Possible New Meet Up Site In Cornwall

[Chubbs]

I have been trying to do my bit for the members of the forum by looking around for new places to have a meet. Steeple Woods Nature Reserve in St Ives, Cornwall is a 40 acre site which is managed by volunteers and is situated not far from the coast. I have been in contact by email with a site member and am now awaiting a response from their chairperson. Seeing as though their group is always looking for funds to keep their project running, I have offered an incentive of £5.00 per person per night as this seems to be the going rate for other camps. Hopefully we should hear something in a week or so.

http://steeplewoods.org/

Here's hoping.

Cheers Neil

[rawfish111]

Bloody good effort, hope it pays off! T^

[Sar-ian]

Give the man a cigar, good on ya fella, a classic case of two birds, one stone me thinks. I hope it works out for you.....

[JonnyP]

Nice one Chubbs, thats the way to do it.. It might help also if you offered some help in the land management. These places often need a bit of hands on. I went to a meet on National Trust land once, we were there from friday night til monday and we all worked on the saturday. We had good fun, camped in the woods and helped out others.. Win win..

[Kernowek Scouser]

I completely missed this thread.

You have found one of my sneaky camping spots Neil.

As the wood (and surrounding area) is riddled with mine shafts, I'd be (happily) surprised if official permission could be given, as this would then make the land owner liable if a new shaft were to open up, as one did not so long ago.

Did the chair person ever get back to you?

[Chubbs]

Did the chair person ever get back to you?

No, not at all mate.

I sent him another message about a month later but yet again nothing. I did read a story not long back in the West Briton about a camp fire that had got out of control and the fire service had to attend at the same woods. Their advice was to keep an eye on your camp fire if anybody else had one there again. This response makes me wonder whether it is a well used spot by campers/hangers and a blind eye is turned.

What do you think Colin.

[Kernowek Scouser]

I'm not surprised to be honest.

The woods are good for a stealth camp on your johnson or with one other, but with the number of dog walkers, busybodies and local youths looking for somewhere to practise procreation, I would not think it suited to hosting a meet.

It isn't actually that big an area, the wood itself accounts for about a third of the land being looked after, the rest being heather or moor like land. The wood is about half way up the seaward side of Steeple Hill and starts where the rather big, posh houses stop (I live nearer to the bottom of the hill with the plebs) and those folks tend to call the Police first and ask questions later. In the summer the woods do play host to various travellers, who set up then after a week or two, get moved on, so while there is an element of a blind eye policy being operated, it is not applied to everyone equally.

Then there are the mine shafts. The cottage next door is partially built over one, when the previous owner decided to lay foundations for a proper conservatory, one minute he was chatting to his work mates as they dug down, the next they were all shouting and screaming as a 50+ foot hole the size of a family car opened up! There are not believed to be so many shafts down our end of the hill, but up near the woods the hill is meant to be riddled with them like Swiss cheese and like I say, the ground shifts or shaft vent open up with some regularity.

I've taken my chances up there, but I would not invite anyone else along, as I would not want them falling down a shaft on my conscience.

More to say, but got to go, TBC.

[Kernowek Scouser]

... But there are a couple of other small privately owned woods rounds about, that are both bigger and better suited to hosting gatherings, have streams flowing through them, plenty of wildlife in them to keep the hunters happy and are more off the beaten track, so less likely to get much intrusive foot fall.

I'm in talks with the owner of one such woods, regarding access. She hasn't completely bought into the idea yet, but I am slowly building trust, winning her over doing odd jobs and rudimentary land management, when time allows and my knee is willing. But I don't think she is quite at the point where she'd be happy for a bunch of burly blokes to descend on her land and play with fire. However, I am confident she will got to that point eventually and when she does, I'll see about sorting out a meet there.

In the mean time, there is always Laddock and I've started another thread trying to get a meet (http://www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?5715-Larking-about-up-Ladock-way&p=80174&viewfull=1#post80174) off the ground there in June, if you are interested have a gander.

Probably not the answer you were looking for, but not a complete bust either.

Atb.

Colin