Wilder Woods

Over 100 people of varying ages came to our sunny Woodland Open Day in West Charlton. Some were visiting forest school practitioners but most were local people.
We had plenty of help all day. Bryn, Henry, Ed, Mark, Andrew, Dec, Brendan, Sue, Corrina and Neill got the fires going, put up signs and trails, did last minute path clearing. Tom and Martyn set up the spring pole lathe and shave horses. Lynda and Peel set up the bottom camp with spinning wheels and Peel’s shave horse. Many brought delicious cakes. Jane, Sally and Maggie worked tirelessly serving teas and cakes. Becky brought marshmallows (very popular). 42 children went around the woodland trail and claimed stickers for their efforts. The swing was in constant use.
We were really impressed at the number of people who walked and cycled. There were 26 bikes and a disabled buggy parked among the trees at one point.
It was an opportunity for villagers to see the project and have a go on the spring pole lathe and shave horse and Lyndas’ spinning wheels. It was wonderful to feel the high level of local support for our planning application for mixed forestry/ educational use which the wood needs to survive.

It will be our third attempt this year to secure correct permissions. The application includes small scale/ sympathetic parking commensurate with low level use (groups mostly come by single mini bus) as Highways/Planning won’t accept use of the parish car park.

If our application is successful we can restore visits to pre-school/ school/ continue our small group forest education work alongside our restoration of the plantation. Although we didn’t want to provide parking, it will make it easier for those with limited mobility to get involved.

£60 was donated for bulbs and trees from teas. Thank you to everyone who helped, or came along and supported us, making yesterday such a wonderful event.
P.S. Many many thanks to Ingrid Crawford for her superb photos which are now up in the Hallr Wood gallery. There are more on our facebook page.

Members of the team have been busy this summer with outreach stalls at a variety of fetes and open days. We started off helping Simon Beard and Simon Clarke at Shapwick Heath on their Avalon Marshes Open Day in May. Thanks to Jane for getting together our youth groups exhibition in time for this event. We have a long history of co-operation with wildlife groups and we enjoyed meeting lots of people. We had decided to take a break from attending the Bath and West Show – because it is four intensive days it is hard for such a small group to cover it and I was busy with forest school at the Sunrise Festival. Perhaps next year we will have more willing helpers and be able to do both.

In June Jane, Martyn and myself supported Hannah with a CSOLP stall at the Green and Scything Fair – a wonderful sustainable event which grows every year.

During July Martyn had a well attended stall at Priddy Folk Fair and also later that month at the Barton Carnival – helped by Henry. I was unable to help as I was helping at Paddington Farm Open Day.

Martyn cobbled together a superb rustic stall shelter using hazel poles and the off cuts from our main tarpaulin in time for the Charlton’s Village Day on 24th July. We had a great day toasting marshmallows (worth the 3 page risk assessment!) and were very encouraged by the interest from local people, many of whom signed our petition.

We were also invited to Farm Fest at Gilcombe Farm.

Our main summer effort was attending the Wilderness Gathering at the Bison Farm in Wiltshire from 19th August. This is a 3 day extravaganza of bushcraft enthusiasts. Hannah and Lynda offered a tranquil antidote to all the khaki and knives with their peg loom weaving and spinning, whilst Martyn and I housed the main group display and his wonderful collection of bows and spoons. We all came back inspired and I bought lots of kit for Paddington Farm so that their forest school activities can be more easily facilitated.

The last event of the summer is the Open Day at Hallr Wood on 12th September which we hope lots of local people will support.

