Creating a new community woodland
Hole Farm, near Brentwood in Essex, is a 100 hectare site where we’ll be planning, planting and managing a new community woodland in partnership with National Highways.
Our vision for Hole Farm is to create a multi-purpose woodland which will become an inspiring place for people to visit and explore, a thriving wildlife habitat and a source of sustainable timber.
This ties in with Forestry England and National Highways shared vision to “deliver a legacy of inspirational multi-purpose forest creation projects that will enhance and integrate the Lower Thames Crossing landscape for the environment and wellbeing."
Follow the story of our new woodland here.
Latest news from Hole Farm
From late September 2024 the existing barns at Hole Farm will be demolished due to their poor condition. This will enable the creation of the new community woodland in preparation for its opening in summer 2025. There will be an increase in vehicle movements around this area but the public footpath and bridleway will not be affected by this work and will remain in use.
Work will continue on the surrounding grassland in preparation for further tree planting this winter. Tree planting will begin again in November and we will be hosting a day for the community to help out. More information and details on how to sign up are below.
Working together with the local community
We sent questionnaires to 7,000 households in the surrounding area to gauge people’s opinions of the project and to hear what they would like to see, do and experience at Hole Farm community woodland.
We held four follow-up virtual workshops with the local community to discuss the four main themes of the project: community and recreation, design and delivery, nature and biodiversity and access, traffic and public rights of way. People shared a wide range of views and we were able to explore these further during drop-in days, which included guided tours of the proposed community woodland.
We used the information gathered to develop Hole Farm's woodland design and held our final consultation drop-in days in Great Warley on 2 and 3 September 2022.
Hole Farm community planting days
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our planting days at Hole Farm last year, helping to lay the roots of this new Community Woodland.
Over 80,000 trees have now been planted on the site, including species such as black poplar, oak, hazel and hornbeam. The species mix was developed with Forest Research, the UK’s principal organisation for forestry and tree-related research, taking account of the site geology, soil condition and climate.
We have another 90,000 trees to plant in winter 2024/5 and would love community help to do this. We’ll be having a planting day on Saturday 9 November (10am – 3pm), with refreshments and hot drinks provided. If you’d like to get involved please sign up via the button below, and we will be in touch with more information.
For further information and contact details please visit the National Highways website.
