Protect and Conserve Oxleas Woodlands

June 2026 Shepherdleas Wood - Sign 1 For a while, we’ve been saddened to see these beautiful entrance signs to the woodlands looking neglected and have often talked about giving them a clean and helping them look their best again, but somehow never quite found the right moment. Recently, however, the motivation and the time finally came together, so we decided to get stuck in! Armed with a ladder, buckets, sponges, scrubbing brushes, a broom, and three large containers of soa

Saturday, 6th June 2026 Breezy Conditions, Lighter Loads Despite a breezy morning with occasional showers, 12 volunteers turned out for our latest litter pick around the Oxleas Car Park and Café area. The good news was that litter levels were noticeably lighter than usual. A particularly helpful community member had pinned litter sacks to trees throughout the area, especially along the area closest to Shooters Hill, an area that is often heavily affected by littering. This s

Jack Wood 6th June 2026 The weather had other plans for us this week. After spending our previous session in Hotel Field raking up the grass left after mowing, we had intended to return and continue the work. However, the heavy downpours throughout the week left the cut grass soggy, heavy, and difficult to move. Fortunately, there is never a shortage of conservation tasks in the woodlands for our dedicated volunteers, so we adapted our plans and headed back into Jack Wood ins

Oxleas Wood April 2026 From the coppicing training session in October through to the start of the bird nesting season in spring, this has been one of our most popular conservation activities. A total of 8 sessions took place, in addition to the initial training session, plus three special volunteering days with Barclays. A fantastic 660 recorded hours were spent on the project and we were also fortunate to receive many additional hours of support from dedicated volunteers wh

Hotel Field - Meadow Restoration Friday, 15th May 2026 A picture of a long-gone rural past? Well almost - if you can ignore the hi-vis vests! If you had been passing through Hotel Field on Friday morning, you would have spotted our 19 volunteers dotted around the area, cutting, raking and wheeling barrows. The field had recently received its early mow and the buttercups, jacob’s ladder, cleavers and many more species were already pushing up through the grass, which is both

Shepherdleas Wood - The Glade Tuesday, 26th May 2026 Tuesday’s woodland conservation session fell within the recent May heatwave and it was hot, hot, hot! We rarely cancel sessions unless there is a real danger to our volunteers, and we leave the decision to individuals as to whether they wish to attend or not – and guess what? Six determined volunteers braved the heat and got down to work. Before the usual health and safety introduction, volunteers were reminded to make s