Tony Kirkham MBE, VMH was on a lecture tour in the Midwest and eastern USA at the Morton Arboretum, Chicago Botanical Garden, and the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago in the state of Illinois, Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis, and Oak Spring Garden in Virginia and was so excited to meet some of the remarkable oak trees in these states.
Woodland Heritage Trustee Adrian Jowitt shows how a desire to use timber, coupled with a simple phone call, led him to the milling of Western Red Cedar in a Devon woodland en route to a more sustainable solution. Here’s one way to use more homegrown timber at home.
When Christian Gaze and I started Gaze Burvill 31 years ago, we had a vision of creating a beautiful collection of outdoor furniture using entirely oak grown in the UK. I was inspired by my one-year course at John Makepeace’s Hooke Park in Dorset where I had learnt about the necessity of adding value to British-grown woods to feed a virtuous cycle of growing and improving our woodlands.
On Thursday, 2nd April 2026, the charity Woodland Heritage launched Open Woods & Workshops, a network of woodlands and workshops hosting open days across the UK throughout June 2026. The initiative enables over 1,000 attendees to see first-hand the role trees and timber can have in our future.
Today Woodland Heritage announces a £238,442 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to create ‘Woodland Heritage Skills’; two years of educational workshops, digital educational assets and collaboration with its members and partners to deliver the charity’s new Open Woods & Workshops initiative.
Former Sunday Times political editor David Cracknell has joined the board of trustees of Woodland Heritage as vice-chair to help the charity with its PR, communications and a new £250k fundraising drive.
Woodland Heritage has grown steadily over the last 28 years since its inception by Peter Goodwin and Lewis Scott. A combination of new opportunities and rising aspirations means the charity is on the cusp of a step change in its mission to demonstrate the value of British woods.
Woodland Heritage is a longstanding supporter of Bangor University, providing financial assistance and advice to many forestry students, alumni and staff, as well as over £800,000 of funding for a string of important research projects focused on Acute Oak Decline and based at the university.