Field

https://ktimatoemporiki.gr/property.php?id=PV-109

Even has existing buildings.

You're welcome.

Drake's island is for sale

Why not a fort?
https://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/live-in-your-choice-of-victorian-sea-forts-from-a-boutique-delight-with-helipad-to-a-crumbling-wreck-thats-a-blank-canvas-216940

Bit challenging for bikepacking.

If you have got a set of these in your bike bags, are you truly self-reliant?

1 Attachment

This is a really good idea. I know a bit about this from friends and family. Most of what's been said on the thread is correct. It's a fantastic way to re-nature land and is very enjoyable. But go in with your eyes open and with a long-term view.

Regulations can be a pain but they have their benefits also. You are certainly entitled to camp a good few weeks per year. Regulations also scale with the area of your contigous-land -- if you have 20+ acres you can do more than if you have 1 acre, for example. The solicitor you referenced will know all about this, I'm sure.

Your field looks amazing. Would love to low-impact camp there sometime (perhaps in return for some maintenance work, or similar).

Friends who've done this (far from London) really enjoy it. They say it's quite a bit of work. And you need to be long-term. Maybe just live with it for a year or two to see what you've got.

Exactly the experience friends have had.

have rewilded it. It’s amazing. For the first couple of years we let neighbouring farmers use it for livestock. But we couldn't understand why it was devoid of invertebrates yet nearby in woodland there were butterfly alleys. Then my wife started working in soil health and we discovered that worming tablets given to livestock leach out into animal faeces, this then kills off invertebrates.

Within a year of stopping the livestock coming here the field became active with invertebrates. The long grasses collapsed and formed a mat full of rodent tunnels. The raptor population exploded, the deer population grew massively and we have about 10 roe deer and 4 or 5 muntjac roaming around. Walking through the field is like being in a nature documentary. Grasshoppers leap around like a firework display around my legs. Various types of dragon fly flutter around, the bat population has increased.

Friends who've done this (far from London) really enjoy it. They say it's quite bit of work. And you need to be long-term. Maybe just live with it for a year or two to see what you've got

Yeah, this is where I'm really at.

I will likely have my mortgage paid off in a few years, and another windfall shortly after that... and I'm increasingly ready to look beyond living in London.

I could consider a large-ish place out near Brecons, let it be used for pasture, and open it to multiple other uses, or I could consider this more flexible open-ended idea of multiple smaller places that are open to all as communal spaces and mixed use.

I've time enough to think and research all the possible things, and flexible enough to do things at different speeds (i.e. leave the mortgage alone for another decade or so and do something else in the near future).

but as it currently looks... lots of small things look like a nightmare, and everyone echoes the rules and restrictions. anything bigger is quite far from the original idea and far more a big thing to do... so I will do the rabbit hole diving over a period of time and research seriously, whilst still making jokes though, those don't have to be serious.

FWIW one of our neighbours owns the big field in front of our house, and mostly uses it as a home for two small horses and a caravan for drinking tinnies in. He told me the other night he's thinking of selling up after he had a heart attack last year (he's fine now), so I'm now harbouring fantasies of buying a slice with all the money I don't have and having an unnecessary flock of goats and/or chickens.

So I get the field desire and will watch your progress from afar with interest/fear.

1 Attachment

flock of goats

This would be fun.

I like goats.

🐐

Having grown up in a farming household I would definitely agree with previous sentiment of sitting on it for a while...

There is the old adage of the best way to end up with a million pounds in farming is to start with two million pounds... I know you're not explicitly looking to farm the land but there are still lots of expenses to keeping the place right as previously mentioned so it's really worth giving it consideration so as not to have it turn into an unhappy hindrance...

FWIW if I were planning a similar folly I'd be looking to find somewhere with a bit of nice woodland and water on the land, you might also get lucky as these sort of plots can often be a bit less desirable to farmers, especially if the land is a bit wonky and a funny shape and if you can find somewhere you know there's no chance of getting normal planning permission for a house on you might nab a bargain...

I'd also want to do the offgrid shipping container idea with a nice solar PV array and a well for water, easy to make it secure when you're not there and nice to have a cosy spot to stay in when you're visiting and somewhere to lock up some tools.

Goats are really great ....
for finding the gaps in your perimeter fencing/climbable walls/easily jumped ditches within about 20 minutes of being released.

Pentesters, it's a skill.

When we used to allow a farmers sheep n our land he used to say sheep were good at two things escaping and dying. We often encountered sheep in the woods that were meant to be securely penned in with an electric fence in the field. But cattle were no better , we had 3 that took about a month to decide they’d return to the field, because it was too difficult to get them out of the bramble filled ancient oak woodland.

Golf clubbed in 3...2...1...

Golf club

Another use of a field!

A waste of a good field.

Did you know that golf courses cover the same area of the UK as all residential buildings combined?

My mate gave me a field to use 8 years ago, 1st idea was build a bmx track, didn’t go so well. It’s registered as farming land so I can’t build any permanent buildings on it (except a barn for animals). I ended up planting a few hundred Christmas trees along one side to stop the wind and try and sell. Sold around 50 one xmas but wasn’t really cost effective. We camp out in the summer and have a bonfire a couple of times a year. I’ve got access through the local woods and moved a couple of trees over the path so have less folk stumbling across the entrance. Biggest cost was fencing it off. Last few years I’ve let a neighbor rotate his horses into it. It’s really nice to get out of the city and happy to see it change through the seasons.

4 Attachments

They smell goaty and eat anything. They are brilliant escapologists, then get in to areas they shouldn't.

Prefer pigs myself. They can be as friendly and trainable like a dog.

Animals do take slot of upkeep

Who knew the Venn diagram of urban fixie skidders and field owners had such overlap.

if one remembers the seminal track “being a dickhead’s cool”, then you might remember the lyrics of that, where they had moved from the Home counties to London. I imagine we are just seeing the evolution of this phenomenon.

92% of the UK is undeveloped. Fields galore.

We are but temporary stewards

Field marshals?

Got to love a Field Marshall.
Buy a field for your Field Marshall