First steps in buying some land

[dragonoak]

Hey there guys, hope you all had a very happy festive season :)

For the past few months myself and the other half have seriously been considering buying some land for chickens/rabbis/veg/and fruit. The only problem is we really dont know where to start. We seem to be falling at the first hurdle by not even know what type of land we would like for above purposes, and feel that going into an estate agents and asking these questions would just flag us as cash-cows

Can anyone reccomend a website, mailing list, book (buying land in UK for Dummies would be awesome!!!)... that would help us answer even these rudimentory questions? Unfortunatly going and trying to find out about local landowners from the people themselves is out of the quesion as theres one family round here with their fingers in many pies that have a grudge again my OH- and we fear that this may hinder our chances if they found out.... But we would really need an area quite close so the channels need to be quite public (ie. not on the grape-vine with everybody knowing what we were after).

We've tried just typing "buy land UK"... it didn't really come up with anything useful as we don't really know what we need to ask for in the first place

Even the tinyest bit of information would be greatly appreciated, anything is more then we know!!! Thank you all for your time and for reading :)

[TheGoodEarth]

Why do you need to buy land? Can't you get an allotment? Or a house with a half decent sized garden

[happyhippy]

I thought I had replied to this post,but it has'nt shown up? Anyway...........Have you heard of Landshare?People advertise their plots of land/gardens for free use.You just look up whats available in your area.I know you said you wanted to buy some land,but this could be a good option for you,or even just to fill the gap before you do buy.There is an estate agent called "Out in the Sticks"(could be "In the Sticks")try googling it.Landshare can be found I think(?)on the River Cottage website.I think there is a link to it.

[Harasimow]

you could try here

http://www.uklanddirectory.org.uk/build ... r-sale.asp

[Harasimow]

If land for sale is advertised as Land type Paddocks. Does that mean you have to get permission to change it from "paddocks" to "arable" to grow veg/keep chooks ect? Hope you dont mind me asking in your thread? Also is that likely to be difficult?

[dragonoak]

We already have an end terraced house with a garden that sweeps round from front to back, is about the size of 2 standard allotments. Only problem is the local council wont let us have rabbits or chickens As for the local allotments, we got bullied off those 2 years back, being threatened with RSPCA and police harassment... the reason for this being that our chickens were ex-battery and were always in a sorry state. Up here the allotments are really used for show veggies and pedigree livestock for hobbies and not for living off so anybody like us tends to get muscled out

We registered with landshare a wee while back now, applied for eveything in our local area (in about 10/15 mile radius) but no one even bothered replying, even to turn us down. We've given the thougt about buying a lot of attention and we really feel that even an acre or two to call our own would really make the difference in our quality of life and that of the hounds :)

[dragonoak]

Not at all Hara- it is also one of the things I havn't got a clue about and is high on my "to ask" list :)

[cooltrikerchick]

you could see if anything comes up on

www.rightmove.co.uk or if not you could try your local feed merchant to see if they have a sales notice board... they also know what the local gossip is when it comes to land for sale etc

[Christine]

Re: looking for the 'right sort' of land, perhaps start by looking at what's growing/living on any vacant patches you identify, or on the adjacent patches.

[oldjerry]

Having land you travel to can be a pain.I've had extra rented land (you've never enough!)away from the holding,and though the owners are usually personal friends,it's still awkward,security,sick animals,bad weather etc.etc.I know it's needs must for some people who live urban,but I think you need to go into it with your eyes open.If you've the chance to rent/buy a place with the land you want even if it's well out of your area...well.....Anyhow best wishes with whatever you do,and by the way,if somethings advertised as a paddock it's to tempt some silly bugger with a horse and more money than sense to pay over the top.(please,please god may one come to buy this place!).......anyhow,unless it's in a defra scheme and you're getting paid, you can grow what you like on it('cept the wrong sort of grass!)