Down in the woods today…

General Events

Pepper Wood, near Bromsgrove, hosts a very special Open Day on Saturday May 21, marking 30 years’ worth of work by a Worcestershire volunteer group.

The ancient wood is owned by the Woodland Trust and has been managed by a local community group since 1981.

The Open Day, running between 11am and 3pm, will see a number of displays and special walking routes laid out, highlighting the wildlife in the wood and the unique relationship between the management of the wood and its flora and fauna.

The focus of the event is the conversion of wood into produce. Horse logging and a mobile sawmill will see oak trunks end up as furniture, with a number of other traditional woodland-based crafts such as hurdle-weaving, pole-lathe turning and besom making also being demonstrated.

Visitors can meet the community group, see how they manage and care for the wood, and even try their hand at some traditional woodland crafts such as using a pole lathe and finishing a timber-framed building!

Everyone is welcome to attend;  however, all children under 16 must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times. 

Pepper Wood is ancient, meaning it is at least 400 years old, with local history suggesting it is as much as 900 years old. The 134-acre wood is home to an array of native trees, including the nationally rare wild service tree and wild cherry.  It also supports more than 100 species of flowering plant, 60 bird species and as many as a third of all the Ancient Woodland Indicators found in the whole of Worcestershire.

Jane Thomas, site manager for the Woodland Trust, comments: “To have what is essentially voluntary support in one of our woods for as long as 30 years is almost unheard of. One of the Trust’s main aims is to inspire people about the importance of our native woods and there’s no better example than the Pepper Wood community group – they are a great model of how local people can make a wood their own.”

Hugh Jenkins of the Pepper Wood community group adds: “As the name suggests, our work is very much a group effort. Without the combined efforts of every single person during the course of the last 30 years, Pepper Wood wouldn’t be in the glorious state we find it in today.”

More information and directions to Pepper Wood can be found at http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/our-woods/Pages/wood-details.aspx?wood=4065

The Woodland Trust is looking for people across Worcestershire to plant a new generation of ‘Jubilee Woods’ as part of its “More Trees, More Good” campaign to double native woodland cover. Find out more at http://www.MoreTreesMoreGood.org.uk/jubilee