Story
Drawing inspiration from Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways, as well as Pushpanath Krishnamurthy’s The Unreasonable Transformers of South India and C J Schuler’s The Wood That Built London, I’m hiking 42km in one day (whilst singing traditional songs from my 365 days of folk catalogue) to raise funds for Buckthorne Cutting Nature Reserve... known locally as Fourth Reserve. This is one of the last remaining fragments of The Great North Wood, a once-mighty natural oak woodland that stretched from the South Norwood Ridge up to Deptford—original circumference about 42km. I will be walking the entire perimeter of that ancient haven of biodiversity, as a way of highlighting how much has been lost and therefore how important it is to treasure & protect what’s left.
Here is the proposed route ==> komoot.com/tour/2574168537.
Fourth Reserve is a small but mighty wild space, punching well above its weight, harbouring rare species, buzzing pollinators, and a green haven for us all. But it only stays that way with volunteering and charitable support. As conservation charities go, Fourth Reserve Foundation is one of the most impressive, effective, and deserving: in 2025 alone, they have successfully converted the land into officially designated Metropolitan Open Land (preserving it permanently to the same standards of recognition as Green Belt). Their hard work in this regard has been celebrated as a case study in how to work amicably & effectively with local councils. The foundation's army of volunteers meets every Tuesday & Friday to get hands-on with conservation & monitoring. There is a regular "forest school" (Reed Robins) teaching school children to value nature conservation. A regular "open day" is held on which the wider public and local writers/poets/musicians are invited on site to celebrate & commemorate nature.
Every mile I hike will ultimately be for the birds, bees, and wildflowers that make the reserve so special; we are fundraising specifically for the following equipment that our volunteers urgently need as they move into winter and work hard to maintain critical habitats in this cathedral of biodiversity:
1. A really heavy duty rotavator to break up compacted soil on the embankment = £900
2. Fruit picking ladders x 3 for the plum tree orchard = £650
3. Woodchipper so we can create our own woodchip especially in the orchard = £700
4. Skip for waste removal = £400
5. Shed for machinery storage = £800
Total = £3450