An ambitious plan to create a Knaresborough Forest Park has moved a step closer to being realised, due to a new share offer from the Long Lands Community.

If successful, the scheme will bring part of the ancient Royal Forest of Knaresborough back into community ownership for the first time since it was enclosed in 1770.

Until this year, the Long Lands Community – which comprises grassroots financial supporters, largely from the local area – had 30 acres of land in common ownership. The land, named Long Lands Common, is a community woodland nature reserve that was bought in 2021 with the proceeds of a £400,000 Community Shares offer.

It is the first ever community-owned woodlands project for Harrogate and Knaresborough, and was established on greenbelt farmland previously threatened by the building of a major road.

This month, with the aid of a £410,000 grant from the George A Moore Foundation, additional donations of £100,000, and a £300,000 philanthropic loan from impact investment organisation We Have The Power, the community is purchasing 60 more acres of greenbelt land between Knaresborough and Starbeck to create Knaresborough Forest Park and the Long Lands Community Food Forest.

But the Long Lands Community now needs to raise £300,000 in donations and community shares sales to pay off the bridging loan from We Have The Power as soon as possible.

As much as £22,000 has already been raised within 48 hours of the share launch, but if the full sum is not raised, some of the land may have to be resold in order to pay off the loan. It could then potentially be purchased by developers or other buyers, putting the project and the greenbelt at risk.

George Eglese, associate of the Institute of Place Management and one of the directors of Long Lands Common Limited, said:

Long Lands Common borders Nidderdale Greenway between Bilton and Starbeck in the west and extends eastwards towards Knaresborough.

The transformation from farmland to nature reserve at Long Lands Common is well underway, with the implementation of a woodland creation plan aided by grant funding.

With the help of grants from the White Rose Forest, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Defra, volunteers have already created a mosaic of habitats by planting trees, creating new hedgerows and woodland, digging three new ponds and sowing a wildflower meadow.

Knaresborough Forest Park is intended to be a large, community-owned wood meadow and public green space that extends the wildlife corridor eastwards, from the fields bordering Long Lands Common all the way to Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough. It also runs alongside the Beryl Burton Cycleway between Bilton and Knaresborough.

Long Lands Community Food Forest is a concept developed by a group of shareholders, known as Longlanders, to create a site for growing food in one of the project’s new fields bordering Bilton Hall Drive.

The plan is to use “forest gardening, traditional horticulture and permaculture design practices to develop community participation in food production and enhance the resilience of our local food supply and economy”.

While other sites in the Long Lands Community could be considered to have a 70/30 bias in favour of nature, the Food Forest is intended to be 70/30 in favour of humans – community volunteering, public education, and preservation of heritage food varieties.

Knaresborough Town Council is planning an event to commemorate the enclosure of the Great Forest of Knaresborough as part of Feva (Knaresborough’s Festival of the Visual Arts) on August 13, when there will be an opportunity to view the land and talk to members of the Long Lands team about their plans for it.

Details of the latest Long Lands share scheme can be found on the community’s website.