Its nearly the anniversary of a mysterious phone message from a neighbour, warning that a National Park enforcement officer had been asking who owned my land, and thus the huts thereon...
A year of drawing plans and elevations, and writing down why I need a shelter on the hill to work from. It was stressful, dispiriting and time-consuming, wasting many key weekends that could have been spent on the land. Also though, it was an opportunity to step into and 'own' my truth. To put into words what it meant to me.
Eventually though, the application was refused, on the basis that I had not justified the hut sufficiently for agriculture, & that it wasn't an essential requirement for my conservation work. This felt to me rather a glib response, and more evasive than decisive. It was positive though in that there was no hostility to the building in appearance, so I reapplied, and sent in a more detailed and considered management strategy plan, that is one that I hoped got over the vision and significance of what I had been doing.
I am hopeful. I have a different planning officer who seems to understand what I have been doing. Again it reminds me that the best strategy is Clarity. Speak as clearly as you can from your heart and truth. No selfpity or righteousness or anger or despair, or that wily doublespeak that would only give you a hollow victory should you succeed thus. Speak in words that you believe in, not a cocktail of someone elses.
By such means, things happen. People get it.
Believe me.
MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
I acquired Allt Tabor in 2008. It is a 12 acre rugged hillside, overlooking the sea to the north, with Dinas Mountain above it to the south. It is thus often exposed to fast moving coastal weather patterns, and bracing winds.
The dominant vegetation then was bracken & bramble, with only occasional hawthorn, sycamore, willow and gorse, and one magnificent ash-tree. It has outcrops of rock (rhyolite) at the steeper eastern end, and a scattering of post-glacial erratics. It has two reliable springs, and seasonal issues and a stream. Historically it must have been wooded, and still hosts wood anenome, wood sorrel, bluebells, and occasional wood sedge. More recently it became rough grazing, and was burnt off sporadically in an attempt to keep the bracken and gorse in check.
There is evidence of some stone picking, and a small area that had been cultivated, probably as a field garden. It is unusual, as a large tract of largely uncultivated 'wild' land, and this is a special quality that I wish to retain.
My overall plan has been to optimise its latent biodiversity, whilst establishing useful food and timber resources, being aware of its context within the landscape and future of Dinas Cross.
This is thus both an agricultural and conservation activity. I wish to enrich the hillside, both as a wildlife and human resource. I do not feel these need be incompatible.
My establishment of chestnut and hazel coppice and pasture, the planting of ancillary woodland, and the garden, orchard and tree nursery, are all recognised agricultural activities.
An overall broad goal has been to maintain a third as 'scrub', clear a third as grass-ways and open clearings, and to establish a third as clumps of trees and coppice, and to make a garden and orchard.
I sought early advice from the local Wildlife Trust, who have observed the changes the land has undergone since 2008.
I have established a kitchen garden, an orchard of over fifty fruit trees, planted over 2500 woodland trees : Ash, Sweet Chestnut, Hazel, Rowan, Birch, Whitebeam, Hawthorn and Larch, and established pathways and clearings. There is still considerable work to do, but already the flora and grasses are noticeably increasing, as are songbirds, and many raptors have adopted the clearings as hunting territory. The retention of scrub has encouraged snipe, pheasants and woodcock to shelter there. Fungi are appearing in the grasslands.
I have found that the rugged nature of the land favours the use of hand tools, notably scythes, for initial site clearance, as they allow the piling rather than shredding of waste. These piles are significant habitats in their own right, initially as mammal and reptile shelter, and eventually as enriched soil areas.
The local scale of these incursions is resulting in a patchwork of habitats. Practically, the strenuous nature of this work and terrain necessitates short periods of activity with breaks, and so a convenient shelter has been crucial.
As well as maintaining and extending the existing areas of change, the next area I wish to work on is the steepest and least accessible. I intend to enlist volunteer help for this stage, so the work shelter becomes a legal requirement.
Reliance on using my van for this purpose is impractical, as parking is at the top of the land, and so much effort and time would be thus wasted climbing the steep paths.
Observation of neighbouring lower lands has shown they are sheltered and capable of supporting timber trees, so I propose to establish about 2/3 hectare of Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar, as a resource of durable timber, for eventual local use.
However, I have found that conifers need considerable nurture to establish in bracken areas, as they are easily overwhelmed and 'burnt' by its autumn dieback, so this is initially a labour-intensive task.
My working practice on Allt Tabor is to identify small and distinct pockets of land, such as naturally sheltered hollows, to clear these, to observe the effects, and learn and respond accordingly. This approach is a departure from more map-based, funding driven management initiatives, and is being observed with interest by the Wildlife Trust and an eminent local naturalist.
He observes that Allt Tabor is a valuable remnant of "Ffridd" land, that is, the fringe of land between the upper, open moorlands, and the lower arable and pasture enclosures. The RSPB recognise this "ffridd" or 'speckled' land as a particularly valuable wildlife resource, because of its variety of trees, pasture, shrubs and scrub. I see my technique of small interventions is a means to 'relocalise' this habitat.
Our current practice of large-scale mechanical topping of farmland, verges, and pathways, tends to severely restrict plant diversity, according to when in the flowering and fruiting cycle of a particular plant it occurs. This seems a rather arbitrary way to foster an already depleted biodiversity. I am exploring an alternative approach that could prove useful in a wider conservation context.
