The Hen House Chronicles

KajiKita

I can understand how upsetting and unsettling that could be. 

One thing you could try is contacting the parish council and planning departments in the local council for advice. 

I would also be tempted to tackle the parking neighbour head on and see if some compromise could be reached whereby some of the area becomes parking but not all of it? 

I would definitely form a residents’ group asap and start putting feelers out for advice to any other local community or communal garden groups for advice and solidarity as well. It could be quite fun. 😊 I wish you luck.

Hope you are all feeling less sicky now as well?

KK

Viking_mfw

I would be tempted to get the community together to stop going to Sunday service and instead gathering on the communal land for a community prayer/worship. And asking everyone who goes to church to express their disappointment to the vicar and say how it's really shaken their trust in the church as an institution. 

greenbee

Do any residents have good legal contacts? And do you have documentation about the gift? If the church holds the land in trust for the community, they shouldn’t just be able to dispose of it, as it isn’t actually theirs.

Watty1

That would be very upsetting. If the land was gifted it no longer belongs to the church so surely can't be sold?  I understand the church not wanting to pay for the tree trimming so maybe there is a solution there, that the square take over that too?  

As I was making my coffee whilst reading this I had a dim recollection of a neighbour who had managed a "land grab" of some council land on the basis that he had been maintaining it for years and the council had not, presumably because he had.   I just thought he had the time  LOL but it turned out to be a very clever move because he then gated the area and extended his drive giving the house next door a right of way over the end (that neighbour was furious)

I cannot remember all the details but 60 years is a long time for you all to have been maintaining an area.  Hopefully one of the neighbours will have a legally minded friend/contact tucked away somewhere.

MerryHen

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
A few people have written to the vicar and we have arranged a meeting with him.
Re: the garden being gifted to the residents but in the church's trust; this is what I was told but the vicar's letter said the land was gifted to the church so I may have been misinformed on that. The letter did refer to the square by another name though. The name we know it by appears on the old censuses, and there's a very old street sign with that name as you enter the square. I messaged a local historian about the other name and he said this was the name of another square a little further up the street. Those houses were knocked down and newer houses built on them around the time our square was gifted.
He also mentioned that looking at an old tithe map all the land in our part of the village was owned by the church/vicar (we live opposite the old vicarage and about 100m from the church). Interestingly we're some of the few houses in the village with freehold properties. The land the rest of the village is built on is still owned by the estate of the once ruling family of the area and are leasehold properties paying a peppercorn rent. I assume at some point the church sold their land to the mill owners to build the weavers cottages we now live in. But it would be interesting to see the documentation and deeds.
Anyway, we shall see what comes of this meeting.

We're less sick now thanks KK Poor DH got it too but by sheer good luck DD avoided it 🙌

Watty1

Your local historian might be really helpful in finding relevant documents.  Good luck!

MerryHen

Lovely day here in the Hen House mostly spent playing in the park and garden and going for a walk in the woods, the children loved finding elderberries to eat.
DD and I made bread but had run out of bread flour so used self raising instead- doughy but tasty. We also made a little bit of jam with some blackberries DD collected on the walk home from her child minder the other evening. It only made a few spoonfuls of jam but I've suggested we make scones tomorrow to go with it 😋
We also picked the last of our green tomatoes and put them into a potato and chickpea curry which we'll also have tomorrow. Not quite self-sufficient but I do enjoy the little bit of food we manage to grow and forage 🍅🫐

I logged into my Prolific account again today and completed a few surveys for the first time since 2020- it has been a busy few years!

Aimingforthegoodlife

Sorry to hear about the communal land, seems rotten of the church to do this, especially as the old priest had no issues. If it is purely about the finances of tree maintenance perhaps there is another way to manage it rather than them sell? I would also agree about getting everyone together to look at a group purchase, at least that way it can remain communal. Tomatoes look great!

MerryHen

As ever, I intended to update sooner but life is very busy!

Garden update: we have agreed to form a resident's association with the neighbours to buy the garden as a group, although things have been very quiet on that front since it was agreed. The Church is aware of our plan though.

Midwifery training continues to take up most of my time, physical energy, mental energy and headspace. I work 30 hours a week on placement, have a clinical portfolio with written reflections and learning notes to maintain plus academic work to complete including my final year project which I am just starting. The sheer amount of work is quite daunting 😅 thankfully only 9 months to go.

Start of the month figures:

Emergency fund: £5300

Next car fund: £3750

S&S ISA: £2034

Holiday pot: £760

Sinking pots: £3818

Car loan: £-190 (1 month!)

(I have separated out the holiday pot from the other sinking pots because unlike the pots for insurance, car maintenance and holiday childcare it's a fun one!)

I had to dip into the emergency savings again this month to buy a new phone after my old one developed an irreparable fault. Between trying to repair the old one, buying a temporary phone while repairs were happening, and then buying a new phone I have spent almost £600 😭 but hopefully this new phone lasts a number of years.

Some exciting news though: in April 2021 I joined the local allotment waiting list and in August 2022 I was offered a plot (much quicker than the anticipated four year wait!). However, I turned it down because DS2 was on the way and I knew I'd have no time and instead I asked to go back to the bottom of the list. 

I enquired about my place on the list again and apparently I have been floating at the top for a while but the membership secretary had made a note to ask me again in 2025. Realistically I won't have the time for it until my training is out of the way next Summer or Autumn but it's exciting knowing I am top of the list once I am ready.

KajiKita

Good news that the community is pulling together to buy the ground. Watch for nefarious nonsense from the church and them asking you for a development value - have your own ready to counter offer with perhaps?

Are you enjoying the midwifery training? Sounds like a tough course! 

All your savings are looking good 😊 The spend on the phone is what these savings are for - so spend like that don’t have to go on CCs. That’s a win in my book 😊👏

Good news on the allotment 😊

KK