The Creative Perambulations of Sherwood Forest is grateful for funding from the above
Friends of Bestwood Country Park
Dear Mr Wood,
I represent a group called the Friends of Bestwood Country Park. (http://www.bestwood-country-park.co.uk) After reading the article in the Recorder about your proposed forest boundary walk we would like to offer our support for your extremely interesting project.
As a group we are very interested in the history of Bestwood and surrounding areas. One of our members has an interest in ancient local maps which may be of help/interest to you.
If you feel there is any way we could help or assist you with your project, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We are very keen to be involved.
Best wishes and good luck with your “perambulation,” Alan Smith.
| Matthew McVeagh (Nottingham Resident) | ||
| Dave Wood |
Sorry for the delay; this is the first chance I've had to email you. I've had a look at your blog and it all sounds really interesting. I'm sure there's some way I can be involved and rope others in.
I am an organiser in a social activities group and sometimes do events connected with walking, visiting interesting places or local history. Besides this a friend has awoken a general interest in local history, especially focused on Nottingham's caves but also taking in other points of interest above ground, and I am thinking of setting up a heritage interest group for the purpose of doing things around that. I am also a great lover of trees and forests and would love to support a project highlighting their loss and the danger of continued loss. I am sure the Woodland Trust would be interested in your work, as they have been very active recently resisting the government's attempts to sell off lots of British forest.
I think what I'd like to do would be to put on some events on in one of the groups I'm in in which we join you as you perform a bit of the permbulation, combining a local walk with an exploration of local history and a discussion about the natural/built environment. How does that sound? As a first step I can post on a message board/email particular people to raise the idea, linking to your blog/email.
I hope the project is going OK so far and that your Arts Council bid is successful!
Hope to hear from you soon
Yours
Matthew McVeagh
Philip Sainty
Save Sherwood Forest
Editor, Green World magazine
Editor, Environmental Education
says
Dave has defended and promoted the rights of our natural heritage and environs for many years. I have known him make welcome contributions to a number of community initiatives and has consistently employed his talents with the written and spoken word to engage others, particularly those groups of people who are not so easily accessed using other, more conventional, methods. I fully endorse his Perambulations Project, knowing that it will bring a welcome breath of creative air to our wild spaces.
Helen Leach from Experience Nottinghamshire sent the following (excerpt only). Click to enlarge. This is a real honour for the project and shows a real development in the scheme. Please follow their link.
Dave Wood's Sherwood Forest Perambulations are an excellent idea; they encourage creative debate and awareness about the environment as well as getting people walking.
Sherwood Forest Trust will be dovetailing our Special Trees Project in with the Perambulations; we'll be helping to organise a few workshops, give back-up to the artist when we can and joining in with the marketing campaign. And, of course, we'll be supplying a few trees to plant along the way.
It's all very exciting
Erin from Notts Wildlife Trust says Sherwood Forest Trust will be dovetailing our Special Trees Project in with the Perambulations; we'll be helping to organise a few workshops, give back-up to the artist when we can and joining in with the marketing campaign. And, of course, we'll be supplying a few trees to plant along the way.
It's all very exciting
Hi Dave ...we would be very keen to link up to help promote the newly agreed boundary for the Sherwood Forest Regional Park initiative – this takes in many of the areas you will be visiting and your tour could be a great way of highlighting the Regional Park objectives and the work being done by partners to safeguard the historic area of the forest.
'Blues is my middle name' blog has featured my project. Follow the link
"Raising the issue of ever decreasing woodland habitat in our county is never easy, but David Wood is doing a fantastic job and I am looking forward to creative reflections on an ever increasingly
dynamic and varied woodland that is Sherwood Forest, especially as it once that shaped and guided the minds and souls of our ancient relatives"
dynamic and varied woodland that is Sherwood Forest, especially as it once that shaped and guided the minds and souls of our ancient relatives"
Broxtowe Green Party is delighted to support Dave Wood's new Perambulation of the Forest of Sherwood. This is a great opportunity to bring to wider attention the ancient woodlands of Nottinghamshire and the important role they have had in our community. The walk will also help people to think about the role that green spaces have in the modern world and reflect on how precious they are. The Greens are always campaigning to preserve and enhance green spaces and thiswalk will help the public engage with these ideas. The walk will also help highlight the proposed Forest Regional Park, an idea that is worth pursuing.
