Crewkerne, Somerset

Doors to another dimension

In deepest Somerset, the planning system has been sent into panic by the little people. Yes, that’s fairies, not at the bottom of the garden but in Wayford Woods near Crewkerne. It appears the little blighters have been settling down in hollow trees and erecting tiny doors for their homes. And there's the rub – there are scores of doors and they are in variable architectural taste. Some of the doors are Gothic, some vernacular, some just plain odd.

The more garish doors don't appeal to the locals, or to the trustees of the woodland where the small people have taken up residence, and rumour has it that even some of the fairies themselves (they're a shy people, after all) are put off by many of the additions. The last straw came when a fairy playground was also put up amidst the trees. "We're not anti-fairy. But we've got little doors everywhere," lamented one of the wood's trustees. So fairy control has become necessary in the Crewkerne area, and the hope is that, moderation being the best policy, and perhaps also the best planning policy, some of the outré additions will be removed, restoring the woodland to something like its former glory. The time is ripe for change.
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Photograph by Amber Pritchard, sourced from the BBC News website