Woodlands & Timber products

Boughton Estate Woodland

Boughton estate is at the heart of the old royal hunting forest of Rockingham and nearly 30%, or 1200 hectares is covered in woodland and parkland. The woodland is composed of mostly of native tree species, including large areas of nationally important semi natural ancient woodland, which is one of our most diverse natural habitats.

The team that currently manages the woodland comprises of the Woodland Operations Manager, Jonathan Plowe, Forester Phil Eager and a skilled team of contractors.

Woodland Management

We sustainably harvest 3500t of timber a year, which can range from wood suitable for conversion into logs for stoves to first quality ash and oak that may find itself used in the furniture you buy.

Timber Harvesting

Harvesting usually takes place between late summer and the early winter. This is after the bird nesting season and before the ground gets too wet. Also the higher quality trees have to be felled at this time to get the best prices.

The felling is undertaken either by a ‘timber harvester’ if the trees are not too big, or by forestry contractors with chainsaws for the bigger trees. The timber is then extracted with timber forwarding machines out of the wood to a roadside for collection by lorries.

We also grow along the banks of the Ise river special varieties of willow trees for Cricket Bats, some of which have been used by the England Cricket team.

Wood Fuel

A significant amount of the timber we harvest  is tuned into woodfuel in the form of logs for domestic stoves or wood chip for commercial heating systems.