The Cherry Wood Project

General information

Cherry Wood Project - Teaching green woodwork, bushcraft and a variety of coppice skills, Cherry Wood is a 40 acre sustainably managed woodland situated in a sheltered valley branching from St. Catherine's Valley, five miles north east of the City of Bath.

We provide charcoal, biomass and FSC timber to local businesses. We provide unique services for special needs, NEETs and challenged youngsters. We give access to hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds to the woodlands each year, either as students on courses, school and college visits or volunteers. We pass on valuable rural skills, we educate in low impact sustainable life and permaculture skills.

The Cherry Wood Project has restored the historic coppice cycle (hugely increasing diversity) and plans, over time, to return the wood to native broadleaf cover. We have improved the environment for many of our threatened species and the sustainability of timber supply and will continue to do so. The visual amenity of the Green belt is enhanced by our efforts. We have the approval of the AONB and Forestry Commission in this. What we do is completely balanced with the woodland and its wildlife.

We have trained and continue to train at least one apprentice a year in order to pass on the forestry and craft skills. We are a source of advice and support to others who wish to live a simpler lifestyle. We are part of our local community and have the support of local people, neighbours and The Parish Council. Taken together with our low carbon footprint and low impact, off-grid lifestyle we can genuinely claim to be sustainable in a way that very few other projects can.