Nick Wright describes his work at the Snowdon School of Furniture which started as a one-week summer school, the brainchild of David Snowdon and Carmel Allen, Linley’s then creative director, to celebrate 30 years of Linley Furniture and give something back to support student makers.
Hailing from Utah in the US, Justin Davies, most widely known as JustinTheTrees, has brought wood culture to hundreds of millions by sharing his adventures with trees and timber. John Orchard speaks with Justin about the concept of species loneliness, the taste of sassafras ice cream and the intense optimism found in bringing people closer to nature.
By Alex Mowat, Trustee.
James Wood, the charity’s demonstration woodland, is more than a plantation of trees to grow fine timber. It is a project that gives back in terms of information and education. Inspired by James Stratton it lives on the kindness of volunteers.
At the end of September 14 kind volunteers from TFT Consultants, came to the site and protected the emerging direct seeded oak saplings from rabbits in Tubex easy wraps.
It is intended that these easy wraps will also give an exact match in conditions to the adjacent nursery grown trees to see how the emerging tree growth compares. Emerging trees were still patchy in their success rates. Some runs of planting had 100 % success and other runs had nothing for several meters at a time. As the acorns were mixed and the soil type is the same the depth of planting could affect the irregularity.
This wonderful group of building surveyors, project managers and property consultants we very chatty at first inspired by the blue sky and panoramic views of the Quantocks and a day away from keyboards. Very quickly a hush fell over the field as the teams got their eye in, finding seedlings in the grass, marking them. This was followed by a chorus of hammers tapping in stakes rhythmically and putting guards on.
A beautiful day in the rolling hills was concluded by a very satisfactory task for everyone. Each volunteer took a bag of acorns, selected from premium trees in Rycote Park in Oxfordshire. The TFT team got on their hands and knees straight away and infilled the blank areas with seed, one by one.
Each volunteer was surprised to find a chocolate biscuit at the top of each row as a well earned reward! We hope the volunteers will come back and see them germinate next year. Thank you to Simon, Caroline and Ellie for collecting the acorns and thank you team TFT for giving up your time and being superheroes for a day!
Hailing from Utah in the US, Justin Davies, most widely known as JustinTheTrees, has brought wood culture to hundreds of millions by sharing his adventures with trees and timber. John Orchard speaks with Justin about the concept of species loneliness, the taste of sassafras ice cream and the intense optimism found in bringing people closer to nature.
This project was first shared in Wood Culture: The Journal of Woodland Heritage, 2025. Wood Culture: the Journal of Woodland Heritage is published annually as a benefit of membership. You can support Woodland Heritage by becoming a member.
The people involved in growing trees and using timber can be shy, quiet and modest. Sometimes preferring to spend time with trees, in nature and in workshops.
As a result, the work and skills of brilliant people who are a vital part of the UK's wood culture can be underrepresented and are not often well recognised.
A Productive Year has helped ensure some of these people and places don’t go un-noticed while the UK continues to import masses of timber and use too many disposable, unrepairable products.
Woodland Heritage has travelled to photograph and film some of our finest makers and woodland workers. Some names will be familiar, others less so. All are masters of their craft. The photographs were taken by Ellie Walpole. The project was funded by the Garfield Weston Foundation. We would like to thank Ellie, the Foundation and all the individuals who gave their time to be photographed.
It is a remarkable collection of images and a survey of the work going on, often unseen, in our woods and workshops. The first set of images appeared in the most recent edition of Wood Culture: The Journal of Woodland Heritage and many more will appear throughout 2026.
Our deepest thanks…
…to those people and places involved in the project and to the project’s generous funder, Garfield Weston Foundation.
Woodland Heritage is delighted to welcome three new trustees!
Clare O’Reilly, Huw Davies and John Deakin join the board of Trustees of Woodland Heritage. Clare & Huw are co-chairs of the board of trustees and you can learn more about Clare, Huw and John below.
Clare O’Reilly
Clare is Conservation Manager for Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT) overseeing all central Surrey nature reserves including the majority of the woodland estate. A former award-winning Countryside, Access, and Mountain Ranger, Clare has worked in the environmental sector since 2019 when she changed careers from international humanitarian landmine clearance, armed violence reduction, and child protection.
Huw Davies
I grew up in Swansea, with a passion for wildlife and the outdoors. I studied Forestry at UCNW Bangor 1979-1982 then joined the Forestry Commission. In the Forestry Commission, I had a spell in research at Alice Holt where I specialised in Broadleaf silviculture, farm woodlands and agroforestry. I was then seconded to ADAS/MAFF as their woodlands expert, leading a team of advisers specialising in all sorts of tree work. I then moved back to FC operational work in the English Midlands, setting up several Community Forests, followed by several years in Wales, in charge of Private Woodland matters. I then moved to North East England as Regional Director for the Countryside Agency, before we merged into Natural England where I spent 20 years, mainly on environmental access and funding work.
John Deakin
I have been professional forestry for all of my career which unbelievably has now spanned over 25 years working for forest management companies, major land owners and now as Head of Trees & Woodlands at the National Trust. Trees have given me amazing opportunities throughout my life and their role in helping society tackle some of the biggest issues of our time has never been more important.
