MAN MAKES FIRE

David Fearnhead meets bushcraft expert Adrian Rose to hear an inspiring story of hope through nature

When it comes to making fire most of us wouldn’t know how to rub two sticks together. Adrian Rose is different.

He’s a master at it. He’s also adept at shelter building, animal tracking, wild foods, medicine foraging and natural navigation. He’ll even carve you a spoon or weave you a basket from willow. His passion is passing on that knowledge which is known as bushcraft.

“Bushcraft is essentially a collection of primitive skills employed to enhance one’s ability to operate within natural spaces such as woodlands.”

“This skillset can help one to gain a better understanding and empathy with the natural world. With them you become intimately aware of the amazing resources that surround us when in the countryside, especially here in the stunning Ribble Valley,” explains Adrian, who is the founder of Northwest Bushcraft CIC.

Nature is a proven healer for those suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and mental health issues, and picking up a new skillset has been particular helpful to those who’ve served in the Armed Forces. They are often men who, for want of a better phrase, have become institutionalised. Men who’ve suffered life-changing injuries and been witness to events which scar not only the body.

“Not everyone needs to talk, sometimes they just need an environment where they feel safe,” says Adrian, whose father spent 22 years in the British Army. “The service is provided free to those who need it, and is supported by charitable donations, grant applications and generous donations from the public. Without this vital support we wouldn’t be able to help our veterans and others living with mental health issues.”

It was time spent with his grandfather which first gifted Adrian a love for working with nature. “He was a forester and tree feller. He lived in a little Hansel and Gretel cottage in the forest. He was an outdoorsman which was the only reason he was allowed to marry my grandmother, who was Romany.”

As a boy Adrian opted to spend every holiday at his grandparents. “You can imagine, I was a 10-year-old boy with a shotgun slung over my arm walking through the woods with my grandad. It was amazing, like I was living Danny Champion of the World.”

“My gran would say, ‘I’m just off shopping’ and I would think, ‘But there’s not a shop within 15 miles of here’. She would come back from the forest with a basket full of food. She may not have known the Latin names for things but she knew that that plant stopped a headache, that mushroom tasted great, but that one was poisonous. For tea my grandad would turn up with a rabbit or a pheasant that had wandered under his shotgun. It was magic, they could make something from nothing. It was organic and sustainable long before anyone was using those words.”

When Adrian had his daughter, Emily, that interest was rekindled. “I felt it was incumbent on me to pass on those skills. We are only custodians of this planet until the next generation comes along. At nine Emily knew the Latin names of a 100 mushrooms. She once brought home a pheasant that was roadkill and we checked it over and had it for tea. It was amazing. When people knock the X-box generation it’s because they don’t know anything else.”

Though he does admit he’s reliant on Emily for some help: “I’m a Luddite when it comes to modern technology, but drop me in the woods and I’ll outlast anyone,” he jokes.

His enthusiasm for the outdoors makes him an excellent teacher, so much so that he’s even in demand by television companies. He was recently featured on ITV’s Britain’s Greatest Walks when they filmed in the Forest of Bowland.

Adrian has been teaching bush and survival skills for nearly 15 years, alongside wife Louise who specialises in herbal medicine – something it’s clear he also has a passion for: “Most modern medicines get their derivation from wild plants such as Willow, Yew and Foxglove. There’s a plant called meadowsweet, which is an antiseptic. Its roots are the exact same pink as Germolene and it smells just the same.”

The redemptive power of nature is just as strong in healing the mind. Rik Law was a soldier who sustained a serious injury whilst on exercise. It almost cost him his life and his leg. Struggling with PTSD he contacted Adrian for help. “He hated crowded places like supermarkets. He had all these bad memories of being in hospital and people crowding round him. I said, come down and we’ll have a brew and go for a walk in the woods.”

Rik was so taken by the outdoors lifestyle that he’s now one of their part-time instructors. “If we’re going to target people with PTSD we need to know what we’re talking about,” says Adrian. “We need to have experts on board. It’s no good having figureheads who are great by name but not by deed. You can’t cure PTSD, you can’t cure anxiety and depression, but you can help it. You can find out the triggers and alleviate some of the symptoms.”

The desire to help people in Adrian has always been there. He tells a story of the day he decided to quit his job with social services, it speaks volumes about his character. “I was a community care officer and my job was to go into elderly people’s homes who were struggling and create packages of care.

“One day I’d gone to assess this lady who was 92 and recently gone blind. She was a proud lady, and all she wanted was someone to come in one day a week for 20 minutes because she didn’t feel safe taking a bath on her own. I recommended she receive assistance, but it was refused. When I asked why, I was given a copy of the Community Care Act 1992. There was a sentence which read, ‘Having a bath is not a necessary function of life.’ I went back to my office and immediately wrote my resignation.”

“I’ve always had that need to help people. It goes back to building a legacy. When it comes to witnessing my final sunset I want to be sitting under a tree, with my little fire next to me, and know that my life was worth living because I made it an okay place for a soldier that needed to cry. I held him, by a river whilst he cried, I wasn’t being judgemental, it was for no other reason than that guy needed that.”

“It doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank, what matters is that your life has touched others. Let’s make doing good for others go viral. Let’s make it acceptable for a woman suffering postnatal depression to say, ‘I can’t cope’. Let’s make it okay for a man to cry.”

If you can help with a donation or want to learn more about Northwest Bushcraft CIC you can contact Adrian by calling 07702 462705 or email: nwb-cic@hotmail.com

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