THE first of nine new woodlands, made up of 270,000 trees and covering 138 hectares, has been successfully planted on an Oxfordshire estate. 

Blenheim's Hordley Wood features 12,000 trees and 25 species, including oaks propagated from acorns gathered from the estate’s ancient High Park. Later this year, a new forest school will be created in the ‘flagship’ wood to provide a learning hub for schools and the local community.

Among the team involved in the planting was Blenheim forester Rob Burgess who, eight years ago, created a nursery of acorns and oak saplings gathered on the estate.

READ MORE: Blenheim Estate's bid to create nine new woodlands praised by government ministers

“Creating woodlands that will hopefully be here for centuries to come and appreciated by our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren for generations to come is a fantastic project to be involved with,” said Rob.

“Hordley Wood is the first of the new woodlands to have been completed and will form the base for our forest school.

"It will also feature new public footpaths and provide an amazing new resource for local communities to explore and enjoy."

The new woodlands are part of Blenheim’s ongoing commitment to becoming the UK’s first estate to demonstrate carbon-positive land management.

The project is being undertaken in collaboration with Morgan Sindall, which is helping fund, design and create the woodlands, and Cotswolds-based forestry company, Nicholsons.

Forestry Journal: Forester Rob Burgess was involved in the project Forester Rob Burgess was involved in the project

“For people to be able to get out of their built environment and be able to go and walk through woodlands that have got permissive access throughout them on this sort of scale in the English lowlands is virtually unprecedented,” said Nicholsons’ Nathan Fall.