A woodland in waiting. A piece of history. A community's pride and joy. Help us double the size of one of our most treasured woods.
To the west of Birmingham, near Bromsgrove, a piece of history is waiting to be re-awakened.
The land for sale borders Pepper Wood - an ancient and hugely valuable community woodland and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which we were lucky enough to buy in the early 1980s.
If we can raise the money we can, through a combination of natural regeneration and carefully thought out tree planting, establish a new wooded landscape, linking to Pepper directly along its northern boundary and creating 250 acres of continuous, resilient native woodland.
The UK needs more trees. The Woodland Trust's vision to get millions of trees in the ground for wildlife and people has never been more important.
That's why we're so excited about the chance to buy 120 acres of farmland bordering centuries-old Pepper Wood in the west midlands.
The new extension would double its size, protecting this historic ancient woodland and the hidden gems it contains.
With your help, we can let land regenerate back into beautiful woodland with views to the Malvern Hills
Nature will return. Young trees can seed and grow, at their own pace. Butterflies, badgers, and birds will find homes. And rare flowers can bloom again.
Our new wood is just lying there waiting for us. Another story ready to be told.
Please donate to our urgent appeal, thank you.
Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
The incredible views from the top of the Pepper Wood extension across to the Malvern Hills will be retained, with the open glades we are keeping serving as valuable hunting grounds for barn owls and kestrels. The new woodland will also provide more space for Pepper's special population of the rare land caddisfly.
Credit: Mark Zytynski / WTML
The wood will be a beautiful space for people to enjoy within easy reach of Birmingham and close to a population of three million across the West Midlands. It also has a close relationship with its local community and is still coppiced, worked and carefully managed today by the Pepper Wood Community Woodland Group.
Credit: Mark Zytynski / WTML
Although the land we want to buy is currently farmland fringed by fingers of priceless ancient woodland, maps show it was partly wooded in the past. While we'll do some tree planting, we'll also allow woodland to return naturally, with saplings seeding themselves.
Credit: Mark Zytynski / WTML
A large swathe of the Pepper Wood extension is famed locally as the location of a Second World War ‘starfish’. Starfish sites were large-scale night-time decoys created during the Blitz to simulate burning British cities. The aim was to divert German night bombers from their intended targets – in this case Birmingham - so they would hit the countryside instead. The structure was watched over by a lone volunteer who would watch the skies and set light to the fake ‘city’ at the appropriate moment.
