'Buy Your Own Wood'

[Nightwalker]

Just noticed the 'Buy Your Own Wood' banner here on the BCUK. Clicked through and had a interesting read. Im always sceptical and paranoid of new concepts like that, but I trust its all being done in good faith and I know it must be enticing to some here on the BCUK community! I know it would be a dream come true for me to own my own part of a woodland, however on my horrific wage it'll never happen (just yet).

Was just wondering... anyone here on BCUK bought their own sector of woodland yet through http://www.ancientwoodland.com/ ?

 

[Chester`C]

Actually sounds like a really good idea I'd be interested to know also if anyone has bought any and how many acres do you get for your money ?

 

[Nightwalker]

Hey what about a group-buy!? a group of us poor BCUK's could all pitch in for 1 sector Hell, setup the paypal-donate button and soon BushcraftUK could have its own Woodland! :thinkerg: if only it were that easy

 

[KAE1]

I am still sceptical - why have a middle man? they need to make ££s out of it.

I have been thinking of buying land recently. I have looked at some arable plots with small copses in the corner, I really like the idea of planting for future generations and from a wildlife perspective the biodiversity of young trees, bare rough areas and a few established trees would work well.

A group buy? why not?

 

[ganstey]

I too am skeptical. There is so little information on the site that its impossible to know how it really works. How big are the plots? Given other plots I've looked at recently, I reckon £5000 would get you 0.25 to 0.5 acres. How do they vet applicants? What's to say that one of the co-owners won't harvest everything useful from the whole site?

I bought my woodland about 5 years ago from woodlandsforsale.co.uk and whilst they aren't the cheapest, and they are a money-making business not a conservation body, at least I knew what I was getting.

G

 

[FGYT]

i looked at it as the banner appeard

but it looks like you do get ownership of a part of a wood but you get access to all teh wood
im assuming there are covanets on it you have to abide by (they all do)
but would you even be able to sleep on your own little bit or light a fire i can understand not being able to do that in the rest
or does it just give you ownership of some thing you can do nothing with or on bar a walk etc
i am assuming you do have a mapped bit thats yours you can identify etc

ATB

Duncan

 

[Arth]

It looks like you join a syndicate. There's no hunting right so how do you managed deer? How many people 'own' the land? How would you manage the woods when so many people own it? How would everyone agree?

 

[FGYT]

i didnt read it as a syndicate ie a group own teh wood

I read it that you own a specific bit Freehold but have right of access over the whole wood

wot other rights you have or have been blocked by any covenant i couldnt find

 

[Shewie]

With 6662 BCUK members we should be able to get something, even if it`s just £1 each.

 

[Matt Weir]

It looks like you join a syndicate. There's no hunting right so how do you managed deer? How many people 'own' the land? How would you manage the woods when so many people own it? How would everyone agree?

I don't think you'd need to manage deer Arth. Reading between the lines of the blurb...

'You will receive two keys to the main gate'.

I'd say that it is totally fenced off to keep the riff-raff out - and probably any wildlife with it

They also employ a crack team of foresters to look after all aspects of maintenance so that means you probably aren't allowed near any tree's with 'KEEP TO THE DESIGNATED PATHWAYS' signs littering the place.

Erm, apologies for my overly bitter rant - I don't know where that came from :tapedshut it may be a good set-up?

 

[Arth]

i didnt read it as a syndicate ie a group own teh wood

I read it that you own a specific bit Freehold but have right of access over the whole wood

wot other rights you have or have been blocked by any covenant i couldnt find

Yep your right mis-read it.

Still there's more questions that answers like how much land do you own for £5000?
It does look like that you won't have much control over your own land, someone else to manage the deer, someone else to manage the trees. Who keeps the wood?

 

[Nightwalker]

This could be a good oppurtunity for www.ancientwoodland.com to answer a few commonly asked questions and futher intrigue some of us. I'll contact them.

 

[Arth]

It would be nice to know if it is as good as it looks.

