Our garden backs onto a small (about three quarters of an acre) field which is all that's left of the larger field that our section of a new-ish development was built on. Originally there was planning permission for further houses on that bit, I don't know why they weren't built and I'm pretty sure that PP has now lapsed.
It's a bit of an awkward size and shape (roughly 30m x 130m) and it's obviously not really used. The owner does have livestock (sheep and cows) which are very occasionally let into it for a few days maybe once a year, if that, but for the most part it's just left. They take hay from the surrounding fields once or twice a year but never the small one. We've been here for nearly six years now and it's been getting steadily more overgrown, this year it's just a mass of giant thistles and ragwort.
We've been wondering if there's any chance they might be prepared to sell either part of it or all of it. We'd love to either be able to extend our garden back (our back fence is the next to last section on one of the long sides) or have a safe, enclosed field to use for our dogs.
What's the best way to go about approaching the owner? Just get their name and address off the land registry and send them a letter? Or is it better to do it more officially through a solicitor or something? Is it better to ascertain whether they've any inclination to sell first before discussing money or to go straight in with an offer? As you can tell we've never done anything like this before so we're not really sure what we're doing 