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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
The purchase of the plot of land marked in red on the map opposite has been completed.
Work on the new plot will begin in the first week of March when safety felling of potentially dangerous trees will be carried out. Please take care to avoid areas where these works are being carried out.
Recent works
01 to 20-Feb-26
Volunteers continued 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.
29-Jan-26
The volunteers carried out coppicing of large, overgrown hazels in the clearing close to the Bluebell Way path.
All planned leaky dam work has been completed. For more information on the Ouse & Adur River Trust (OART) project please use the following link: Adur Adaption Project
03-Dec-25
A number of trees came down across two of the paths in the strong winds on Monday/Tuesday. Volunteers cleared the trees by logging and stacking the trunks and making brash piles from the smaller branches. Both paths are now clear but this was a timely reminder if needed, that the wood can be a dangerous place especially at this time of the year when strong winds are more common.
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