In April the Trust was able to complete the purchase of two acres of land directly adjacent to the eastern edge of the existing land.This story began in the 1990s when Derek Yeoman retired as a mariner to take up new challenges in Curry Rivel. Derek is best known for his subsequent work on the Somerset County Council, South Somerset District Council and the Curry Rivel Parish Council. He was also an environmentalist who was particularly keen on trees and hedgerows. On noticing that four small fields at the end of Hellards Hill Lane were having their hedges removed he managed to buy one of them. By doing this he was able to retain the hedgerows as he knew, when many didn’t ,that they were important wildlife corridors. The enormous change brought about by scientific proof that fossil fuel emissions are causing climate change and that the biodiversity in Britain was being rapidly lost was still to reach its peak but Derek took the initiative on his own land to plant trees and improve biodiversity. We can only but applaud this far sighted approach and thank Derek for it. The main trees in the woodland near his land were oak and ash, so he duly planted these as would be the most logical thing to do. Subsequently the increase in the spread of fungal disease because of the world wide spread of trade in plants has given us ash dieback disease. I discussed the removal of some diseased trees on his land but you could see he was too attached to them to cut them down. He decided he wanted to have his work protected for as long as possible and so bequeathed the field to the Woodland Trust who he wanted to manage the trees after he had died. When the time came and the Woodland Trust received the news that they were beneficiaries of the land their evaluation was that such a commitment was difficult for them to fulfill. One can see that from their point of view it was a small area of land at some distance from any of their bigger holdings and so would need a disproportionate amount of resource.. So the CWCT initiated discussions with the Woodland Trust to see if there was any way to protect Derek’s wishes. Thanks to the generosity and goodwill of the Woodland Trust we were offered the chance to buy the land at an affordable price and incorporate it into the existing holding.The Trust acknowledges the Fairfield Trust for again supporting us for some of the money and the Curry Rivel Parish Council in being willing to give a grant to cover most of the legal fees. The rest of the cost was met from the Trust’s donated funds. The field should be officially owned by the Trust when the time that this is read and in the autumn the dead and diseased ash will have to be removed and be replaced with a more diverse range of trees and shrubs as we have on our existing land.So we would like to think that this little saga of far sighted environmental work will have a happy continuation and that Derek’s ambitions for the copse will be realised. We have a proposal to call the land Yeomans Copse but we would be interested to hear your comments on our website.
