What to do with a field?

[Uller]

If he is thinking about caravans, how about a Caravan Club certificated (their word, not mine) location? The basic requirements are a drinking water tap and somewhere to empty toilet waste - we have stayed on several in the past and this can be anything from a fancy shed with raised waste pipe to a hole in the ground above the sewer. Should be fairly low cost to set up.

He would be allowed no more than 5 caravans or motorhomes for no more than 28 days at a time, but to be honest on a basic site, most people would probably stay a night or two on the way to somewhere else. We generally expected to pay around £5 per night.

It isn't a huge money spinner, but he wouldn't need to use the whole site and it would at least bring something in.

[Skippy]

Thanks for that Uller. I didn't know about that 28 day thing. One of the reasons he is considering caravans is that his wife's sister and her husband have asked about putting a caravan on there pretty much permanently to use as and when and my friend does have one there as well that he was using whilist doing up the cottage.
Water , and a septic tank wouldn't be too difficult and electric hook ups would be quite easy as well although access to the site is unfortunately up a narrow single track lane with passing places which may be a problem. I'll mention this to him.


Pete

[Uller]

Pete

Several of the CLs that we used were in pretty rural locations - single track with passing places wasn't unusual! In a field of the size he has, he could fence off one bit (1/2 acre?) to use as the CL and then store his and his sister's caravan in another part - the 28 day thing shouldn't be a problem then I wouldn't have thought. There should be info on the Caravan Club website.

[Skippy]

Thanks for that Uller I'll pass on the information.
After watching the programme about the Great British Winter last night and the piece about snowdrop farming I'm going to suggest that to him. Evidently the right species of snowdrops can change hands for £20-30 per bulb and the record was over £200 for a single bulb.


Pete

[Skippy]

Ok so a year on and the field..........has sheep in it
For a time there was nothing, my friend brought , against all advice , a ride on lawn mower to try to keep the area "tidy" . As we predicted the ground was too uneven and boggy for that so he ended up reselling it. Add the trailer hire , diesel etc and he's made a loss on that.
Now there are some sheep in the field. My friend has come to an arrangement whereby the owner of the sheep maintains the hedges and fences rather than paying rent.

[jamesintayside]

I hope there is an update with better news - but of course it all depends on what your friend can envisage.

[RenewableCandy]

Willow for coppicing at boggy end. Orchard at drier end?

I'd make a forest garden if I had a field, but that's me...

I'd go for that option too. Even if the trees do nothing else, they eventually make firewood. And a wildlife reserve. And improve air quality. etc.

In a separate incident, FoE are petitioning the Govt to raise its tree-planting targets (and indeed honour them!):

https://action.1010uk.org/page/s/lets-t ... ng-targets

[Skippy]

Well ,nearly five years since I posed this question and seeing as RC has dug it up perhaps worth an update.
The sheep have gone and the field is now home to one quite ancient horse , I'm not sure about rents or whatever as I haven't inquired that much. My friend purchased a small tractor with a topper attachment to deal with some of the longer grass. It has proven useful in other ways as he also has a bucket and other attachments although it has chewed up the ground in some of the wetter parts. He's also planted a few trees mainly silver birch.
Field aside he still hasn't finished the cottage either. It's largely done but there's still those hundred and one jobs to do that all take time without any huge visible improvements.