21 November 2009 – Will and Ed Found in a Wood

In a chance encounter I met Will and Ed in Romsey in the Spring (See blog 20 April). I was bicycling across the country and they were walking around it <www.awalkaroundbritain.com>. My journey took a week and theirs was taking months and months walking generally west, then north, living in the woods, walking the lanes and paths, singing old country songs for their supper. A sort of social experiment to live on the land, to shake off the claws of high energy consumerism, to find new healthier rhythms. I applaud it heartily, and like many others wish them well. Then suddenly I discover that we are almost neighbours. We settled in Kington in the Welsh Marches; Will and Ed and Ayla and Rose took up residence in a Welsh wood over the hill.

We went to look for them without very many clues other than “somewhere in Radnorshire”. The woods around Pen y Bont seem to be full of people living in mobile homes and trailers eking out an existence in defiance of the Welsh climate if not Powys Planning Department. Good on them. If Powys knew what was good for them they would be paying grants for people to buy up fields and woods to settle the land with low impact lifestyles so that we have a repository of wisdom for following them when we run out of choices. At the third trailer parked up semi-permanently in a dripping wood we received red hot intelligence that Will n' Ed had recently been seen. A long wet walk around a large oak wood began cold without a hint of woodlander life but then we found some footprints; soon we saw evidence of firewood scavenging and hazel stick cutting. We knew we had found them! Finally there were Will, Ed, Ayla and Rose toiling away building a not inconsiderable lodge of hazel sticks that would have have impressed aboriginal villagers in Borneo.

They were doing well. There was a little stove, a good fire and cooking pot, the nearby recycling centre (dump) had yielded up endless treasures for re-use in a woodlander's winter residence, and a series of benders made life tolerably sheltered if damp. The mice were delighted and kept them awake with their much repacking and sorting of provisions in the night. We brought a kotlich, tripod and grill to contribute to a well provisioned winter quarters. They sang us a song for our trouble; “her rosy red cheeks and curly black hair....” destined to cause trouble. Shout for joy for the woodlanders!