Wood noob from Derbyshire

[MartinB]

Hi, my name is Martin and myself and my girlfriend are in the process (hopefully) of buying a piece of woodland.

It is about 4 acres and luckily for us is only about 5 to 10 minutes drive from where we live, and is down a quiet track and quite out of the way.

We had been thinking about buying a piece of woodland (well, she wanted a field actually, I was the woodland fan, but I brought her round ) for around 4 years and decided to finally get our asses in gear and look for some.

It has lots of different tree types in it that once I've bought a book I will be able to name, a lot of silver birch and a sprinkling of oak, including a huge oak that I am very taken by.

There seems to be rabbits in it and squirrels too which is nice to see.

We have got to the point in the buying process where we have to have all the searches done.

Which searches do people usually do because initially, all we wanted to know was if there was any public right of way (footpaths), any other rights of way and who was responsible for the fences, but the solicitor has sent us details of numerous other searches about lots of other things too like Local Authority Search, Water Authority Search, Environmental Search, Plansearch, Chancelsearch and Companysearch.
Our heads are spinning (well, mine is anyway).

Martin.

[splodger]

hi martin - welcome to swog - and welcome to the wonderful world that is woodland ownership

if you can find a copy (maybe in a seconhand place / charity shop etc) a really good book is - wild flowers of britain - by roger phillips - it is superb for flower id - but good for tree id too (leaf id mainly, with descriptions etc)

what ever you do - make sure you enjoy your space

[jillybean]

Hi Martin, welcome. sounds like your solicitor is doing the standard conveyancing for a house. it probably isnt necessary but wont do any harm.may be more expensive. do they know its a wood?

[MartinB]

Thanks for the welcomes all.

The other half says that she has the wildlife book you mentioned upstairs in her stuff somewhere so that's a start.

We're going to phone the solicitors tomorrow and hopefully it will become clearer which searches are needed and which aren't.

Our (well, probably ours) oak is dumpy with a wide trunk. It looks like it's about the same size as yours. I will have to measure it when the deal is done. How do you know how old it is?
Did you see Birthday cards hanging on the branches that mentioned it's age?

I'm getting quite excited about it all tbh.

[Stephen1]

Most of our other 150 predominantly Sessile Oaks have a diameter of just over 200 cm, so they were planted for timber in about 1900, although theres a smattering around the 150-200 year old range.

You have a very special woodland OCP (and yes I know everything else about you is special too - I'm not forgetting so no need to spell that out again!) - but I doubt very much that your oaks 'planted in 1900' have grown to a "diameter of just over 200cm" - 200cm Diameter in about 115 years is just not feasible. Perhaps you meant circumference?

The method of assessing age you describe is very rough and ready - if you want a more accurate approach there is a fairly good F.C. publication;

http://www.wbrc.org.uk/atp/Estimating%2 ... 0White.pdf

It's a little more involved but more informative.

[Landpikey]

Good luck with the final leg of your purchasing journey.

Solicitors like to cross the T's and dot the I's but at least you will know all the answers.

We completed in December and have loved every minute of ownership. Best of luck for the future. Hope it goes well!

Dave and Elayne

[MartinB]

Well the wheels are slowly turning.
Had a letter from the solicitors today asking for a cheque to pay for the local authority search. £166.

I remember seeing a piece of woodland a while back that was "sold subject to contract" for ages. I now know why.

Hopefully it won't take too long before we can call it ours ( that is if they don't find anything nasty in the searches. Fingers crossed)

[MattF]

Hi Martin
It takes ages started the processes in September and it's only just gone through finally.
Where are you in Derbyshire I'm near Clay Cross

Matt

[Bearwood]

How did you go about being a Trustee Matt? Did you form a purchasing group to buy the woodland? It could be a viable prospect for many people to enter into woodland ownership if so.

[MattF]

How did you go about being a Trustee Matt? Did you form a purchasing group to buy the woodland? It could be a viable prospect for many people to enter into woodland ownership if so.

Hi Bear
The Wood is in trust for my Children from there Grandma and Grandad and me and the wife have to manage the trust and the wood until the kids are old enough to look after it them selves.
I have to agree it would be a viable prospect as long as everyone agrees with all the decisions made.

Matt