Little Thurlow 2000 - Part 2 The Life of the Estate

Land Use and Conservation | Head Forester | Head Keeper | Thurlow Hunt

6. Head Forester for Thurlow Woodlands

ROD PASS

I came to Thurlow as Head Forester in February 1980, succeeding Mr Archer who had been in the post for 25 years and still lives in Great Thurlow. Work is carried out by a team of five full-time employees who deal with timber extraction, hedge cutting, planting, general maintenance and sawmilling. We also employ subcontractors who do most of the felling and thinning, who cut and deliver firewood, and do other specialist jobs such as tree surgery.

The estate itself is a large one of some 16,000 acres, which includes within it about 1500 acres of woodland. The main woods around the Thurlows are shown in the map and the largest single block of woodland is Trundley, comprising about 136 acres. Our objectives are to grow good quality native hardwoods and to improve the woodland as a traditional sporting estate. By definition this has immense benefits for conservation, and in fact no less than 600 acres are designated SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific Interest), being ancient woodland. That includes Trundley, Wadgell's and Sparrows' Grove. Some of the pollard oaks in these may be 400 to 500 years old.

Woodland by the Stour

Taken from pages 42 - 43

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