Hi Guys

[SimonFisher]

7) Full shooting and mineral rights.

Out of curiosity, what do you want the mineral rights for? Do other woodland owners have mineral rigts on their land? Ours were separated from the 'surface ownership' many years ago - we know because we had correspondance from the The Land Registry and The Church Commissioners [*] informing us that they were formally updating our title record to show the mineral rights were owned by t'Church.

[*] Investment arm of The Church of England

[boxerman]

7) Full shooting and mineral rights.

that's quite funny, as I wanted full sporting rights, being a pest controller and owning lots of guns and rifles, woods have a strange affect on you, in 14 months I've only shot a few squirrels

Please don't mis-interpret that - I have no intention or desire to be shooting anything, I just don't want someone else in a position to be doing that in my woodland. Apart from which I've only ever fired a gun once in my life and I'd be in more danger than the wildlife......

[smojo]

I had a similar list and spent ages devising a spreadsheet that gave each criteria a score rating - some aspects having a heavier rating in importance than others, so I could compare different woods. I had looked at one which was a 55 mile trip of 90 minutes. Close distance was high on my list of "wants". I dismissed it on that basis at first plus it was only 2 acres and I wanted 3-5 but it kept nagging at me. I had another visit and fell in love with it and decided to buy it. By the time I got back home and on to my computer, it had sold. I was a bit heartbroken. A few weeks later another bigger one came up in the same area. Again I dismissed it on distance but it still kept nagging. Although some of the criteria was missing, some of the other aspects were definitely there and very good too. It wouldn't go away, I kept hoping it would sell then I could forget it but it didn't. So I had to go visit it to either get it out of my system or in. It went in! I fell in love for the second time and I came to the conclusion that I would be dead before I found a wood that met all my criteria. As Mr Jagger sang "you can't always get what you want". Anyway I made the call and I'm half way there to getting it. Moral of the story is you can plan and scheme but unless you have a will of steel to stick to your criteria, you might just settle for a compromise. It's a bit like a "a bird in the hand". Yeah water supply and close distance was high on my list but I ditched both of them for other benefits - the main one being I can have it now!

Sounds like you have plenty of time to look around though so you won't feel the pull to own quite so much but beware - you might fall head over heels in love.

[oldclaypaws]

ancient woodland will have TPO's on them

Ain't necessarily so. Mine is ancient / semi ancient with no TPO's, but I'm toying with putting one on 'Rex', my magnificent special 400 year old oak- I'd turn in my grave if anyone after me felled it, that would be criminal. I believe the majority of TPO's are applied to trees with 'amenity value' in visible locations; avenues of memorial trees, ones planted by a dignitary to mark a special occasion, prominent park trees and older / specimen trees in public and urban places. In an area where there are few woods, whole woods might have had a designation such as Smojo's, which just prevents clear felling, not regular management. Your 'average' ancient wood is probably in the middle of nowhere, isn't particularly well known to the local populous, (working out its ancient might require a survey or research), has no TPO's, and is already protected to a degree by requirement of a felling license / management plan for any significant work.

[smojo]

Yep mine has a TPO on the whole woods. Just been looking at it and if you read all the restrictions you think "what the hell can I do in it"? You're not allowed to prune, top, lop or uproot any trees without planning permission. It sounds bad at first but looking more closely I tend to like the idea that there's a TPO. It prevents other plotholders close by from clear felling and spoiling the overall look and feel of the woods and creating windblow problems. It means it's hardly likely to have a new road or any major upheaval threatening it. And it means (as Claypaws says) any trees you particularly love or have grown on yourself, can't just be chopped down by a future owner. You are allowed to do things that constitute good silviculture, thinning, pruning etc, you just need planning permission. As far as I can see it's a case of making a plan of what you want to do, marking trees you want to fell or prune, then getting the tree and hedgerow officer of the local council round to go through your plans with you, then you make a written application to the council and await their approval. I'm sure once you've made that connection with the officer and shown you are a responsible woodsman, there won't be a problem. How often do we want to fell trees in our woods anyway?

[oldclaypaws]

How often do we want to fell trees in our woods anyway?

What many urban tree huggers may not understand is that 'light is life', and where you have an undermanaged wood that has had little or no active management for maybe 70 years (That includes a sizeable chunk of UK woods), active thinning greatly benefits the biodiversity, regeneration and 'health' of the wood. The arguable optiminum is a mix of tree species and ages, lots of dead wood, clearings, mature trees and areas of regeneration. That does require a degree of thought, planning, thinning and replanting or passive regeneration where appropriate.

I've not done significant felling of the big oaks since getting mine (although about 5 have come down), but have coppiced and got in more light in a few areas, the transformation in terms of light, growth, new flora and insects, is quite astounding. I'm going from a gloomy dark choked wood to one with so much more light, life and variety.

[boxerman]

Once again, many thanks to all for responses - very useful and I'm mentally adding/subtracting to the list of wishes. I know in my heart that most are only ideals and, in practice, when funds are available I'll probably fall in love with one of the first few I see regardless of how many of those ideals are lacking but it's good to get a feel for what's good and what's not.. It would be just too easy to make very expensive mistakes without doing some research first.

In the short time I've been here my knowledge has increased 100 fold (not too difficult as I started with about zero..) but the sharing of your knowledge is greatly appreciated tho I suspect you'll end up breathing a sigh of relief when I eventually buy something.

[Bearwood]

Our wood has a TPO covering the whole wood for 'amenity' value (which is a loophole-term the local council will use if the wood is privately owned of no importance other than for the view). The TPO hinders us in no way at all as we have a felling license for 55m3 per annum. The only difference a TPO makes when it comes to applying for a licence is that you simply tick the 'does the land have a TPO' box. This basically means that the FC speak to your local planning authority about the effects of the TPO, but ultimately the FC have the final say and will overrule the local authority if you have a coherent management plan.

It all sounds scary, but it's simpler than applying for a tax disc by post!

[boxerman]

On my new learning curve I'm considering visiting an auction or two to get the feeling for how such things may go. Is this a worthwhile part of the learning curve?

I've come across a 10 acre wood around 20 miles away that's coming up for auction next month and am tempted to go along just to see how it actually fares with it's guide price of £30,000 (way outside of my pretty much non-existent budget anyway). Details are a little sketchy but would anyone care to translate the auctioneers Estateagentese below:

Lovely, elevated position taking excellent advantage of far ranging views. Good mix of trees and an abundance of wild life. Holds Game well. Perfect for personal recreational use and a rare opportunity for those looking to purchase an attractive piece of rural England. Freehold. Full vp. Guide price; Around £30, 000.

[Lincswood]

I think I would probably get carried away at an auction, especially if the price is right. Be careful!