Sally’s Wood is a place where Mother Nature is getting a helping hand thanks to one woman’s passion for trees

As visitors to Sally’s Wood pause, knee-deep in grass and undergrowth, they are likely to stop and stare. Suddenly they can catch a glimpse of the cloud-covered summits of Skiddaw, and Dodd, perched high above them. In front of the fells is an ancient oak, now sadly bare, its bleached branches standing out brightly against the dramatic backdrop.

Amid the smell of the damp earth, with the gentle buzz of bees and the endless cries of the birds, it feels a world away from everyday life. It’s no wonder its creator, Sally Phillips, loves this place so much.

When she bought this seven-acre patch of land close to the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake last year it was the next step in a very personal ecological journey.

Sally and her partner, architectural designer Darren Ward, had already spent years quietly trying to boost Cumbria’s tree population. Sally rescued trees from friends’ gardens, saved battered saplings she spotted and started to grow trees from seed, tending them in the garden of her Cockermouth home.

Then, when she ran out of space, she lined up their pots on the hard-standing outside her business’s factory unit in Maryport. As the owner of the innovative Chimney Sheep, she began by making Herdwick wool into felt draught excluders, then started to use the leftovers for garden mulch before expanding to sell even more eco-friendly products.

But her passion for horticulture didn’t stop with tree rescue – there were some far flung planting trips going on too.

Sally says: “Rebellion comes in many guises and here we were in the Lake District being guerrilla tree planters going for bike rides with gardening tools. Darren and I have spent many a weekend travelling to remote parts with trees in rucksacks to surreptitiously plant them in out of the way places. We’d go for walks with secateurs so we could cut bits of willow and poke them into damp ground to create instant trees.

“We guerrilla planted around 1,000 trees – more than 100 of them are ones that I grew from seed which we then we biked up the fells, trying to look nonchalant with bits of tree sticking out the tops of our backpacks. We must have secretly planted nearly 1,000 willows but there’s probably only half a dozen left because they get eaten by sheep – it’s crushing!”

Those forays only increased Sally’s desire for some land of her own, which she could dedicate totally to growing trees and creating a nature-rich hideaway.

“For four or five years I had been searching and searching for land that I could turn into a woodland. I used to live at Bassenthwaite and the farmer was my neighbour. He told me about this land – it’s useless for agriculture but ecologically it’s amazing.

“Some people think I’m bonkers because there’s no income stream, others are worried that I’m not doing ‘farming things’. But I would only buy agriculturally-poor land that’s no good for grazing.

“Since buying my first seven acres, I’ve agreed to buy another 13 acres nearby and it would be great to have a larger linked area for wildlife. However, I would never want my farmer neighbours to think I’m planning to buy up all the neighbouring land. Some of them have been working very hard to make it more productive. It just depends what comes on the market.”

Although the field is less tangled and overgrown than when Sally took it on, you still need to know where to look for the fruits of their labour. Their regular routes around the fields have worn paths into the grassland, though you’d assume they were sheep tracks if you didn’t know any better. And, as you look closer, you’ll see the places where they’ve already started to plant thousands of trees.

Oak and ash, sweet chestnut, field maple, black polar and hornbeam are just a few of the varieties now growing quietly. Less common varieties like walnut trees, which Sally describes as ‘her babies’ after working so hard to nurture them, are going in too, along with elm. Rowan and birch, Scots pines and horse chestnut – one big specimen transported on the roof of Sally’s car from Ullock – are also growing well, as are sprigs of yew from nearby Lorton.

“We are speeding up what nature would be doing on its own,” adds Sally, “and we’re putting in a good mix of species knowing that some of them are going to survive.”

Though the emphasis is on native species, a Christmas tree sanctuary where Sally has rehomed old festive firs donated by friends is one of the more unusual parts of the site.

The wildlife the area is attracting is another huge plus for Sally and Darren. He has rigged up cameras in the hope of catching deer in action, not least to try to work out their routes to aid their planning and try to limit damage to future saplings.

They have also seen otter prints in the shale at the sides of the becks running through the land. There are also hares, barn and tawny owls, moles, bats and voles.

“The voles are a menace in winter,” adds Sally. “They’re like mini beavers as they eat the bark and can fell the trees.”

It is one of the reasons why she has installed owl nest boxes, alongside bat and other bird boxes. “They haven’t used the boxes yet, but we have seen a barn owl sitting on one. It was brilliant. Nationally, they are scarce as there aren’t enough nesting sites.”

Encouraging other habitats, like blackthorn scrub, is another way she is attracting birds – warblers in particular love to nest in it. Sally says brambles provide a ‘natural barbed wire’ so she and Darren climb into the middle of it to plant more young trees, knowing the thorny branches will protect them from the deer. They are doing their best to avoid the plastic tubes so commonly used for protection, experimenting with wool coverings or recycling old fencing wire instead.

Elsewhere, other bushes and flowers attract insects, like valerian, thistles, orchids and meadowsweet, while large clumps of wild raspberries are teeming with bees.

“They’re all bird food to me,” adds Sally, as she points out yet more creatures buzzing around yet another precious area of planting.

But Sally’s Wood isn’t just about the flora and fauna. Sally has more reasons for her tree planting mission.

She says: “It’s vital to have more trees to combat climate change, mostly to absorb CO2 but also for flood alleviation. The government has promised to plant more trees but nothing is happening. Land owners are waiting to see what happens with the grant system before committing land to tree planting.

“Our own efforts are fairly puny given the scale of deforestation going on, but if everyone just planted a few trees it would really make a difference.

“Trees hold the moisture back, reduce the amount of sediment into the lake and slow the water down. This is important for us personally. We live in Cockermouth, Darren’s been flooded out twice, and trees help with flood mitigation.

“We know it’s a small effort and we can’t combat the carbon in the atmosphere with the tiny thing we are doing but we just need more trees.

“That’s why we have set up a Community Interest Company called Buy Land Plant Trees. As much profit as we can spare goes to buying land and planting trees. So every single thing that you buy through the Chimney Sheep shop will make a contribution to the project.”

So what’s next for Sally’s Wood? The focus will soon be on the second 13-acre field where the Buy Land Plant Tree initiative is funding the purchase of thousands more young trees.

But Darren and Sally will be getting in a little expert help for this phase.

“Professional planters can plant 1,000 to 2,000 trees a day, which is pretty impressive,” she laughs. “We think we do well if we plant 200 in a day.”

For more information, visit chimneysheep.co.uk/buy-land-plant-trees