Harvesting timber on potentially unowned land

[RobHeskin]

24 minutes ago, Paul in the woods said:

Who dropped the litter, the public?

That's a fair point. Yes, the litter isn't their fault. People who litter disgust me.

Perhaps that's just me coming from a background in ecology and estate maintenance.

The main issue is more the state of the pathways and the trees but I didn't think mentioning those would go down too well on here either...

But that's not too relevant to this discussion.

 

Thanks for the suggestion about magic maps.

[GarethM]

As I've said you need to check the definitive map from the council, it lists all rights of access and it's status.

 

Footpaths don't really need to be maintained as long as it's passable on foot and nothing more.

 

Bridleways are more council or possibly sustrans maintained, as that's open to all including bicycles and wheelchairs, that's a whole HSE rabbit hole.

[drinksloe]

Possibly different in eng.

 

But possibly if the 2 adjoining pieces of land are owned by different land owners and if at some time in the past were owned by the same land owner there may be the possibility both land owners own up to there boundry fence/hedge but the piece of ground in the middle was never sold.

 

So possibly the neighbours don't know who does own it

 

I know my grandfather once got a brucey bonus cheque for some land he never knew he owned.

At 1 point must have owned both sides of a wide ditch sold both sides off to different folk but never the ditch decades earlier.

A developer built something on it and paid him for this useless bit of ditch.

 

But as others have said even if u find the owner its not so much the taking of any timber which will be a problem but the insurance liability of u using power saws on  his ground, if u cut/hurt urself or worse someone on footpath

[petercb]

Re bridleways etc council are resposible for surface. Landowner is responsible for any side growth i.e. hedges and trees overhanging. Probably why farmer was playing dumb as it's his responsibility to clear.

[trigger_andy]

Sounds like a £20-£50 bit of oak. A lot of hassle to go to for a bit of timber that being a branch will most likely be reaction wood that will be all but useless for milling. 

The time and expense that will go into milling you’d be as well buying a small sawlog. 

[Steven P]

Just a thought, are both the farmers land owners or are either of them tenants? Giving them a little credit that they are telling the truth. If their tenancy is just the fields, and they don't work the woodland or pay for it, they might not know exactly who owns it (however I bet they could find the landowners number in 5 minutes if they ever needed to if there was a problem that affected their land).

 

[RobHeskin]

1 hour ago, trigger_andy said:

Sounds like a £20-£50 bit of oak. A lot of hassle to go to for a bit of timber that being a branch will most likely be reaction wood that will be all but useless for milling. 

The time and expense that will go into milling you’d be as well buying a small sawlog. 

By reaction wood, do you mean that it will warp a lot while drying?

If so you're probably right. It's probably not worth all the hassle.

It wouldn't do for me to go to all the trouble of acquiring this timber only to have it warp and become useless before or even after I've made anything with it.

I'm very new to milling and only just discovering how things work. 

[trigger_andy]

13 minutes ago, RobHeskin said:

By reaction wood, do you mean that it will warp a lot while drying?

If so you're probably right. It's probably not worth all the hassle.

It wouldn't do for me to go to all the trouble of acquiring this timber only to have it warp and become useless before or even after I've made anything with it.

I'm very new to milling and only just discovering how things work. 

Reaction wood - Wikipedia

EN.M.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

 

Have a read of that. 

[Johnsond]

3 hours ago, trigger_andy said:

Sounds like a £20-£50 bit of oak. A lot of hassle to go to for a bit of timber that being a branch will most likely be reaction wood that will be all but useless for milling. 

The time and expense that will go into milling you’d be as well buying a small sawlog. 

There’s a couple of lovely oaks on the old railway line route up by me andy, they came down in the storms last winter. I’ve asked both farmers either side of the road that the line runs parallel with and neither said the land was theirs or indeed cared, it’s basically an overgrown back to nature patch. Help yourself was the answer I got but  access is near on impossible unless you put a road closure in and get a decent size hi ab wagon in. More hassle than it’s worth in reality 

[trigger_andy]

11 hours ago, Johnsond said:

There’s a couple of lovely oaks on the old railway line route up by me andy, they came down in the storms last winter. I’ve asked both farmers either side of the road that the line runs parallel with and neither said the land was theirs or indeed cared, it’s basically an overgrown back to nature patch. Help yourself was the answer I got but  access is near on impossible unless you put a road closure in and get a decent size hi ab wagon in. More hassle than it’s worth in reality 

Mill on location?