Me and Boxy were down in East Sussex for the Weald Woodfair this weekend. We had intended to try Blackberry Wood as we've got new hammocks we wanted to try out, but it was full and we ended up at St Ives Farm - it permits open fires and the owner seemed convinced that there were plenty of trees for hammocks.
Well there were trees, mostly large oaks - unfortunately there was no area where we could pitch more than one hammock so we ended up with a hammock and tent combo.
The site is nice, but it did fill up with campers and caravanners and is not really enclosed so you are on display. This made Boxy and I the centre of attention - Parents came over with their children to see the funny hammock men, people walked by and stopped to watch us sitting on the floor round a fire whittling spoons, cooed at us splitting wood with axes or stared strangely as we emerged from the hedgerow with coppiced Hazel to make guy pegs. And it felt like everyone on the site found a reason to walk past for a look at the 'weirdos' who were cooking ponnassed trout over a fire. A Kelly kettle had people cross-eyed! Where was the five-foot long barbeque range? How could we cope without camp chairs and tables? At one point a bloke clutching a can of beer walked past us and said with a grin 'You're just like that Ray Mears bloke!' Well it's a compliment to me, but I don't think he meant it like that.
When it started to get dark you could see scattered bonfires spring up as pallets, torn-up bushes and cardboard boxes were piled up and covered with petrol
Dogs were allowed on site and were mostly unpoliced - running all over the place barking at everyone. It didn't bother me so much - I have a way with dogs , but some of the children looked quite nervous (plus the dogs crapped everywhere including one that thought he was going to use my basha cords for a pissing post ) Anyway the kids got bored after some fat chuffer of a bloke sat on their rope-swing and broke it. Made me laugh though.
The saddest thing was taking a walk on the sunday morning - past old fires full of beer cans, dog ****, torn apart shrubs and plastic wrappers. The owner seemed oblivious to the mess. He also didn't know what to charge for pitching a hammock.
A local wood supplier provided us with bags of part-split oak - unfortunately they had clearly been left out in the rain for a while and were completely sodden and needed a furnace of a fire to dry out.
On the plus side there were tons of sloes and rosehips to forage and the site has a fishing lake if you're so inclined - although the place seemed to fill up with young lads in chromed fiestas who sat fishing beside their cars with stereos on full blast. When it got dark we flamed them with our Surefires
All in all I wouldn't recommend the site for Bushcrafters - fine if you want to tent it with the kids, have a fire and do a bit of fishing or you fancy feeling like an exhibit in a bushcraft zoo.
Well there were trees, mostly large oaks - unfortunately there was no area where we could pitch more than one hammock so we ended up with a hammock and tent combo.
The site is nice, but it did fill up with campers and caravanners and is not really enclosed so you are on display. This made Boxy and I the centre of attention - Parents came over with their children to see the funny hammock men, people walked by and stopped to watch us sitting on the floor round a fire whittling spoons, cooed at us splitting wood with axes or stared strangely as we emerged from the hedgerow with coppiced Hazel to make guy pegs. And it felt like everyone on the site found a reason to walk past for a look at the 'weirdos' who were cooking ponnassed trout over a fire. A Kelly kettle had people cross-eyed! Where was the five-foot long barbeque range? How could we cope without camp chairs and tables? At one point a bloke clutching a can of beer walked past us and said with a grin 'You're just like that Ray Mears bloke!' Well it's a compliment to me, but I don't think he meant it like that.
When it started to get dark you could see scattered bonfires spring up as pallets, torn-up bushes and cardboard boxes were piled up and covered with petrol
Dogs were allowed on site and were mostly unpoliced - running all over the place barking at everyone. It didn't bother me so much - I have a way with dogs
, but some of the children looked quite nervous (plus the dogs crapped everywhere including one that thought he was going to use my basha cords for a pissing post ) Anyway the kids got bored after some fat chuffer of a bloke sat on their rope-swing and broke it. Made me laugh though.The saddest thing was taking a walk on the sunday morning - past old fires full of beer cans, dog ****, torn apart shrubs and plastic wrappers. The owner seemed oblivious to the mess. He also didn't know what to charge for pitching a hammock.
A local wood supplier provided us with bags of part-split oak - unfortunately they had clearly been left out in the rain for a while and were completely sodden and needed a furnace of a fire to dry out.
On the plus side there were tons of sloes and rosehips to forage and the site has a fishing lake if you're so inclined - although the place seemed to fill up with young lads in chromed fiestas who sat fishing beside their cars with stereos on full blast. When it got dark we flamed them with our Surefires
All in all I wouldn't recommend the site for Bushcrafters - fine if you want to tent it with the kids, have a fire and do a bit of fishing or you fancy feeling like an exhibit in a bushcraft zoo.
