Outdoor nursery venture

[Makehaywhilethesunshines]

I am trying to set up my own nursery, but an outdoor based one. This is not a new concept but there are not many around yet and I am really passionate about it and want to get involved. I am in the process of looking for woodland to either purchase or rent but am coming up with not much at the moment. The sales companies often include strict covenants which could prevent running a business from the woods despite a focus of the nursery being on wood preservation and conservation. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas on how I would go about finding a site other than good old google. How would I go about approaching an owner of a woodland to use or even buy their site? I am going to contact my local council but just wondered if anyone else had any ideas? Thank you!

Try woods4sale there is a few different sites where the forestry commission are selling woodlands. You might get lucky and find a reasonable one near you

No ideas. But this is exactly the type of thing I would love.

What area are you looking in?

My friend has just done exactly what you want to do. She struggled to find a site for a while and then got lucky at a local primary school which happened to be next to woodland. Her nursery is separate from the school, but able to use school facilities (playground, field, 1 indoor classroom and undercover area, toilets etc).
I would speak to the council to see if they can help - I would have thought they’d be helpful if another nursery is needed. I thought my friend attaching to a school was a clever idea because it has helped her build up numbers - younger siblings of children already at the school.

East Sussex/Kent kind of area.
Thanks, I’ve looked on woods4sale, nothing at the moment but will keep my eyes peeled.

Attaching to a school is a good idea thank you I will investigate that too.

Like you, my friend initially looked at renting random bits of woodland - but she also found she wasn’t allowed to operate a business from certain areas. And also, starting from scratch in a wood is hard! Much easier to find a patch of woodland next to a facility (if not a school, perhaps a Village Hall - which would have a kitchen, toilets, indoor space) so that your start up costs are lower.

Look for scout huts, rugby clubs etc that are beside woodland and might let you rent their facilities.

If you identify land you’re interested in you can usually find out the owner on the land registry website, then contact them.

Thanks everyone, great ideas so far.

Sorry - bit late to this but thought I'd chip in. My son attends an outdoor kindergarten. It's actually on a "business park", but just happens to be attached to a farm. It's fully wooded, with the advantages of having lots of parking, plus a working/children's farm. You probably hadn't thought of business parks as ideal, but there are a lot of rural ones by me (Worcs) and they're certainly not all concrete and sheds. We seem to have seen a real surge in privately run forest schools around here - examples I can think of are at an angling centre, several farms, garden centre, arboretum. Lots of rural businesses/landowners wanting to diversify and find other ways to make money!

my child has been to a forest nursery which applied permit from council and just uses the whole wildlife park. they dont rent or buy anything but are able to use the whole park to do different walks, children playground, set up camps with wooden tables/seats in a more coverred area.

I have a smallholding in norfolk with permission to set one up but not got the time but happy to rent if someone would like to take the task on..