How about buying a wood?

[munchh]

Its not like they are doing it cheap, its all market value, the one i was looking at nearest to me said something like "perfect for camping and picknics"! pretty much everything else was a no no, including target shooting!

I just wouldnt buy until i knew who the neighbours were, no point buing somthing for £60k if all you can do is sit and contemplate the trees you own?

[womble]

I was having a look as the idea of a woodland is very nice but have a read of the "covenant" you are asked to enter into when buying!

I might be a bit thick, but to me it tells me i cannot do most of the things that i would want to do on "My" woodland?

http://www.woodlands.co.uk/buying-a-wood/covenant/

Having had a read, I don't see it as particularly restrictive. There's no prohibition on felling and managing your wood, only on pest control and other hunting "...at times or in a manner constituting a nuisance or danger to any neighbour..." which doesn't seem too much to ask. Especially the "danger" bit. Get to know your neighbours, and they might even want you to gamekeep on their patch too. No prohibition on fires or camping. Planning laws in England will probably put a serious crimp in any construction plans beyond a hut to bivvy in "while you manage the woodland". There isn't even any restriction on fencing it off. What is it that you're planning to do with your woodland retreat that you read it as prohibiting?

[munchh]

I know they are not all the same, i understand the whole danger thing, i shoot on private land and you still have to be aware of the direction you are shooting and that sort of thing. I was just surprised that you could not shoot a shotgun, or hunt at times when you might encouter others and that sort of thing.

As long as what you are doing is not straying into the next wood, it shouldn't matter, its not like i would want to hold festivals and fill the place with tents, it would be for me and a close knit group and what we were doing on it should not matter if it does not effect anyone else outside.

Just all seemed a bit odd to me, im a nice person, i would not want to bother anyone, but if i was spending that sort of money, it would not be so i could go glamping with my posh mates 4 time a year!

[womble]

I was just surprised that you could not shoot a shotgun, or hunt at times when you might encouter others and that sort of thing.

Are you reading some sort of addendum/codicil/amplification I've missed? Because my reading of the covenant doesn't ban any of that. You can certainly shoot a shotgun, just not "clay pigeon or target shooting". Having been around a clay pigeon range, you can see why organised and high frequency clay shoots might constitute "nuisance". Entirely different, though, to the odd bang...bang at a real pigeon or crow/rook/deer (that last wouldn't have the second "bang" of course)

As long as what you are doing is not straying into the next wood, it shouldn't matter...

Indeed. And that's what the first clause is about. It's difficult to stop sound "straying" though, and less aware folk might not consider their stray shot as carefully as you would.

...its not like i would want to hold festivals and fill the place with tents, it would be for me and a close knit group and what we were doing on it should not matter if it does not effect anyone else outside.

If you did want to fill the whole place with tents, as I read that covenant, so long as it doesn't affect anyone else (including not ruining the accessways) it wouldn't matter. If your neighbours weren't present, noise and such wouldn't even be an issue.

Just all seemed a bit odd to me, im a nice person, i would not want to bother anyone, but if i was spending that sort of money, it would not be so i could go glamping with my posh mates 4 time a year!

I really think you're reading more into it than the covenant has. You could take a bunch of folk and wild camp your socks off; it'd probably have less impact on the neighbours because you'll be shining less light, shipping less weight of gear and making less noise than a bunch of glampers with leisure-battery-powered stereos, gas BBQs, hurricane lanterns and a quarter ton of tents to truck into the site. You could build yourself shelter and stock up on firewood. I'm really not seeing what it is the covenant proscribes that a prepper might want to do with a small patch of woodland.

It's only odd to you because you're a nice person and wouldn't want to bother your neighbours. Think about the self-entitled moneybags who might buy such a patch for the larf, and plan on having rowdy parties, wrecking the greenlane in their faux-by-faux (and the recovery trucks it'll take to pull them out of the mud) and leaving the place littered with rusting tinnies and mouldering pizza boxes. It's them the covenant is aimed at. Or the guy who wants to run a 12-trap clay range 12 hours a day Fri-Sat-Sun in the summer when you're trying to get away from it all, and can't because of the intermittent birdshot showers and constant bang, bang, bang.

[munchh]

Blimey, you just went through that like my boss does with my van tracker info!

