Issue 50

PEOPLE
ENTREPRENEUR’S CHAT
CHARLES HOOPER
AND LISA AITKEN
A chance TV encounter led to the development of an eco-tourism
business, but this couple has faced some huge challenges
including losing many hundreds of trees and almost half a hand…
usband and wife Charles Hooper and Lisa
Aitken grew up two miles from each other in
West Sussex, but having run parallel lives in
Paris then Sydney in the ‘80s and ‘90s, they
finally met in London almost 20 years ago.
Lisa inherited her family home in 2008 and
they set about thinking of ways they could
derive an income from a six acre plot of
land including three and half acres of an old
coppiced ash woodland.
In 2009 Charles, a TV commercials producer
turned landscape designer, was a participant
in the green woodworking episode of BBC
show ‘Mastercrafts’. “It was a life changing
experience,” says Charles, “and green
woodworking has since become a passion, which I have been
teaching for the last decade. Lisa and I had similar interests in
horticulture and Lisa developed a keen interest in permaculture
and specifically forest gardening. We combined our knowledge
and skills and launched Forest Garden Shovelstrode in 2010”.
The property near East Grinstead has been in Lisa’s family for
over 50 years and comprises a paddock where Lisa used to keep
her pony, woodland and a small copse which is home to half
a dozen chickens. “The question quickly became: how can we
sustain a living from such a small piece of land?” We decided to
teach people different ways of living more self-sufficiently through
a variety of woodland craft course. We began by running courses
in bee keeping, green woodworking, clay oven building, hurdle
making, willow weaving and bronze casting. Our first yurt was
initially used for coffee breaks, and then we turned it into overnight
accommodation. It proved to be so popular, we soon built
another yurt.
“This was pre the ‘glamping revolution’ of 2010, and in 2015 we
created a beautiful log cabin. We built the cabin ourselves from
western red cedar. When the local planning officer was inevitably
notified, we explained it was built by ourselves and our course
students, and he was impressed with the level of craftsmanship.
He advised us to apply for retrospective planning, which we did.
We were then later able to apply for full permission to use the
cabin as guest accommodation”.
Charles points out that it is well worth thinking ahead when
undergoing any planning application, and to apply for any additional
structures and expansion plans all in one go, even if it takes many
years to reach that stage in the actual development of the business.
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