 

[william#]

maybe a better idea would be to own little bits of wood all over the uk that way you could have sleeping and camp fire permission for those who are part of it all
yes very hard to police butwould be so good to be able to head to local woods stay a few nights andhave a fire .
as with all these type things talking is one thing getting the money energy and will to really actualise something real is different

 

[bilko]

The way i read it was that you are basically contributing to the conservation of the wood with your share. They buy it intially, then do it up and you are allowed to wander, camp , study etc at your will. Therefor you will not realy be able to own it as every one else can wander at will. I would be very suprised if you were allowed to light fires, let alone invite friends.
There seems to be a very big catch 22 attatched to this one as i see it.
Will be interesting to see if what answers come up.

 

[Matt Weir]

Personally if I was to invest five grand into woodland I would look into forming a small syndicate of 6 bushfolk and go for a £30,000 wood and just go six ways on time and effort. A monthly meeting to discuss issues and projects should see it running fine. If a party wishes to leave then their share could either be split 5 ways to the others or sold onto another member subject to a unanimous agreement.

 

[william#]

i find it so odd that depite fire being so important with the fundermentals of bushcraft that its so hard to find places that you can actually officially be allowed to light one .
however i also understand that due to the nature of the uk it would be folly to allow open access for people to light fires.
as a nipper growing up on the north downs i never gave it a second thought to build a camp and light a fire - mind you that was a thousand life times ago now .
ho hum will have to stick to pocket rocket (and the ocsional use of my fire box for discreet fires).
we could always organise ourselves to all live in one part of the uk ellect our own mp and laws
lol

 

[stevesteve]

The website says:

We then divide the wood into generous sized, freehold sections, which we sell to responsible individuals who care about the environment

I can't see anywhere how big the actual "generous sized" sections are. You could just be buying a square foot (like those "Buy part of the Moon" deals) or it could be a real and decent offer. I guess the devil would be in the details and there are few of those on the website.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Nightwalker]

I would be very suprised if you were allowed to light fires, let alone invite friends.
There seems to be a very big catch 22 attatched to this one as i see it.
Will be interesting to see if what answers come up.

It was late when I read their site, but im sure I remember it saying your obviously allowed to invite friends to your land.

From what I read im sure it sounded more like you had full-ownership of the land, more so than I think most people have given credit for so far in the comments. "Once you have received your Welcome Pack and the deeds from the land registry you will be able to roam around the wood whenever you like, on your own, with friends – at any time." You get deeds and the right to sell the land on I think I read, sounds like full-ownership to me. I contacted them and a chap ('Tim') kindly offered to register here on BCUK and post up some comments & information.

 

[JonBaker]

There are a few of these websites out there - some more restrictive and dodgy looking than others.

http://www.woodsforall.org/ too restrictive - more like selling pieces of the moon I think

http://www.futurewoods.co.uk/ the web site of which has not stopped working - they never had any woods to sell anyway! – but had the right idea!

http://woodlands4you.co.uk/ not exactly an extensive website

There are the usual suspects like http://www.woodlands.co.uk/ and http://www.woods4sale.co.uk/ and few others - but these guys seem to have only served to over inflate the price a woodland - over paid city bankers buy woodland and inflating the prices just so they can feel they are doing their bit for the environment and doing some “Carbon offsetting”. Now you can be looking at £10k per acre - which is mad.

Ancient Woodlands looks the best I think. I will be interested to see what Tim has to say.

A group buy I think is not a bad idea – slightly higher stakes than usual – but not as mad as it sounds.

I was talking to Paul from YellowWood and a few other guys into bushcraft and they agree there should be a network of woodland places across the UK that allow you to camp out and have fires – which to be honest is what we want to do.

I have written to 40+ farms in my area + put an advert on the http://www.farmproperty.net/rental.htm web site to see if any woods come. I am personally looking at renting or buying. Once I find a place I am happy to discuss sharing – but if no one is interested in the cost then I’ll do it on my own and try to set up camping arrangement which is reasonably well controlled and priced. Ideally I want a place with a stream or relatively near a river so there is a water supply.

The main issue is making sure that it isn’t abused which is why it needs to be close to where you live.

I actually think that the bushcraft community is growing and the demand for this type of facility is going to grow. It would be a good investment – you aren’t going to make millions but if you do it right you should be able to cover your costs and allow others to benefit. Sneaking around woods worrying about being caught isn’t really fun or bushcraft.