Life at Walnut Tree Farm

Product Information

Roger Deakin (2007). Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees. Hamish Hamilton Ltd. ISBN 978-0-241-14184-7. Deakin, an only child, was born in Watford, Hertfordshire. His father was a railway clerk from Walsall in the Midlands, who died when Deakin was 17. Educated at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, an independent school, based at the time in Hampstead in north-west London, followed by Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, Deakin read English, under the auspices of writer Kingsley Amis. [1] Rufus was originally designed [4] as a modern open source replacement for the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool for Windows, [5] which was primarily used to create DOS bootable USB flash drives. As well as the cottage, Deakin restored a shepherd’s hut (now available as a holiday rental). Some projects, including restoring old railway carriages, were abandoned in favour of whatever took his current attention. The land surrounding the cottage is littered with old vehicles and building materials that nature slowly reclaimed. Administrative/Biographical historyRoger Deakin (1943-2006), nature writer, environmentalist and film-maker.

At the time of his death he had just completed Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees, to be published in 2007. He had travelled in many countries - though particularly in those of the former eastern bloc - investigating the plight of ancient woodlands and forests. He was a champion of biodiversity and helped save the adjacent ancient right of way from destruction by a local farmer. He left Diss Grammar School in 1978 to join the staff of Friends of the Earth (1978-82) planning campaigns, editing and co-writing publications, and managing press relations and media strategy. The first major campaign he was closely involved in planning from the beginning was the campaign to save whales. In 1980 he successfully campaigned to save Cowpasture Lane, part of an ancient Suffolk droving road, from destruction by agribusiness. Roger was born in Watford, the son of a railway clerk, and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's school in Hampstead and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read English. A period as an advertising copywriter followed and he then spent three years as an English teacher at Diss high school, Norfolk.With EAFA’s specialist knowledge in film and it being owned and operated by UEA, EAFA was the obvious home for RD’s film-making archive and film collection. This part of the collection was transferred to EAFA in December 2009. Jeff Barrett, ed. (2009). Caught by the River: a collection of words on water. ISBN 978-1-84403-667-7. He left Diss Grammar School in 1978 to join the staff of Friends of the Earth (1978-82) planning campaigns, editing and co-writing publications, and managing press relations and media strategy. The first major campaign he was closely involved in planning from the beginning was the campaign to save whales. In 1980 he successfully campaigned to save Cowpasture Lane, part of an ancient Suffolk droving road, from destruction by agribusiness. The campaign, a key issue relating to the future of hedgerows in the debate on the Wildlife & Countryside Bill, and its success is documented as a chapter in Des Wilson’s “Citizen Action”, and in Common Ground’s “Holding Your Ground”, as well as “Hansard”. Deakin married Jenny Hind in 1973 with whom he had a son, Rufus, before the marriage was dissolved in 1982. [1] Deakin died, aged 63, in Mellis, Suffolk. He had been diagnosed with a brain tumour only four months previously. a b c d Barrell, Tony (23 August 2006). "Obituary – Roger Deakin". The Independent . Retrieved 25 June 2011.

Deakin first worked in advertising as a copywriter and creative director for Colman Prentis and Varley, while living in Bayswater, London. He was responsible for the National Coal Board slogan "Come home to a real fire". Following this, he taught French and English at Diss Grammar School for three years. [1] [3]Like many readers, I imagined he would be a dream dinner party guest but, in the end, I never met him – he died, suddenly, aged just 63, in 2006. For years, I enjoyed his writing but also pondered the distinctiveness of his generation and its value – my parents were the same age and, like Roger, had moved at the end of the 60s to seek a new kind of life in the East Anglian countryside. Deakin was a founder director of the arts and environmental charity Common Ground in 1982. Among his environmental causes, he worked to preserve woodland, ancient rights of way and coppicing techniques of Suffolk hedgerows. [3] Bibliography [ edit ] Almost half a century ago Roger Deakin had made the decision to move out of London and bought a very dilapidated farmhouse called Walnut Tree Farm. If it had been left any longer it would have become a ruin, the wood had rotted through in a lot of places and the thatch was so bad it had no protection against the elements. To add to the charm, the downstairs had been used to keep animal in and was full of their detritus. This Elizabethan building was located on the edge of Mellis Green, deep in the countryside of northern Suffolk. During this period (1983), RD also became a founder-director, with Angela King and Sue Clifford, of Common Ground, the arts/environmental charity whose ideas and initiatives he helped develop, together with Richard Mabey, Robert Hutchison and Robin Grove-White. Working with the designer and illustrator David Holmes, and with a range of artists and writers that included Heathcote Williams, Andy Goldsworthy, Posy Simmonds, Mel Calman, Glen Baxter, Peter Till, Germaine Greer, Ronald Blythe, Colin Ward, and David Nash, he helped create a distinctive “house style” for Common Ground. Where it was located was one of the largest common grazing areas in the UK at the time. Deakin slowly changed the landscape, planting trees, draining and clearing the moat, and letting the land be used in a sustainable way. He had the odd run-in with neighbours, in particular over Cowpasture Lane, but this place was to motivate him in many ways. His regular swims in the moat became the book Waterlog, the love of the landscape around was key to the creation of Common Ground and because of his work in the environmental business meant that he had a light touch on the land around his home.

