SEAL BROOK WOODLAND SCHOOL
About Our Woodland
Our woodland consists of 27 acres of mixed broadleaf's mainly consisting of oak, hazel, sweet chestnut, ash, blackthorn, hawthorn, elder, willow, dog rose, cherry and a few walnuts with a conifer plantation of larch and Corsican pine, which provides us with a vast range of biodiversity within the plants and trees. The woodland was planted in 2002 under the National Forest's planting scheme so is a relatively young but well established site, it is completely private with no public footpaths and is set well back from the road with farmland on all sides which gives it a very secluded feel. On a visit to the woods you may well expect to see one of the many resident hares, squirrels, badgers, foxes, muntjac deer, birds of prey, bats and owls going about their business. It is a fairy level site with a number of walking tracks through its interior but it all slopes gently down to the far end where there is a large pond with an island where mallard, teal and goose regularly frequent.
We have a permanent main camp in the form or a large tarped area as well as a number of other classrooms and game/food preparation areas, providing the perfect setup for courses to run regardless of the weather. We have a large car parking area next to a pair of composting toilets so there is no need to bring a spade!
The woodland is being managed by ourselves to be a healthy and productive ecosystem that provides a rich habitat for a variety of wildlife and plants as well as woodland by-product in the form of wood fuel, charcoal production, greenwood working and willow weaving materials. We are also working with the woodland to utilise it as an area for us to run as a smallholding with fruit and vegetable production in the outdoor vegetable patch, separate fruit and herb garden and indoor polytunnel for an extended growing season. We have also set up an area for mushroom production as well as gearing up to start beekeeping and honey production. We have a free range chicken and duck paddock where the poultry have half an acre to roam amongst the trees and forage for insects and vegetation as well as a pond for the ducks. We plan to use a small number of sheep, goats and pigs to produce meat for ourselves, but also help us manage the woodland by selectively grazing blocks of woodland to control weed growth and help understorey trees and natural regeneration, as well as fertilising and turning over the ground to promote a wider range of ground fauna.