We have just finished a week of work experience for four year 10 pupils from Crispin School. They were a wonderful enthusiastic group and we hope to see them on volunteer days in the future.
As part of general woodland maintenance the boys cleared paths and made steps, they also cut back overhanging foliage on the adjoining track for the benefit of jockeys and race horses which use it daily. On Wednesday we processed firewood and delivered a load to CSOLP treasurer, Darryl. On Thursday pupils helped mark trees for thinning and calculated volumes for a Forestry Commission license. On the last day we cooked rabbit stew and installed our sweet chestnut water barrel which will store drinking water for the wood.
Thank you to Martyn, Rosa, Jane, Peter and Eddie who helped give the boys the support they needed to make the experience valuable .
This summer we have run a few events in Hallr Wood but they have been restricted in order to comply with the 28 days ancillary use allowed by planning law. Our regular Wednesday KS4 group continues. This is a small group of older pupils who may be interested in a career in countryside management and conservation. They help with woodland maintenance. We are also due to have a Volunteer Day on Sunday 4th July so we are well ahead with our jobs.

The hot dry spell has left the willow planted last autumn looking a bit the worse for wear. We are getting short of water – could do with a good deluge to fill up our water butts. We have no mains water – everything we use is collected and drinking water is brought in.
Our planning ‘situation’ rumbles on. We continue to need support from people – anyone really- especially those who have been involved with our group or who appreciate that we are trying to restore a small uncommercial woodland for the benefit of the community.

We have run two taster days for small groups of secondary aged pupils interested in a possible career in forestry,conservation and countryside management in conjunction with Crispin and St Dunstan’s Schools.

The weekly sessions will resume after half term on 9th June and we are seeking funding to continue the project in September.

Do contact us for more information. forestschool@beccott.com

CSOLP has recently worked in partnership with the local Forest Education Initiative Cluster group to deliver a woodland toys project aimed at teenagers and pre-school children.

During the project, the teenagers designed and made simple wooden toys for pre-school children. The young people learnt basic green woodworking skills and pyrographic (writing with fire!) techniques to produce some beautiful and innovative toys.

The teenagers subsequently donated the toys to Yeovil College Children’s Centre and attended a play session at the Drayton site. The young children were obviously delighted with their new toys. Please look at the Gallery at Gallery -> Photos By Heather Brown -> 2010-05-01 and Gallery -> Drayton Woods -> Toddlers Play with Toys

CSOLP hosted a Green Wood Working Skills Day for the local Forest Education Initiative Cluster group on 8th May.

A chilly start to Saturday morning saw the arrival of nine, keen greenwood working students. Martyn took us through the essential safety talk and with his expert tuition we got to grips with the mechanics of making shave horses.

During the day we were lucky enough to find a piece of “olive” ash. The “oohs”and “aahs” went up as we split the log to find the beautiful green, brown pattern revealed within. An informative, enjoyable and productive day was had by all.

We had a glorious day in the wood. Many of the children have been coming for years now! Our Woodland Throne was thoroughly inaugurated with seven children squeezing on it at once at one point. Dens were of a very high standard. The Ivy Tribe excelled themselves creating ivy curtains. Jack, Euwan, Archie & Tom started an amazing woven wall before the allure of a game of deers and wolves proved too much to resist. A big thanks to Alice who cooked the nettle fritters and also to the nightingale who kept singing over the noise the children made. Do look at our gallery.

We had another very quiet month in the wood – just one volunteer day on March 7th. It was a lovely day – lots of enthusiasm and interest and our regular youth and adult volunteers turned out in force. The pond was cleared of leaves, willow was planted, more rustic steps were installed and our tree planting had a definite ‘feed the wildlife’ theme. The hard winter made us conscious that a lot of species suffered badly this season. We planted sweet chestnut, cob nuts, cherry plum and crab apple and hope it won’t be too long before they begin to supply extra sustenance to the birds and other creatures of the wood.

The wood is full of exquisite colour at the moment. Tiny specks of white and purple violets have sprung up especially in areas where we have cleared to let more light in. The primroses and bulbs – many of them donated by the villagers of Charlton Adam and Mackrell are getting more and more established. If anyone is splitting snowdrops or wild garlic or anything woodlandy (native species) please think of us, we really appreciate donations.

