Rich Blagden

Sunday was International Forests Day and we had a lot of fun on Instagram posting some photos and memories of some of our favourite forests. We thought we’d pick some of the best and put them on our blog. Enjoy!

First here are a few photos of Wistmans Wood, one of the very few remaining fragments of virgin Dartmoor forest.

This beautiful photo is taken near Hound Tor, this is Becka Brook in Becky Falls Ancient Woodland Park.

This is a personal favourite [Rich], the Forêt de Brocéliande around Paimpont in Brittany. Many of the Arthurian legends are set here and one of these shots shows a site called Merlin’s Tomb – there is a fountain of eternal youth nearby! There are a number of ancient and remarkable trees in the forest but the saddest is perhaps the Arbre d’Or, a golden tree ‘planted’ in memory of the devastating fire that swept through the forest in 1990.

These photos are from England’s only private woodland, Savernake Forest near Marlborough in Wiltshire. Some of the trees here are really old and you can sense the immense height of the canopy when you walk around. Many of the oldest trees are landmarks in their own right and their names are often marked on signposts. There is an amazing campsite there too which is the perfect place to explore the forest from.

These photos are from the woods around North Teign River, Gidleigh Park, and Fingle Woods. Love the different shades of green in the photos.

We’re back to Brittany in France now at the amazing Forest of Huelgoat. The village of Huelgoat is on a beautiful lake backed with ice cream shops and creperies. At the end of the lake you clamber over some boulders and find yourself in this stunning forest full of stories and legends. We enjoyed the 100 ton ‘Roche Tremblante’ which gently rocks and trembles as you push on it. It’s one of the few areas of ancient forest that once covered Brittany.

So here we are at last, then. Taleblazers. An idea and name that Kev and I first discussed about 15 years ago but never really had time to do much with. We always planned to come back and do something with it at some point, so here we are at last.

Taleblazers is our new CIC/social enterprise. Our core goal is to find, research and retell the folk stories of south Devon and Dartmoor and bring them to new audiences, and to engage young people in the art of oral storytelling. We’re also offering workshops for schools, expedition support for outdoor education programmes (eg Duke of Edinburgh) and support for students with special educational needs.

Kev and I have done a lot of stuff together. We met at Cubs at the age of seven, went to school together, played D&D together, went to gigs together, worked together, started a cricket club together. We both love walking, being in the outdoors, folklore and storytelling, so maybe it was inevitable that eventually we’d start this business together too.

He’s an amazing guy. He has a rare and natural ability to tell stories, to create an intimacy with his audience, to bring them in to the performance of his tales. Every audience I’ve seen him work his art on is captivated. More than that, his tales and ballads are meticulously researched, blending the art of the telling with a solid grounding in historical origins. He is so talented and I can’t wait until we start to bring his ballads to a wider audience.

The third member of our team is my friend Victoria who will be working on the project management side. Like us, she has a passion for the outdoors and for working on collaborative projects with the local community. She is also the queen of the Swedish fika (institutionalised coffee and cake) and is one of the most organised people I know, so she’s going to be a real asset to our team.

We have about a million ideas at the moment so our website shows just the main focus of our initial work, and we’ll expand it in time as our plans start to come to fruition. There are a lot of things in the pipeline so please sign up to our mailing list and give us a like and follow on your favoured social media. If you have any ideas or suggestions or would like to work with us, please give us a shout via the contact form.

Our Favourite Forests

Introducing… Taleblazers!

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