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
Since work began in September 2024, construction plans have been developed, surveys carried out, a site compound has been set up, and the old grain store and barn have been taken down. Plans have also been refined for the cafe and the substation and the final approval from the Local Planning Authority has been secured.
There have been three new ponds dug on site and work has begun on the new access route. Construction of the cafe and substation is about to start, and over the coming months there will be work taking place to construct the car park, footpaths, water features, drainage, and play areas.
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, helping to lay the roots of this new Community Woodland.
Over 150,000 trees have now been planted on the site over the last 3 years, including species such as 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.
For further information and contact details please visit the National Highways website.
