Making the World A Better Place

I like supporting charities. Amidst the chorus of bad news from the media, it really cheers me up to think that people are spending their time trying to do good stuff, and I love reading each charity's newsletter to hear how they are making the world a better place.

Which is, indirectly, why I found myself at Twyford Farm (below), in deepest Sussex, last week. 

Years ago,  I wrote an article about English hedgerows and met a man called Robin Page.   Journalist, countryside writer and sometime politician, he is full of energy and quite a character, and he's based in a farm in Barton, Cambridgeshire. The farm is called Lark Rise, and it teems with the wild creatures, insects and flowers that you'd expect in an old fashioned corner of the English countryside.

In the  long-ago 1990s, when I visited Robin, the land around Lark Rise had was being farmed as agribusiness, with pretty well every hedge, tree and natural feature bulldozed in order to create enormous fields. These were managed and harvested in the most efficient and profitable way, as if the fields were a huge outdoor vegetable factory.  I found it distinctly "Twilight Zone" to leave Lark Rise and walk into those huge, flat, boring, businesslike Cambridgeshire fields.   Not a bird singing, not an animal stirring, not a bee buzzing... it really did not seem right.

It was such a contrast, in fact, that I joined the charity Robin had just founded. In it, he planned with characteristic energy, to show that commercial farming could coexist with conservation and wildlife.  It is called The Countryside Restoration Trust (click the link to see their video). Over the years since I joined, the CRT has acquired more land in Barton and acquired properties in another 10 areas of  Britain.  

Somehow I never went back to Lark Rise farm, nor did I meet Robin again, nor visit any of the CRT's other properties.  But last week, it was sunny and I was looking through their latest newsletter, when on impulse I decided to go and stay in the b&b run at Twyford Farm, some 35 miles south of London in Ashdown Forest. This farm, previously used for breeding Welsh Ponies, was gifted to the CRT in 2013.  It had become rather run down in some ways, and I'd been reading in the newsletter how the tenants, Bob and Liz, had been working like mad to get it into shape.

After a rather long trip to Sussex, caused by getting lost, despite the GPS (my fault), we finally reached Ashdown Forest.  About 1,200 acres in size, it was a nobleman's hunting forest in the 11th century, but by the 20th century it had become famous as the haunt of Winnie the Pooh. Author AA Milne lived here when he wrote "Winnie the Pooh" and the illustrator, E.H. Shepard, visited the area to sketch his illustrations.  There's a website about Pooh locations here.



But we didn't go in search of Pooh. It was all we could do to find the farm.  Down a narrow lane we went, then up a track, and finally, there was the gate we were looking for...

It is not dilapidated any more. In the last couple of years has been repaired, redecorated and modernised just enough, but not too much. (This was a big plus for me. I like to be comfortable but hate it when old places have the authenticity taken out of them.).  There were several friendly, clean and obedient dogs who were very happy to make friends with us, sheep on the hillside, cows on the heath, lots of books on the shelves about nature and wildlife, even animal faces on the cushions...

As in many old farmhouses, there is a lot of space. Guests have their own dining and sitting room plus the use of an amazing south facing terrace...  but it must be confessed there isn't a great deal of head-room at times. As you can probably estimate from the doorway shown below, the folks who built the farm around the 16th century must have been little more than five foot tall.Still, you do get used to the door height pretty fast... a couple of bangs on the head each did it for us. 

We spent our time quite simply, mostly in chatting with Liz, Bob and a couple of other guests, and going for walks. We could roam anywhere on the farm, and the the exceptionally beautiful woodlands and heathland around was criss crossed with public footpaths and bridleways. 

Although something is known of the farm's history, there is still much to discover. About ten minutes walk from the farmhouse, we turned down a track and found ourselves by a large pond, surrounded by reeds, rushes, and both wild and what seemed to be naturalised garden flowers too. Beneath the trees, with the evening sun shining through the leaves, it was a lovely place to linger as the summer twilight fell.  

