Hazel Hill Wood

Stories

  • Site clear-up day at Hazel Hill

    Site clear-up day at Hazel Hill

    As the trees began to pack away their leaves in earnest, it was time for an end-of-season clear-out at Hazel Hill Wood. For a natural site, we’ve been accumulating a surprisingly large amount of plastic. Mainly tree tubes, but also fencing, insulation and construction materials. Almost all of these objects are the result of not…

  • Deer tracks and fruiting bodies: a morning walk in the woods

    Deer tracks and fruiting bodies: a morning walk in the woods

    There is a magical fog in the woods as I take my morning walk. It has woven itself between the trees in the middle distance. I set off from the Oak House and head across the newly fallen Hornbeam carpet, shining yellow leaves in their resting place.  I have an appetite for leaving the beaten…

  • Care for the woods and the woods will care for you

    We have a motto at Hazel Hill Wood: care for the woods and the woods will care for us. Our annual Autumn Conservation Weekend is a long-established gathering where people get to do just that. We stay in the wood for two nights, spending two days working, exploring and relaxing together. This year there were…

  • A story of self discovery at the wood

    One of the things we enjoy is seeing Hazel Hill Wood through the eyes of the people who spend time here. Earlier this summer, the Association of Facilitators held one of their residential retreats at the wood. Afterwards, participant Terence Hikawai wrote a beautiful reflection on his experience: Ko wai au? Reminding myself of who I…

  • Visiting thrutopia

    Last week I had the chance to meet up with Hazel Hill’s founder, Alan Heeks. The conversation seeded this thought-provoking blog post he has written about what we do at Hazel Hill. Our mission is to create experiences where people deepen their connection with the living world by creating a place where people can slow…

  • A conversation with the wood

    A practice I learnt from Alan Heeks, the founder of Hazel Hill Trust, is, on arrival, to tell the wood what I had come here to do. And so I sat down this morning, by the Gatekeeper tree to share a fairy ordinary to-do list. But as I started, something else came out.  The following…

  • Firewood as product and practice

    Firewood as product and practice

    Notes from the Wood Chop Challenge 2026 I arrive at Hazel Hill having been dropped at the road by a taxi. As I pass under the canopy of the wood, still bare from winter, I can see bright stars shining through the branches. It’s a clear night — a good sign for the day ahead.…

  • The Hazel Hill Butterfly Transect

    The Hazel Hill Butterfly Transect

    Story by Diane Cotter, Hazel Hill Wood volunteer It’s high summer, and the hot sun beats down from a cloudless blue sky as I walk through the flower-filled meadow, with butterflies swirling all around me. Some alight on the nearby Knapweed flowers to feed, so I have a brief chance to get a better look…

  • Moth surveys with Dave

    Moth surveys with Dave

    I grew up in the city. I was Born in York and lived in North London until I married and moved to Hampshire and later to Wiltshire. Even when I was young I loved the natural world and spent as much time in the open air as possible. We were lucky to live fairly near…

  • 16 years of conservation weekends

    16 years of conservation weekends

    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…