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Although the focus of our labours is the Longhall, there are plenty of other
things going on. We’ve built two bridges, started on the gatehouse,
made a set of gates and tried out various constructional techniques to plan
the two hundred metres of palisade we’re now (April 2004) erecting.
We own an acre of commercial forestry surrounding our burgh and are steadily clearing the ground against the time we will need it for a modern campsite and car parking for our members.. Across the water (as we say!) this land is slowly opening up. Cutting down the Corsican pine – which we see largely as big, woody weeds that need to be got rid of as soon as is practically possible – is a simple enough job for Chris Bell, Paul Assheton and a couple of others, but that is only the fun bit! Next, the tree is logged up into firewood-sized chunks and the branches burned on a fire that burns steadily from the moment we start work until we go home. But the real work is raking off and burning the layers of needle drop that cover the already poor soil with their acidic resin. It takes hours of steady toil and is backbreaking work performed by a small core team who have worked wonders in the eighteen months that they’ve been clearing.
Originally open heathland, we intend to return at least some of our land to that state. The rest we shall farm as open woodland with stands of silver birch, oak and other native hardwoods, interspersed by crab apple and other appropriate fruit trees. Overall, it will be surrounded by a hawthorn and beech hedge that will run along our border with our neighbours, Wildwood.
We need a decent hedge, as the other side of the wire there is a small herd
of hungry red deer, all too keen to eat anything at all that is vaguely green
and turn our acre into the unremittingly brown, wrecked woodland that they
inhabit.
We'd always intended that the site would be used as a location for filmwork and we've already hired it out for this purpose on six different occasions. There are already a number of features available at the site and if you are a researcher looking for an appropriate location, I'd ask you to look at our dedicated “Filmwork” web pages where you will find more information about our permanent site.
Please visit the new Wychurst development teams website at www.wychurst.com for more up to date information and pictures from the development team.
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| Last updated
2 April, 2006
. Article by Kim Siddorn 2004. Click here to return to the societies main page or the listing. © Regia Anglorum 2004. If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to e-mail us at webmaster@regia.org | |