I'm looking for a woodland to rent near Chatham

[chester]

Hello, my name is Chester.

I am a self employed trainee tree surgeon and I work with a company in Walderslade near Chatham in Kent.

I currently live in Ramsgate, Kent so I am paying a large amount in travel each week and due to the early start and late arrival back home I barely have any spare time.

My main reason for joining swog.co.uk is because I am looking for a woodland near to walderslade or Chatham that I can rent to live in. I hope to use the woodland to practice bushcraft and huntsmanship as well as using the environment to improve my arboricultural and woodland management skills.

if it would be more beneficial to the land owner for me to carry out work such as coppicing or management / conservation tasks, rather than providing payment, (or a mixture of the two) I will gladly discuss the agreement with this in mind.

Thank you all for your time reading my enquiry. Any help or info will be greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

Chester Thompson.

[Dexter's Shed]

how do you propose to get around the 28 day camping rights that woodlands carry, as if your living their weekdays, a little over a month and its all used up, now I know that lots can go on in a woods without the outside world knowing, but if the council were to be informed via a neighbour or even a poacher, you'd be opening up a can of worms for the owner

[oldclaypaws]

A lovely idea, but unfortunately there's this pain in the UK called planning laws. Dexter has hit the nail on the head. If it was possible to live in your wood, this would be the Small Woodland Dwellers Group. We'd all like to move into our woods, living there off grid in a mobile home, yurt, bender or whatever, but its a crowded up-tight country where you'll incur the wrath of the planners and curiosity/jealously of some retired so-and-so over the road who doesn't want unconventional types living primitively next to them, lowering the tone of the area. If it was viable, nobody would pay £500,000 for a flat in London, they'd all be happy to pay £100,000 for half an acre of woodland in Bucks or Surrey.

We knew a lovely couple with several kids who couldn't afford a place in Somerset, so they lived in a Yurt in a field, with the owners consent- for about 3 months. Then they were reported, even though you couldn't see them, and kicked off with some legal order by the Council (who are more mellow than most).

Great idea and sympathetic, but reckon its a non-starter. Ben Laws recounts years of planning battles before he was allowed to live in Pricky Wood, and his eco home is only allowed to be lived in by him and his family while he's employed there, he can't resell it and nobody else is allowed to live there.

Theres a strong argument for allowing people to do what you outline, particulalrly with woods being neglected and daft housing costs, but until someone changes the law, its not allowed.

[chester]

Thanks for your replies guys. I didn't know the regulations would be so strict. I have volunteered at a few woodlands where people live on site all year round so I assumed it was a lot easier to gain permission.

I will speak to them and see how they got round the regulations. Thanks again.

[chester]

It is such a shame that owning a woodland is so highly regulated! Do you happen to know if the law has any areas that work in our favour? For example is stewardship different to ownership? And does it comply with different regulations?

[Dexter's Shed]

I seem to remember that coppicing or charcoal burners are allowed to stay to tend to the product, and the time limit is unspecified, it just quotes a season, you say yourself that you have helped out in woods where this seems to be happening, but what your asking is different, your wanting to live in someone else's wood, carry on with your day job, and maybe lend a hand in woodland management as part payment of rent, so a totally different scenario.

doing it your way, you cannot justify your need to be there 24-7 as you'll not be there 24-7
an owner making charcoal, living on site, hardly leaving apart from getting food/water can justify the need to be there
the laws are there for a reason, they cannot be "bent" to suit ones alternative plans, again as oldclaypaws has already pointed out, if it were that easy, we would already be doing it

[Dexter's Shed]

It is such a shame that owning a woodland is so highly regulated

it's not, as an owner, but your looking at it from the wrong angle,

[Dexter's Shed]

! Do you happen to know if the law has any areas that work in our favour?

I don't mean to harp on, but your not a woodland owner, these "laws" are there to protect us and our woodland, so saying our favour is not correct, the law works in "our favour" as owners, it stops would be ray mears from setting up home in our woods
forget this idea, knuckle down and work, save up, maybe 30yrs down the line you'll be in a position to buy your own plot of woodland, to do all the things you dream of now, then one day when you have arrived at your woods, and found 30 immigrants have set up home in them, you can either smile, knowing that those laws you saw as unfair are now gone, or you can moan to the high arch that these things should not be allowed, as if they were, you would be doing it.

see where were coming from now?

[chester]

Yeah I appreciate what you are saying. Obviously living in the woods at the moment isn't a viable option to me. But I am interested in becoming a woodland owner one day so its helpful to know where I stand with the law. I can see the need for the regulations that are in place, I guess it's just my desire to get away from the square boxiness of modern society and live a more natural life that makes me think about living in the woods. But yes if it was that easy we'd all be there. I think a rethink is in order for me... Thanks for your help.

[Dexter's Shed]

I guess it's just my desire to get away from the square boxiness of modern society

nothing wrong in that, it's what woodland owners do most weekends
why not carry on with the volunteering at weekends, most owners have weekend camp outs, work in exchange for food and lodgings so to speak
stick up new post, giving as much info about yourself as you dare, a picture or two always helps as people like to see hopeful candidates
and look forward to spring