We (Anne and Laurie) bought this Copse in autumn of 2019 with the specific aim of conserving it for wildlife.

However, it soon became clear that it needs restoration rather than simply conservation. 

Our aim is to restore the woodland into good health.

Our Objective is to make it a better place for wildlife to live and humans to enjoy.

Our desire to protect land for wildlife rather than make money off the back of it is central to all we are trying to achieve. The wood needs to become self sustaining, financially and ecologically and that is what we are striving for. We also want it to become a useful community resource, good for walkers and riders amongst others.

We love having the volunteers working with us and could not have done all that has been done without them. They are truly wonderful!

We would love to find craftsmen, skilled in traditional wood crafts, to come and work the copse in the way it could have been in the past. We are looking at coppicing, hedge laying, hurdle making, bodgering and charcoal burning currently, but are open to other skills.

Our wildlife evolved to live in managed woodland over many hundreds of years and woodland that is not managed becomes less valuable for the wildlife it could support. The canopy closes over and the wood becomes so dark there is no fruit or flower formation, so no nectar or fruit for insects or small mammals.  Larger predators don't have enough food - and everyone loses out.

We have lost over 50% of our hedges in this country since the Second World War to the detriment of much of our wildlife. Hedges that remain are often flailed to keep them in shape as this is an efficient way of cutting them, but it is not a good way for wildlife as it pulverises the ends of the branches where many insects are living. We hope to create hedges to try and replace a little of what has been lost. Thank you to the Woodland Trust and The Conservation Volunteers for donations of whips (baby trees) over the last three years. We have now planted about 600 in trees in total, both to bulk up the hedgerows and within the woodland itself. These are native species with good provenance and will provide fruit and flowers in time.

We want to get as much wildlife back into the copse as we can.

But we also want to make it a lovely place for humans to come to as well and so will continue to work to try and improve the public rights of way over and around the land. We hope this will make it easier for walkers and riders to keep to them, as walking through the woods is not doing the soil or the ground flora any good.

The Copse could be a good community resource in time, and we have plans to work with our local GP practice, schools and other community organisations in the future.

We hope to run activities to help local people feel some connection with the woodland so keep an eye on the events page!