I may have been a little anti, but still looks like alot of it is down to interpretation, which in its self is a problem.

[womble]

Blimey, you just went through that like my boss does with my van tracker info!

I may have been a little anti, but still looks like alot of it is down to interpretation, which in its self is a problem.

Aye. Interpretation of what value of "nuisance" constitutes violation of the Covenant could be a problem. If whoever has oversight over the Covenant wanted to enforce it, it would, in extremis come down to a Court of Law decision. Given that you're probably not going to violate the intent of the covenant, an issue would only arise if your neighbours were being unreasonable. But deciding whose definition of reasonable applies (or coming to some sort of compromise) is what our Justices get paid for...

If you were looking into the practicalities of such a purchase, you'd probably be advised to find out who'd be enforcing the Covenant, and what their record of litigation against Covenant holders is, to see whether they'll have a sympathetic ear to the neighbour who complains that your smoking fire is too smoky, or you've cut down a willow coppice stool that they insist is part of their view, even if it is on your land, or whether they tend to side with the sustainable forester over the leisure user.

[piglet]

Piglet what is a SWOG???

They are a bit like Hobbits only with steel containers instead of Hobbit holes, and more heavily armed

Nailed it ... Plymtom

[pine cone]

Hello

this is one of the threads that made my mind up to join you guys here,

i happen to own my own woodland 10 acres, the first thing about woodland ownership is, even if you own the freehold and the crop, you come under FC rules and regulations,there are no if or butts about this, i dont intend to go into one about all the rules and regs, apart from a couple of basic ones, you can not cut timber without a felling licence which has a condition of you must restock , ie replant, you can however cut 5 cubic meters per quarter for your own use, ( which is not enough if you run a rayburn and wood burner)

there are indeed many covenants associated with buying woodland and of course there are woods for sale with none, one post in this thread mentioned woods 4 sale, they do seem to have a lot of WL for sale with covenants, one that comes to mind is no off roading 4x4s bikes, events, my woods have no such covenants so i guess im lucky there,

john clegg and sons are the big forestry estate agents, with anything from 5 to 5000 acre sites, i found my woods in a local estate agents which was one lot of an estate being sold off, and it was cheap 5000 notes, i think them days are gone, with WL land in some areas approaching agricultural land prices, still seek and you shall find.another reason why WL as gone up in price is its being monopolized by corporations, eg after two years of ownership and you can demonstrate you have used the WL in a commercial sense there is no CGs tax to pay when you sell and no income tax on the product,

as far as the locals go, always assume every one local knows when you visit the woods , however you get there, and on that premise make a big effort to meet the near locals , let them know your a alright sort of person, you get my drift! and you should be fine not drawing any unwanted attention,

so you get your woods, its some thing you have to manage, there will be times when you have to spend time just working, clearing wind blown ,repairing fencing , clearing water ways, ect ect .planting, your best to study the FC web site to find out what the rules are, what you can and cant do.

so if all of the above has not turned you off, you probably find you have made the best investment in your life, if its remote, fenced you have a very private place were within reason you can do your own thing, keep it together ie tidy if you build a hut , no foundations, at least 30 meters from the highway under 3mts in height, buy a place that has a stream either going through the holding or is a boundary feature ,dragging water around is no joke!

would it be a good ITSHTF place, there are pros and cons ,im not so sure a totally isolated place would be that safe unless your sure you can protect you and yours, on the other paw you have all the resources you need for a sustained campaign ie water, fuel building materials, food you should of already stashed,

i had a personal SHTF episode a few years ago , when i had my woods as a refuge , i survived off the grid for 1 year in a hut with a bottle wood burner, tilleys and a radio, so with a little thought it is very doable

im happy to help if i can with any questions in living in the woods!!!!!

[sethorly]

What items/actions did you take to mitigate the cold while you were living in the woodland, pine cone?

[Briggs 2.0]

What items/actions did you take to mitigate the cold while you were living in the woodland, pine cone?

I often do a weekend or week long stint in the woodland and for me, because I'm getting on, it's not so much the cold, it's the cold plus the damp that gets me at this time of year and into the winter. Even with the log burner and all the foul weather boots and kit I have, the weather soon starts to become a factor physically and mentally after about day three. I've not done it more than a couple of weeks in one go so hopefully Pine Cone can come back with his input on a longer stint.