Also this month was the annual Charlton’s Village litter pick. CSOLP was responsible for covering the event through our BTCV insurance again. We work closely with Change our local environmental group and also with transition town movements. We collected rubbish from the stream at the bottom of the track and also up the track to Somerton Lane. I am always perturbed by the amount there is. One of our roles is to impress upon children the damage that litter can do to wildlife.

Our big news is that we have a woodland throne! We are so grateful to Stacey and Andrew Goldsworthy for generously donating a fine wooden throne to us. It will grace our fire circle and no doubt be fought vociferously over. We hope it will inspire some great stories. Look out for a photo of it in use after our April Play Scheme…

Thanks must also go to our local county councillor Jimmy Zouche who has supported and steered our group through a very difficult time. With his help, our planning application for shed and forestry access will at last go forward. What a mine field it has been. Jimmy secured a grant for us to get professional planning advice. Do support our application if you can – either with a letter or by attending the Parish Council meeting when it will be discussed. Please ask for more information if you are interested.

We have two dates planned for Hallr Wood in April – our April Woodland Play Scheme (known fondly by local mothers as the Mud Scheme) and also our next Volunteer Day on April 18th. Check out the calendar for more events and for Hannah’s activities in Drayton too.

Happy Easter, Happy Spring.

Half Term Forestry and Conservation Days at West Charlton

Thanks to all who came and for all your hard work over the two days.

On the first day we made and erected nest boxes with larch from the wood. Look out for the photo of Torin in the tree https://wilderwoods.org/activitys/conservation-forestry-for-teenagers/ 

There are now 6 sited around the wood plus the little owl box. We inspected all of them except the little owl box (how did Peel get it up so high!). Hopefully the ones erected last year will be used this spring. We hope to get RSPB warden Simon Beard over to help us with a bird survey soon so keen ornithologists watch out for this event. It was a cold and dismal day. A special thank you to Heather’s Grass Roots grant for the warm and waterproof coat which Owen borrowed. Who says that teenagers won’t wear coats!
We also did lots of work on the pond area which is now a wonderful habitat after being dug out last year. Torin, George, Owen and James built some fine steps where everyone usually slides down to the pond area (again using larch from the wood). As it was Shrove Tuesday we made pancakes over the camp fire – (though we don’t ever need an excuse for pancakes.)

On the second day it warmed up. Ed, Martyn and Torin made a pond dipping platform whilst Emma and Abbie placed stepping stones around the side over the boggy area and created a new path. We hope to plant it up with a willow arch at the next Volunteer day on March 7th. More steps were begun on the other side but it was too wet and muddy to complete the task. Another job for volunteer day.

A big thank you to SCC youth grants which has enabled our youth volunteering to really get going.
Put March 7th Volunteer Day in your diaries. After all the forestry and conservation jobs are completed we are going to make pizza in the cob oven to celebrate.
Remember volunteering can count towards Duke of Edinburgh awards, it is also possible to work towards a John Muir Award (4 days) through us. Get in touch if you are interested. It is a nationally recognized conservation award. www.johnmuiraward.org

Woodland Activities Drayton Woods February Half Term

Woodland Playscheme 8-12yr olds

Despite the atrocious weather 21 children took part in : putting up our new woodland canopy, exploratory games, collecting firewood twig puppet making and toasting cheese sandwiches & marshmallows on the campfire.

A good time was had by all and a beautiful mud pie was created spontaneously in the mud!  Thanks to the wonderful volunteers who braved the weather, kept the fire going and kept the spirits high!

Woodland Challenge 11yrs plus

11 young people took part in this Challenge day;  Luckily the rain stopped and we were able to relax in the woods:identifying trees through blindfold exploration, learning knots needed to build a shelter, Fire lighting techniques with a fire steel & safe use of knives. The young people then went on to build their own shelters, light fires safely and make name sticks using knives. One group created a warrior shield using materials found in the woodland to portray ideas around protection and strength.

The Sausages were enjoyed by all!