Infrastructure

This category of activity includes all those things that aren’t really to do with wildlife directly, but are important to allow access to enjoy and observe wildlife and all the activities which take place at Tiggins Meadow. We decided early on that, while we wanted the human impact to be low, we did not just want to shut the gate and keep humans out entirely. This meant paths, bridges, seating and an accessible gateway were an important element. When we bought Tiggins Meadow it already had a big metal gate across the entranceway which we felt we needed to keep locked in order to prevent unauthorised vehicle access. We leave it open when we are on site, but we have a pedestrian gate in the side fence of the entrance and this is not locked. We do make reasonable efforts to keep paths and bridges useable, but we must remind users that this is just a field so care is needed – it’s often bumpy and slippery and brambles like to send runners out to trip the unwary !

When we purchased the field in 2008 there was an old mobile home already on site. We have now replaced this with the barn, but the first structure we had a go at building was the Willow Shelter. This was initially to store harvested willow in, but now has a variety of uses, including being a place for walkers to shelter from rain.

We have quite a number of plastic garden chairs stored in the Willow Shelter which users may move to wherever they want them. We have also now built some permanent benches – Dad designed us a fine one to sit at the top of the orchard glade, which we installed in 2025, and a couple of years before that we installed some gabion benches filled with rubble, the idea being that they would provide dry habitat for insects.

Last, but not least, we have a compost toilet on site. We are very experienced at maintaining this hygienically and it is not smelly to use, nor does it require lots of attention. Currently it is located in a small lean-to at the rear of the semi-derelict caravan in a building we built out of wattle (rods of willow cut on the field) and daub (a mixture of clay from the field mashed up with chopped straw). It was fun building it! We plan to replace it when we finish demolishing the caravan.