Sustainability Stories – “How we created a new wood”
John Ogden from Sustainable Blewbury explains how they created Quaker Wood.
Around five years ago a group of us from Sustainable Blewbury got the idea of creating a woodland at the village, having been inspired by a national campaign to plant more trees to improve nature recovery and join the fight against global warming.
We weren’t complete novices, one of us had created a woodland before elsewhere in the north of the county and a few of us could lay hedges. We were also keen to develop from the success of Sustainable Blewbury’s work at the village nature reserve which is now full of white throat and yellow hammer together with various ground nesting species (which means no dogs).
Finding a suitable spot took a while, but eventually we located a potential site. There was an unused narrow stretch of land near the village hall which had previously been a horse paddock.
It was about three acres bordered on one side by a barbed wire fence and a stream and trees on the other. It was incredibly overgrown with the grass and shrubs higher than my head!
I approached the owner about whether we could lease the land to plant on it. She gave it some consideration and then very generously offered to give the land to the village.
We had the land but before we could do anything further, we needed to do some important checks, such as wildlife and historic surveys. It was known that the land had been the site of a Quaker meeting house and burial ground at one time, which is how it got its new name ‘Quaker Wood’. We successfully applied for a grant of £500 from Vale to pay for the surveys, which fortunately proved that we could proceed.
The next stage was the most daunting as we had to clear the site of the barbed wire fence, weeds and shrub as well as cutting down dead trees, ready for the planting. This needed specialist help including tree surgeons. We applied to the Vale’s Climate Action Fund and between the financial support from the council and a generous bequest from the family of a long term Blewbury resident we were able to meet the costs.
In late autumn 2024 with volunteers including from the local primary school we planted 850 trees including maple, alder, birch, beech, hornbeam, willow and rowan. We also put in 2,000 hedge plants including hawthorns hazel, spindle, wayfaring tree and guelder rose among others. We’re putting in new gates and a memorial bench for the resident whose bequest helped us.
Quaker Wood is planted but the work continues with monthly maintenance work parties hand weeding and strimming around the young trees and mowing between the trees – thanks to the parish council loaning their mower. We’re proud to have such a great example of groups and organisations coming together for local nature
Contact us - Climate and biodiversity team
Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House
Abbey Close
Abingdon
OX14 3JE