Finally, I regard this site, with its aspect, its position above Dinas Cross, and its place within the wider Preseli landscape, as a human as well as natural resource, so much effort is invested in opening and extending pathways that allow safe but rewarding access. To encourage access, I have not fenced the land, and intend none.
THE WORKING YEAR
There are three main seasons of activity.
March to May.
Garden bed preparation,sowing, weeding and thinning. I already grow vegetables and have embarked on a programme of sowing and tending to tree seedlings. This is more cost-effective than buying in trees, as I have large areas still to plant. One critical factor in the success of this will be the impact of rodents, so I will need to be in attendance at key times until I have devised an effective strategy to control this.
May to August,
Bracken and bramble cutting, and tending to established paths and glades. The process of glade and path creation is ongoing, relying on regular scything. When I started this work, the hillside was covered in bracken and bramble. However there are now a labyrinth of grass rides, and increasing areas of restored native grassland, with its attendant flora. I also scythe areas in which I intend to plant trees in order to suppress the vigour of the bracken.
October to March.
Ground clearing, tree planting and pruning.
When the bracken dies back and collapses is a critical time in which to find and tend to trees that grow within it. Also to plant and mark tree seedlings, which are easily lost and thus inadvertently cut in later scythings.
My time on the land is curtailed by the need to earn my living, and by periods of extreme weather, but I usually visit and work on the land every week. I am due to receive my state pension in a years time, which will give me more scope to be there.In the main bracken cutting and gardening season, I spend up to 50 hours/week working there in the height of the summer when the bracken is growing fast. I average 20 hours work on the land/ week.
Use of shelter.
It is a warm comfortable place to rest and prepare food and hot drinks, a tool store, for biodiversity related research and recording, and training student volunteers, seed setting, and to store harvested crops.
I keep my larger, muddier garden tools like mattocks, spades, forks and hoes; also my chainsaw, strimmer and scythes under the shelter, smaller tools such as trowels, secateurs, and sickles inside or hanging under the eaves, and general tools, screws etc, a crate of dry clothes, and my seeds concealed in crates under the rest platform. I also store seed trays, flowerpots, bamboos, posts and horticultural fleeces under the shelter.
Non-residential use of the shelter.
There is no intention to use the shelter as a residence as I have a permanent home six miles away. I do not want to commit to never staying overnight in the future, within agreed limits (28 days/ year) as I value early and late work in busy seasons. If I find that I need to stay more often, I shall sleep in my van nearby.
I do try to rest by lying down at intervals during a days work. I broke my back twelve years ago but have adapted to this, continuing to earn my living, and learned through experience that if I follow a burst of work with a short rest, I can achieve a lot in a day without undue pain. I also observe that I tend to work close to the ground when planting, weeding etc, as I find it less painful than standing, so end up with wet and soiled clothes that I dry above the stove.
I cannot rely on being able to run a van in the future, so will wish to be able to visit the land for the day by using the bus. This would be an uncomfortable prospect without a shelter upon the land.
The activities of scything and gardening I find help to relax the physical strain of my other work patterns elsewhere, which often require me to stand at a workbench.
I have consider the status of the raised trestle and whether I should remove it. I feel that it is multifunctional and so the most effective use of such a small space. I can store valuable and damp-sensitive items discretely in boxes underneath, and use the platform itself for seating, as a desk and worktop on which to lay out and sort papers and to sow seedtrays, and to lie on to rest.
No other arrangement would serve all these purposes.
Household items will be kept to the essentials, such as toilet paper, spare dry clothes, first aid, soap and towel, and a basic larder. I will maintain the basic requirements that HSE advise for co-workers, such as a toilet & washing facilities (I have a spring water tap outside, and can heat water on the stove) and a warm and dry rest room.
I have tried to imagine an alternative structure that would serve my needs for tool storage, warmth, rest, offer basic comfort, and shelter for myself and co-workers, and be more acceptable, and have not been able to devise one. I am willing to construct an alternative structure if a design is offered.
It is as small (8.6 square metres) and as compact as it can be for its many purposes.
It is "temporary", both in the sense that it needs no permanent foundations & is made from timber, and in that it is a sectional building, composed of 31 main pieces (6 floor sections, 12 walls, 12 roof pieces, plus top hub) which are bolted together. This has allowed me to site it with care and sensitivity. It can equally be unbolted, dismantled, and removed with the minimum of environmental disturbance.
The description of it as a 'roundhouse' is neither accurate technically (it's duodecagonal) or reflect its fundamental design ethos. This is a moveable, modular building.
I have considered replacing the shelter with a small caravan, but would not be able either to get it out of view or in a useful place, and I feel it would be ugly and cramped. Also I have discussed this solution with my immediate neighbours, whose opinion I respect and heed, and they dislike this idea.
My original application was, and remains, for a temporary work shelter, "ancillary" to my agricultural activities and my conservation project.
This I intended and intend to mean that once conservation activities cease, the shelter will have no need to remain. I feel that my shelter's removable nature encapsulates and honours this.
Without such a shelter and tool store, I regret that this ambitious, and heart-felt restoration project is pracically unworkable.