Rufus supports a variety of bootable .iso files, including various Linux distributions and Windows installation .iso files, as well as raw disk image files (including compressed ones). If needed, it will install a bootloader such as SYSLINUX or GRUB onto the flash drive to render it bootable. [8] It also allows the installation of MS-DOS or FreeDOS onto a flash drive as well as the creation of Windows To Go bootable media. [9] It supports formatting flash drives using FAT, FAT32, NTFS, exFAT, UDF and ReFS filesystems. [10] In 1974 he moved to Suffolk, having rebuilt (himself) a ruined 16th Century timber-framed farmhouse, and began teaching English and Drama at Diss Grammar School, Norfolk (1974-78). He also began farming a 12-acre smallholding, chaired the newly-founded East Anglian Arts Trust and co-edited and contributed to the Waveney Clarion community newspaper. Life at Walnut Tree Farm became the subject, in 2004, of a Radio 4 programme, The House, which recorded the creaking of the ancient house at night, with mice scurrying behind the wainscotting, owls hooting in the dark beyond, and the rain beating a tattoo on the barrelled tin roofs of the outhouses. A year later came The Garden, while Cigarette On the Waveney dealt with his trip, by canoe, down the Suffolk river.

Summary

My wife and I stay in his railway wagon, which provides an unexpectedly elevated view and is beautifully decorated by Jasmin, an artist. There’s a woodburner, a sofa, a double bed and Jasmin’s paintings on the wall, one of which evokes rain falling on the moat. An open air-kitchen beneath a sunshade is made from an old workbench, with a gas camping hob plus an open fire on which we barbecue supper.

He was a regular contributor to the Financial Times , The Independent , Guardian and BBC Wildlife . From 2001 he contributed to the writers' courses at Schumacher College near Dartington. Roger Deakin (1999). Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain. Chatto and Windus. ISBN 0-7011-6652-5. Biographer-subject is a strange relationship. Close study of anyone’s life provides useful lessons. I found several in Roger’s life: I’m inspired by his bravery, how he spoke up for the ordinary nature found in all our neighbourhoods, the importance he placed on respectful relations with all animals and plants, and his insistence on doing things for himself; I take careful heed of his struggle to compromise and his sometimes reprehensible behaviour towards his partners. For all the different Rogers I discovered– in the memories of his friends, in recordings of his mellifluous voice, in the farm he inhabited so originally, and in my subconscious – the closest I came to him was when I opened his notebooks. It is sometimes thought that those who have a strong attachment to a particular landscape are by definition "parochial". This is far from the truth. Roger's interest in rivers, smallholdings, woodlands and vernacular buildings took him across the world, enabling him to seek out the commonalities of human experience, as well as the cultural and topographical differences.

In the 13 years since Deakin’s death, devotees have found their way to Walnut Tree Farm, the 16th-century timber-framed house rescued from dereliction by Deakin in 1970. The low building, its spring-fed moat (not as grand as it sounds: as Deakin notes, yeoman farmers in Suffolk followed a Tudor fashion for ornamental moats) and fields totalling 12 acres nourished his soul and his writing. Place and person grew together. Roger Deakin’s Walnut Tree Farm was built in Elizabethan times Roger was best known as a wild swimmer but he was much more besides. He was an ad man in Swinging Soho who moonlit as an upcycler selling stripped pine furniture to hipsters (including a young Judi Dench) on Portobello Road; he embraced self-sufficiency in Suffolk then became an inspirational English teacher; he was a filmmaker, a musical impresario, and he co-founded Common Ground, a prescient environmental charity which championed “ordinary” nature – verges, hedgerows, orchards. Despite finding the role that best suited his creative mind in his 50s – a writer – he never published another book in his lifetime, succumbing to a brain tumour that quietly grew as he struggled to finish a book about trees, Wildwood, which was published after his death.