New Forest Writer in Residence: Beginnings

Sometimes from my flat in the city, I think I can smell the heath: the scent of dry grass; nectar from the heather and gorse; the particular warmth that rises from the bracken and dry broken branches and animal dung.

It’s not beyond the realm of possibility. The prevailing wind here comes from the West. Sometimes that means North West - where the wind passes across the heath at Deadman Hill or Fritham, where nightjars whir in the summer. Sometimes it comes from the South West, crossing Lyndhurst where the gorse bushes have a coconut scent, and grow so large they are hollow underneath. And sometimes, the wind sweeps up from South-South West, where the heath meets the salty marshes at Beaulieu or Lymington.

Of course, the wind still has to fight its way through the smog of the docks, whose cruise ships sometimes peep above the roofs of my neighbours houses. The motorway is also between me and the Forest - and so is the queue of rush hour traffic at the end of my road. But I still think that I can smell the heather.

I lived in the New Forest when I was very small. I became acquainted with oak trees and bracken - with sundews and ticks and horse-flies. I explored the heath with my friends, hiding from tourists, dreaming of turning pigs out on the Common - and hearing stories around the campfire.

Now, for many reasons, I have to live in the City. But the more I write, the more I’ve found myself wanting to reconnect with the landscape that first shaped my stories. This upcoming residency - based at the Countryside Education Trust in Beaulieu - and funded by the New Forest National Park’s Sustainable Communities Fund (more information here) is an opportunity to do just that.

I’ll talk a bit more about the application process for the Residency (and how I came up with the project proposal) in another blog. We’ll be starting properly in September - planning a programme of workshops, talks and of course, writing. The best way to find out when these are happening is to sign up to the Artfulscribe Newsletter here follow me on Instagram (@yarrowtownsend) or to find the Countryside Education Trust on Facebook.

As you can see, this is a project across three organisations (four if you include me) in the New Forest. The main focus will be on the woodland on the Beaulieu Estate - Hartford Wood - which is one of the oldest recorded managed woodlands in the country - with over 900 years of records - but my work will also cross into farming and coastal landscapes.

We want to prioritise bringing people into a landscape that they may not previously have seen up close. Even for people who live in the Forest - or on its doorstep - there can be substantial barriers to accessing it, learning about its ecology, benefiting from the landscape, and learning to protect it. Through writing, we can start to access these landscapes in many different ways - which could be anything from looking at a place we know well and describing it from a different perspective, to visiting unknown habitats and using new vocabulary.

If I were to summarise what I’m most interested in as a writer - it’s the way in which working physically in the Forest shapes my writing. Getting hands-on in the landscape has enabled me to write about it more authentically - more vividly. This is sometimes very practical work - from coppicing to chainsawing to mucking out ponies - or it might mean using natural dyes from the woods or making tea with wild plants. There are many non-fiction records of the landscape - and I’ll certainly be adding to that this year. But I’m also very interested in how poetry and fiction can help us relate to wild places.

In all my workshops, we’ll meet parts of the landscape up close (though no sawing will be required, unless highly requested). I’ve also bought a notebook for this project which, unlike my other notebooks, I hope to be able to share in its entirety - to allow you to see this process in its entirety. The project itself is still evolving - and the main chunk of work will begin in September, when we’ll share some of the planned workshops for the general public - and begin working with local organisations to bring new writers into the woodland. Beyond that, I’m already dreaming up future collaborations with conservation charities, commoners and heritage organisations - we’ll see what we can fit into the 40 days of the project!

While I’ve been waiting for my new notebook to arrive, I’ve unsurprisingly found some thoughts about the Forest emerging. So, I thought I’d share a few glimpses of them in this blog.

If you can decipher my handwriting, you’ll see there are thoughts about a circular walk on the heath; the sounds of sheep-shearing in summer and feelings about saws in the city and the forest.

I’ll of course share some of the complete poetry here as the project evolves. I quite like talking about my messy drafts - and how I take things from this step to the next - but that’s for another time.

Thanks for reading - New Forest Writer in Residence Blogs will appear here monthly - if you subscribe for free, they’ll be sent directly your inbox (along with other blogs that pop up in between).

If you’ve made it this far, I thought you might enjoy this picture of the Countryside Education Trust showing their Ram Lambs at the New Forest Show. The handsome chap on the left won first place!