The following is written by someone who likes to call herself a 'regular visitor'. Which means she tends to turn up quite often, but mostly when she's heard there's a party…

What Steward Wood means to me...

As a visitor I see things through very different eyes to the residents. I am continually impressed by how every time I come up here something has changed, been improved, rebuilt or had windows added. I am also continually surprised by the amount of ideas and improvements they all come up with, but I guess that's one of the advantages of living in a group - people really can inspire each other. Steward Wood and the people who live there have inspired me a great deal and here I've collected my thoughts and experiences so people thinking of visiting the Wood can see how another someone else saw it.

My first…visit to the woods!!
I had read quite a lot of the website and at that time it was
1) much much smaller and
2) had less pictures so I couldn't really see what it would be like.

I had been emailing Ben for a while before I was invited to their first anniversary party. I arrived in the afternoon and this tall guy with long hair was unloading vegetables from a van. I was all by myself and I was so nervous because I hardly knew anyone but I said 'Hi' and told him who I was and he considered me for a moment before telling me he was Ben, which was a lucky coincidence.

I was introduced to everyone after trudging up the hill and I remember starting to help a girl called Beccy chop vegetables for the evening meal. When I'd finished chopping I met Clare, who was clearing out Ben's bender which was being used as a space for guests to sleep. Other guests stared arriving at nightfall and it began getting very cold. That party was the largest I've been to at the wood. There must have been well over 50 people there and I spent a lot of time talking to guests around the fire pit before deciding it was absolutely freezing even with a fire and retired to the Longhouse.

What I find incredible now is that at the time I knew so little about the concept of veganism, and, partly as an influence of my visits to the wood and talking to the residents about their way of life, (and partly as a natural progression from my vegetarianism) I gave up all dairy products 7 months ago.

I loved my first visit to the woods and I was totally head over heels with the project. Further visits have allowed me to see more in depth to what the project is really about and to experience many things I wouldn't have missed for anything.

For instance, I was there last year when then public enquiry was held. It was heartbreaking watching Dan be interrogated for hours over what was his chosen lifestyle. It really highlighted for me how sad the whole thing was - that the people who have become some of my most respected friends should have to have every aspect of their lives examined and challenged, just so they can do this project which they are so committed to.

I was there when the inspector went around the site with Dan and I remember the feeling there was that night when the whole group sat down together that night to eat, thinking that the inquiry had gone really well and that we (there I go again, using 'we' as if I'm a member of the group) were likely to win.

Dan called me the day they found out the appeal had been turned down and even through the phone call I knew what an awful feeling it must have been to have felt so positive and then have it shattered.

Last summer at the woods was incredible. There were lots of other visitors other than myself and there were also some families which gave the whole place a totally different atmosphere. This is partly why having a baby is considered so special at the wood - it changes everything.

It's also very different during the winter - few people visit, even for parties, and the daylight hours are limited. It's also cold and the weather can be harsh on Dartmoor.

I think many people have the impression that to live sustainably in a wood with your friends might be easy, and indeed I may have fallen victim to this school of thought of thought before I visited. I can tell you it really isn't as easy as it looks. It can be hard, living and working with a group of people you are not bonded to by marriage or blood. This can be explained - society has conditioned us to lose our sense of belonging and community. Here you see an attempt to snatch it back, which in my opinion is something really worth fighting for.

But there only one sure way to find out for yourself. I can't tell you everything.
What are you waiting for? Go on, give them a visit.