-- Paul Anderson
Broxtowe Green Party
email: p.anderson[at]eastmidlandsgreenparty.org.uk
Read our blog: http://broxtowegreenparty.wordpress.com/
-- Paul Anderson
Broxtowe Green Party
email: p.anderson[at]eastmidlandsgreenparty.org.uk
Read our blog: http://broxtowegreenparty.wordpress.com/
The Woodland Trust sent me the following letter...
IN THE COMPANY OF TREES
(Written in support of the application by Dave Wood for Arts Council funding)
WHEN MY FEET LEAVE THE STREETS OF THE CITY TO TREAD THE FOREST
FLOOR I FEEL A REAL CONNECTION, NOT JUST WITH THE PATH BENEATH
ME BUT WITH ALL THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED THIS WAY BEFORE.
HAVING BEEN BORN AND BROUGHT UP ON A CITY HOUSING ESTATE, MY
OWN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE CHILDHOOD, WITHOUT THE DISTRACTIONS OF
TELEVISION AND COMPUTER, MEANT BEING ABLE TO COMMUNE WITH
NATURE ON THE LARGE FIELD, NOT YET BUILT UPON, BUT DESTINED FOR
HOUSING, WHICH LAY ACROSS THE ROAD FROM MY HOME. I FOUND
MYSELF IMMERSED IN WILDLIFE AND HAVING FUN WITH MY IMAGINATION
AND CREATIVITY IN MY OWN LITTLE TREE-LESS SHERWOOD, SOMETHING
THAT HAS REMAINED WITH ME THROUGHOUT MY LIFE.
MY EXCITEMENT TOOK A BOUND WHEN I READ OF THE PERAMBULATION
OF SHERWOOD FOREST PROPOSED BY LOCAL POET DAVE WOOD AND HIS
DESIRE TO ALERT THE PEOPLE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE TO WHAT THEY
STILL HAD AND WHAT THEY MIGHT STILL LOSE OF THE ONCE VAST FOREST
OF SHERWOOD. I WAS THRILLED TO HEAR FURTHERMORE ABOUT A SERIES
OF INTENDED WORKSHOPS ALONG THE WAY AIMED AT HELPING US TO
REDISCOVER OUR ESSENTIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE NATURAL
AND BUILT ENVIRONMENTS AND ONE ANOTHER, AS WELL AS WITH OLD
SKILLS CONNECTING US TO THE ORIGINS OF OUR COMMUNITIES,
(A PARTICULAR INTEREST OF MINE AND OF THE LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY
TO WHICH I BELONG).
MANY OF TODAY’S YOUNGSTERS, IT SEEMS TO ME, ARE TOO BUSY AT
HOME WITH THEIR HARD DRIVES OR OUT WALKING THE MALLS OF OUR
SHOPPING CENTRES TO HAVE HAD MORE THAN A PASSING INTEREST
IN THE WIDER ENVIRONS OF THEIR COUNTY, SAVE PERHAPS FOR THE
ROMANTIC HOLLYWOOD IMAGE OF A ROBIN HOOD, PRINCE OF THIEVES,
INHABITING A VIRTUAL FOREST UNCONNECTED TO THE REAL COUNTRY-
-SIDE THAT THEY HAVE NEVER SET FOOT IN. ON THE OTHER HAND,
SHOULD YOU ENQUIRE OF ANYONE THAT YOU MIGHT MEET ON THE
STREETS OF LENTON, RADFORD OR BULWELL, OR ANY OTHER OF THE
INNER CITY AREAS OF NOTTINGHAM , FOR DIRECTIONS TO SHERWOOD
ON THE FOREST RECREATION GROUND OR PERHAPS BE ADVISED TO TAKE
THE TRAM TO HUCKNALL!
SHOULDN’T WE ALL ENDORSE THIS INITIATIVE WHICH SEEKS TO SHOW
THAT THERE’S A LITTLE BIT OF SHERWOOD FOREST IN OUR OWN BACK
YARD, IF ONLY WE’D TAKE THE TROUBLE TO LOOK, AND WALK ON
THE FUTURE?
I BELIEVE THAT WHAT WE FOCUS ON
DWELLER, YOUNG OR OLD, MIGHT DO WELL TO SEEK INSPIRATION FROM
AND GAIN SOME RESPITE BEYOND THE TURMOIL OF LIFE, IN THE PEACEFUL
COMPANY OF OUR ANCIENT OAKS.
David Maslen Radford Local History Society Member 2011
