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New England Wood Trust was formed as a charity in 1980 to raise funds to buy and support New England Wood, a 27 acre broadleaf wood between Cuckfield and Ansty as a nature reserve for the benefit of the people of Cuckfield and the surrounding area.
In 2025 we fundraised for, and in 2026 bought, an adjacent 12 acres of mostly young woodland and meadows.
New England Wood and the adjacent land is maintained by a group of volunteers including some of the trustees who meet most Mondays throughout the year and most Wednesdays during winter months.
To improve access and usability for visitors we maintain an extensive network of paths including approximately 20 bridges and 200 steps. We also coppice and maintain clearings to provide environments for increased diversity of species.
Since early 2023 we have been felling ash trees weakened or killed by a fungal infection that causes die-back making them potentially dangerous to visitors to the wood.
Although die-back has devastated the ash tree population, we are working to turn this into an opportunity by increasing open space and planting a wider variety of trees with a focus on providing habitats to attract more species in general and more butterflies in particular.
In 2022 the charity converted to a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO).
LATEST NEWS
With the purchase of a field adjacent to the wood completed, work has started improving the plot. Work carried out to date includes; safety felling of trees at the southern end and clearing of brambles along paths and on the ecologically important south facing grass slope.
A sample was taken from a stream in the wood as part of the Great UK WaterBlitz conducted by FreshWater Watch. The result showed the data submitted "indicates that this waterbody has a very good ecological status". For full results follow this link:
www.freshwaterwatch.org/pages/great-uk-waterblitz-results
Two volunteers attended a Woodland Management training course at Plumpton College. As a result we are now building more structured habitat piles, able to identify multiple indicators of the wood being ancient woodland and to generally manage the wood for the benefit of as many species as possible.
Recent works
Mar & Apr-26
Volunteers continued coppicing hazel stands and clearing felled ash trees to create a generally more open woodland environment. We also repaired and created paths in some of the muddiest areas of the wood and built a number of habitat stacks to the design we were taught at Plumpton College.
Feb-26
Logging and stacking trunks and large branches from felled ash trees and creating brash habitat piles from the smaller material. We also increased the size of the largest glade in the wood in the hope of encouraging more flowering plants and butterflies.
Water from a seasonal stream eroded soil and caused a partial collapse of a path near the eastern side of the wood making the route impassable. The ground around the collapse was also unsafe so the only option we had was to stop the flow across the path and build a bridge over the weaken area. This work has been completed and the path is now safe to use.
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