Memories from 16 years of Autumn Conservation weekends from our Chair of Trustees
This year will be the first time in many that I haven’t been part of the Hazel Hill Wood Autumn Conservation Weekend. And so, in my absence I’ve trawled my photo archive to join the dots between this one that I will miss and the many that I have attended.
2009
Even though it was longest ago I remember this visit most clearly. Mary and I arrived later than expected in the dark and found our way to the Oak House. Back then it hadn’t been extended, and so the dining room was much smaller and the kitchen was in a different building. I remember waking up to my first morning at Hazel Hill Wood. I still love the clarity that morning light brings.
In those days the conservation weekends were led by Alan Heeks, our founder at Hazel Hill. That weekend he had brought in the charity Butterfly Conservation to train people on small tree felling. The idea was to create butterfly rides — openings in the woodland that enable butterflies to cross the site in full sun. Our forestry plan at that time was prioritising removing sycamore from the site, which is what Mary and I got stuck into. The first time I had felled a tree. We also planted a willow hedge around a circle of grass, with the idea that it would take and form a circular arbour.
2010
This year we stayed in the newly finished Forest Ark, which was commissioned by Alan to be a showcase of high-tech off-grid living.
Memories of what happened in which weekend are a bit hazy. For instance, I remember going with the bee keeper to inspect the hives, and even saw a hatchling sawing its way out of its hexagonal incubator. But the photo data tells me this was in fact at spring conservation weekend that same year.
We also around that time put a major kink in the entrance track and planted trees in the bend — part of a gradual process of taking out the straight lines of forestry plantation and returning to more organic forms.
2011
If I were to put a date on, I would say this was the year we planted the Sweet Chestnut Grove. Again, it is blurry what happened at the spring weekend and what happened in autumn. It had been very dry so we spent a lot of time figuring out how to get a hose to the chestnut saplings. We spent time trying to fix the lining of the pond by the entrance track. We also created a new ride — the short opening from the entrance track down to the Gate Keeper tree and out to the field. The aim was to create more connectivity for the butterflies.
2011 was also the first time we walked to the wood. With so many people arriving by car it seemed a radical idea to arrive by foot. The lovely route took us from the station at West Dean over farmland and then in through the other side of Farley. There was possibly a pint at the Hand in Glove along the way.
2015
After 2011 Alan stopped the conservation weekends as they were becoming too much to manage alone, the costs to the wood outweighing the benefits. Then in 2015, Mary and I proposed an alternative model — what if we charged a small amount to attend, and promoted the event as a weekend of conservation and recuperation. ‘Escape the screen and enter the green’, I remember saying on one of our posts.
The event was a great success. Co-leading it with us was Amanda Dennis, artist and gardener. We had in the region of 25 overnight guests. Bear in mind that the Hideway hadn’t been built yet so we all squeezed in. If you add in the day visitors, at our peak we had 50 people for lunch. At least by then the new kitchen had been built in the Oak House, so we had more room to cater.
A couple of the innovations we introduced were:
Tea break in the wood, saving time walking back and forth to the Oak House. and little kids allowed, a new thing for Hazel Hill.
Looking back, I think it was also the first visit to the wood for our trustee Lily Gilder.
2016
I have no memory of the 2016 event, except that we came by bus — another idea that I would love to catch on. My only photo is this one.
2017
I see from the photos that 2017 was also the first year that our Treasurer, Jenny Maresh, first visited the wood.
With Hazel Hill Trust now an established charity, in 2017 Mary and I decided to handover the organisational reins to the Hazel Hill team and this was our last one organising… or so we thought. We received a lovely gift from the wood team for our involvement over the years.
2018
By 2018 the conservation weekends were being run by the Hazel Hill team, with our brand new conservation and education officer Charley Miller starting to play a significant role. I don’t have many photos of this year, but I do have these, of Alan with our founding general manager, Marcos Frangos; and of Charley.
2019
In 2019 we were busy with looking after the North-West Frontier area. We had replaced a diseased plantation of Corsican Pine with Douglas Fir. The work in spring and autumn was to clear the brush from around these saplings to give them a head start. By 2019 I had become a trustee, and so I was back involved again.
2020
In 2020 we held a mini spring conservation weekend in February. Little did we know that would be our last visit to the wood for some time.
And yet somehow by the autumn, the lockdown had lifted and we were back. Note how far apart we are all standing. Also lots of evidence here of scything, introduced by Charley joined the team in 2018 and now a main-stay of our conservation methods.
2021
By autumn 2021 we were back again and standing closer together.
2023
I have no record or recollection of 2022, so on to 2023. With the Hideaway up and running we now had more space and this one was a big one. Lovely photos here of more scything in the North West Frontier. We also cleared back the regenerating hornbeam around the Oak House to let in more light. And Mary led us in a singing workshop at the Southern Cross.
2024
This is another low-memory year. But Jenny definitely fixed the wire mesh on the Oak House deck. And this year we finally gave up on the willow hedge around the gathering circle that we were planting back in 2008, but that never took root. But that’s the way of these things we experiment, we try things out, and we keep coming back, as we have been for 16 years.
2025
And so in 2025, I wish good luck to the team who are leading this year’s event, Mary, Jenny and Charley. I am sorry I can’t be there with you.
And a special thank you to Mary Stevens who has behind the scenes for so many year been making these conservation weekends great, bringing so many new people to the wood and helping them have a nourishing experience that helps them and helps the wood.