I noticed some interesting specimen trees had been planted around the pond,  making it seem even less like a regular farm pond and more like someone's private retreat. It was puzzling, because the land has been farmed for years, and farmers don't usually have too much time to hike out in order to sit  and contemplate such a scene. Perhaps I'll discover the story behind it some day.   

Twyford Farm has a small herd of cattle which it grazes in Ashdown Forest. Despite its name, the Forest contains quite a bit of open heathland, and cows have been grazed here for centuries.  One day we took a walk in an area called Chelwood Vachery.   Nearby monks used it for their cows in the 14th century, but now most of the area is overgrown with trees.  

The monks went long ago, but at the start of the 20th century, a wealthy MP called Sir Stuart Samuel built a grand, (some might even say overbearing) mansion in the Vachery. It seems he had a formal garden near the house, but a more naturalistic area further away, and by the 1920s the garden boasted a terraced area with a sequence of linked pools, complete with sluices, colourful rhododendrons, a folly bridge and a miniature version of the cliffs of the Cheddar Gorge winding down the hill - the latter was created using rocks brought all the way from Somerset.

But as you can see, these acres of garden were abandoned a long time ago and are now quite overgrown.  The area is being cared for by volunteers, but they don't attempt to bring it back to its former glory. Even in its overgrown state it is charming. It is certainly wildlife-friendly and is also a bit peculiar, really, since the water running through the valley is a chalybeate stream - so full of iron that it shines red as rust when the sun catches it directly. 

  Here is a photo of the folly bridge, which is far bigger than its role deserves, since it only spans this tiny river. Our footpath, however, winds through another arch in the bridge, towards stepping stones which cross the river again.   It was all very green and mysterious, with birdsong the only sound.

Can you imagine that bridge when it was new?  It seemed to me that in its heyday it could have been a great place to have 1920s fun

Just down the lane from Twyford is another interesting farm.   Plaw Hatch and its next-door-neighbour Tablehurst Farm are owned by a cooperative - a sort of crowdfunding farm ownership scheme.   Bob, with decades of experience looking after cattle, said that their cows are in pretty good shape, and the people there are businesslike as well as charming, friendly and welcoming.   If you want to find out more, please take a look at their extremely interesting website. 

We took a little stroll around the farm, and saw some of the cows waiting to be milked.  Like many farm animals in summer, they were troubled with flies, and were making full use of a brush fixed up for their use.   

 I didn't photograph a group of kids who were looking at the cows being milked in the little parlour, but at the sales desk, beneath a mural of a leaping cow, I was able to see through a glass window to the cheese-making next door,

 The farm buildings were old, and full of character...

We wondered what the peculiar little building was on the right, below.  It had a bell, so we thought it might be a schoolroom, but the near-circular chamber inside wasn't anything like a schoolroom - too small and such an unusual shape.   There was a Victorian date carved somewhere. Any ideas, anyone?

I think there's a pop up coffee shop at the farm on some days of the week, and possibly also a bar (they do sell local beer).  The farm shop sells all kinds of biodynamic foods, raw milk, cheese, and what we thought was the the best yogurt we'd had, ever.  Sadly, I think it's only available at the farm, but if you should ever happen to see any, do give it a try.

You could spend many days exploring Ashdown Forest, but there are also quite a few stately homes, animal attractions and National Trust properties nearby. (With, of course, those ever welcome National Trust teashops.) 

My favourite local NT property is Sheffield Park and Garden, designed by the famous landscape designer Capability Brown.   Only the parkland and garden belong to the National Trust, but the "Strawberry Gothic" style Sheffield Park House still exists (it is now private apartments). You can glimpse part of it below, overlooking Capability's landscaping.  It is quite a pile. 

Turn the other way, and this is the view that the people in the house see.

 I particularly liked the red water lilies, but then I'm always a sucker for water lilies.  

This summer we haven't had all that many consecutive days of good weather.  I was grateful that we used what we had at Twyford Farm, but eventually the clouds gathered and the rain set in again.  I returned to London, feeling pleased at having seen some of the work the CRT does and reflecting that I 'd probably never have visited the area otherwise.  Because it really is awkward to reach from our home, you know, even though I actually read the map just fine on the way back...