Wigan Winds, a Fallen Fence and a Car Full of Logs: Looking After Your Neighbour

The wind that came through Wigan last week took two panels of our back fence out and left the side gate hanging off one hinge. Annoying, but fixable. What bothered me more was looking over at next door. Our neighbour is in his 90s, and his fence had gone the same way, with a length of it down across the path he uses to get to his bins.

So the fence job turned into a wood job. An hour with the saw, a few trips round the side, and we had a stack of ready-cut firewood and a neighbour who could get down his own path again. It is the most useful thing I have done for our little community in months, and it cost me an afternoon and a tank of petrol. My car, which normally carries children, school bags and a golf bag, is currently doing a very good impression of a van.

What the wind actually left behind

Storm damage is rarely dramatic. Nobody's roof came off. There was no emergency. What we had was:

• Two fence panels flat on the lawn

• A gate that now closes at an angle

• A pile of timber that would have gone to the tip

• An elderly neighbour who could not safely get past his own fence to put the bins out

That last one is the bit that matters. A fence is annoying for me. For someone in their 90s, a fallen panel across a path is a trip hazard and a reason to stay indoors.

The neighbour in his 90s came first

I did not plan this as a good deed. I went out to clear our side, saw his, and changed the order of the job. His path got cleared before our lawn did.

He came out to watch, told me I was doing it wrong, and then told me exactly how he would have done it forty years ago. We settled on my way, mostly because his saw is long gone. He stayed out for the whole thing, which I suspect was the real point.

Community is built on boring jobs, not big gestures

There is a version of this where you post about volunteering, or organise something. Fair play to anyone who does. But most of what holds a street together is duller than that. It is clearing a path, taking a parcel in, remembering which bin goes out on which week.

Community does not need a committee. It needs somebody to notice that the fence over the road is down and the person behind it is 92.

If you want a short list, this is what worked for us:

• Clear the path first, the garden second

• Ask before you cut anything that is not yours

• Cut it to a size they can actually lift, or lift it for them

• Take the tip run yourself rather than leaving them with a pile

My car is a van now

The boot is full. So is the back seat. There is a smell of pine and a bit of bark in the footwell that I suspect will outlast the car. My youngest found a woodlouse on the school run and has not stopped talking about it.

We will burn some of it in the log burner this winter. The rest is stacked round the side of our neighbour's house, because he has a coal fire and no interest in my opinions about kiln-dried logs. He has enough to see him through a cold snap, which is the entire point.

What I would say if your fence comes down this week

Check the oldest person on your street. Not a text, an actual knock. Ask three things: is your path clear, are your bins reachable, and do you need anything fetching from the shop while I am out.

Then, if there is wood going spare, ask if they want it before you take it to the tip. Somebody on your road has a fire, a chiminea or a kid doing a woodwork badge at Scouts.

The wind will do what it does. The community bit is what happens the morning after, with a saw and a boot full of logs. Go and knock on the door.

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