Birchanger Wood consists of 69 acres of ancient coppiced woodland – hornbeam, hazel, ash, birch, oak, sweet chestnut, cherry, holly, and a wide range of flora including English bluebells, wood anemones and golden saxifrages. The wood is maintained entirely by volunteers in accordance with a management plan drawn up by professional ecologists and the Forestry Commission for the benefit of local community and visitors and supported by donations from a wide range of organisations, private, public and by individuals.
Our log sales will resume every Saturday from Saturday 13th September, between 2pm and 3pm. We sell seasoned firewood by the barrow-load, at £15 per barrow. We also have handmade kindling at £15 for a large bag.
You can find us at our Compound – drive up past the Scout Hut off Heath Row and we will help you load up your car. Click here to see a map.
All the money raised goes towards maintaining the woodland and carrying out further conservation projects, in line with our charitable aims and objectives.
Our wood is certified Ready to Burn, for more information please see click here.
Come and see what goes on behind the scenes in our compound at Birchanger Wood and then enjoy a stroll around our beautiful wood as the season begins to turn.
We will have fun activities for the whole community, like crafting for children, and wood turning demonstrations. It’s completely free to attend, although donations are gratefully received. A card reader will be available and cash is also welcomed.
Our team will be on hand to explain the work that goes into protecting the wood, and we’ll have items for sale to help raise funds. And we’re always keen to hear from people who would like to volunteer with us. More details will follow soon, but for now: save the date!
Unfortunately, the time has come (as we knew it would) for us to deal with the impact of Ash dieback, a fungal disease affecting Ash trees in the wood.
Sadly in certain areas this will result in swathes of woodland being left devoid of trees. The areas most affected being along the banks of the stream and behind Birchwood School.
Ash sited away from the pathways, and therefore not posing any problem to the many who enjoy walking the wood, will be left to decay naturally, benefiting nature as a habitat for copious life forms. The diseased trees on the path edges will be dealt with by our group of volunteers during the course of the next five years, I do hope I am not being too ambitious regarding this time span!
Please be aware that in order to access the Ash, other species will ultimately suffer, the felling of healthy trees in this regard is an unavoidable and regrettable consequence that we have to accept.
Please do feel free to call in on a Saturday and have a chat, raising any concerns that you may have with regard to the proposed felling programme. We genuinely wish to harmonise and encourage patronage of the wood. We certainly do not want to alarm users when witnessing felling on such a dramatic scale.
Just a footnote, these works do not fall into the category of general coppicing and woodland management.
Come and see what goes on behind the scenes in our compound at Birchanger Wood and then enjoy a stroll around our beautiful wood as the bluebells bloom.
We will have fun activities for the whole community, like crafting for children and wood turning demonstrations. It’s completely free to attend, although donations are gratefully received. A card reader will be available and cash is also welcomed.
Our team will be on hand to explain the work that goes into protecting the wood, and we’ll have items for sale to help raise funds. And we’re always keen to hear from people who would like to volunteer with us. More details will follow soon, but for now: save the date!
We have SOLD OUT of seasoned logs for this winter – we will not be selling again until Autumn 2025.
Thank you to everyone that has bought firewood from us this winter, all the money we raise goes straight back into the care and protection of this beautiful woodland.
From Saturday 2nd November we will be selling logs between the following times:
9am-10am
2pm-3pm
We sell seasoned firewood by the barrow-load, at £15 per barrow. We also have handmade kindling at £15 for a large bag.
You can find us at our Compound – drive up past the Scout Hut off Heath Row and we will help you load up your car. Click here to see a map.
All the money raised goes towards maintaining the woodland and carrying out further conservation projects, in line with our charitable aims and objectives.
Our wood is certified Ready to Burn, for more information please click here.
Our log sales will resume every Saturday from Saturday 3rd August, between 1pm and 3pm. We sell seasoned firewood by the barrow-load, at £15 per barrow. We also have handmade kindling at £15 for a large bag.
You can find us at our Compound – drive up past the Scout Hut off Heath Row and we will help you load up your car. Click here to see a map.
All the money raised goes towards maintaining the woodland and carrying out further conservation projects, in line with our charitable aims and objectives.
Our wood is certified Ready to Burn, for more information please see click here.
Come and see what goes on behind the scenes in our compound at Birchanger Wood and then enjoy a stroll around our beautiful wood as the season begins to turn.
We will have fun activities for the whole community, like pond dipping and crafting for children, and wood turning demonstrations. It’s completely free to attend, although donations are gratefully received. A card reader will be available and cash is also welcomed.
Our team will be on hand to explain the work that goes into protecting the wood, and we’ll have items for sale to help raise funds. And we’re always keen to hear from people who would like to volunteer with us. More details will follow soon, but for now: save the date!
Please note that the bridge that has been installed behind Wickes was not built by nor approved by the Birchanger Wood Trust. We continue to work with parties including local residents and the Environment Agency to explore the options for a replacement that meets applicable requirements.
We will post updates here on our website and on our Facebook page as and when we have them. Thank you.
The bee boxes are already doing a fantastic job to support honeybees in our area, which are facing the dual threats of climate change and habitat loss. The boxes are important because they provide a home to native honeybee colonies when they swarm, which they do when their colony outgrows its home. The more we can do to support them, the better, because a healthy bee population supports biodiversity – and crop production, they do a vital job pollinating plants.
New footage of our bee boxes in action!
May is a busy time of year for bees, and thanks to our bee expert Philip and our volunteer Steve, we have some new footage of them in action this week!
Steve took this great video of the bees using one of the boxes earlier this week – there is also lots of bird song to be heard, including chiffchaff, robin and wren, so have the sound on if you can!
And earlier this week, Phillip spotted a ‘swarm’ beneath one of the boxes – can you see them here?
Making sure the boxes are ‘just right’
Much like ourselves, bees are quite fussy when it comes to finding a new home. Seeing them this busy is great news! Philip helps to make the boxes as appealing as possible to the bees by building the boxes an ideal size, making the entrance holes small, and positioning them well above the ground facing in the optimum direction.
He also makes the boxes ‘smell’ just right (to the bees at least!) by putting some old ‘brood comb’ in the hive, painting beeswax onto the frames, rubbing propolis – a resin-like material made by bees – all over the interior, and adding a pouch of slow-release lemon grass oil, which mimics their nasanov gland secretion.
This careful planning helps to ensure the bees move into our boxes and are less likely to swarm where they are not so welcome.
Our thanks again to Philip for all his hard work in building and installing the boxes.
We hope you enjoy spotting the bees in the wood when you next visit!
Birchanger Wood 