cleaned & freed up ready to be set up in the new woodworking area.The weather was sunny all day!  As the tarpaulin went up the sun set, and it got a lot colder.  We were glad to gather around the blazing campfire to drink a toast of hot spicy cider to all our hard work and to a Winter well prepared for!

250 trees from the Woodland trust have now arrived so watch this space for further opportunities to come and plant some of them!

Photos of the day can be viewed on our website:  https://wilderwoods.org/gallery/drayton-woods/

Thanks once again to all involved

We had a wonderful day with 19 young people who came and helped with woodland tasks. We planted woodland bulbs, moved wood, put up nest boxes and also enjoyed a visit from National Trust wardens.
Many thanks to all those who came and also to Somerset County Council who support us.

We were delighted to have a visit from David Heath over half term. His clear enthusiasm for the project was a boost at this difficult time waiting for our planning application to go in.

The Western Gazette reported on the visit. Here is a link to the article.
http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Bid-branch-woodland-classroom/article-2807234-detail/article.html

Peter has also been to a meeting with Nick Hurd through the Directory of Social Change in London on 27th October. We were invited by Jay Kennedy, Head of Policy at DSC after I wrote to Nick Hurd as Minister for Civil Society. Jay Kennedy said,

“I was struck by your example of the planning regulations inhibiting your work with children in woodlands, it’s a unique one compared to many of the other things that have been submitted, but a perfect illustration of the kind of thing that needlessly gets in the way.”