A woodland dream come true

I went to the village of Alhampton to visit a new woodland and hear its story. Some years ago, I was told, Gert and Mary Schley had moved into the village; they wanted to make a garden and plant trees, and soon had their eyes on a strip of land that adjoined their garden, part of a field that was being grazed by cattle.

The farmer told them that he just rented the land from the owner, so if they wanted to take it over they would need to contact the agent.

It took them some time to track down the owner, who lived in the Midlands, and whose holding at Alhampton spread over 28 acres divided by ancient hedgerows and sloping down eastwards to offer wide views across lowland towards the Mendips.

But when they finally made contact, the owner agreed not to put a price on this lovely stretch of Somerset but simply rather to make a gift of it to the Woodland Trust for the benefit of the community.

Tree plantings started early last year. There are walnut saplings (for a nuttery), hazel for coppicing, willow (outstripping all the rest, with tall stems already several feet above the tops of the tree-guards), oak, alder, and fruit trees whose produce will be free for people to pick and eat.

In all, 7,500 trees have been planted, partly by the Woodland Trust, partly by volunteers (the Friends of Haddon Wood) and partly by children from local primary schools.

There will be a wildflower meadow, and already there is the beginning of a pond, surprisingly dug halfway up a hill, its site determined by a farmer who knew that there was an impermeable claypan just there, and that field drains running down from springs higher up would supply the water, which was already beginning to flow when we looked.

Easy walking by paths and rides mown by a volunteer took us to where we found the bench carved in green oak by a local craftsman, and dedicated to Mary Schley, who died in April 2013, and, as the inscription says, “imagined this place”.