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The Middlewood Trust is an organization located in Roeburndale, Lancaster, Lancashire, United Kingdom, which advances research and provides education on permaculture techniques for agriculture, forestry, wildlife and countryside management. [1]
The Middlewood Trust has been staffed by volunteers for the past thirty years and volunteering remains an important part of what they do today.
The current volunteer programme is focused on the permaculture vegetable garden. The center runs monthly volunteer events that have included projects such as building a new wind turbine battery shed, planting trees, coppicing, and traditional baking. Regular volunteer events take place on the second weekend of every month from January to November.
The Middlewood Trust hosts annual permaculture courses, including introductory short courses and a full Permaculture Design Certificate course. They also accommodate students working towards their Duke of Edinburgh Award. The center has hosted art trips and workshops. [2] [3] The site has access to extensive woodlands including Roeburndale Woods (Grade 1 Site of Special Scientific Interest) and many smaller Biological Heritage sites. Historically they were managed as coppice with standards and used for charcoal, wood turning, swill oak baskets, Lancashire clogs from alder, besom birch brushes, fence posts and riven oak beams. They contain many native species of trees including the rare small leaved lime. The woods are used for teaching the National Vegetation Classification and Permaculture courses.
The Middlewood Trust uses timber and small wood products from the woods to develop local sustainable crafts.
In recent years they have had resident bodgers, swillers (oak basket makers), yurt makers, and some charcoal production.
The center was one of several organizations involved with the Lancashire Apples Project (started 2005). [4]
Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a stump, which in many species encourages new shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest or grove that has been subject to coppicing is called a copse or coppice, in which young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level. The resulting living stumps are called stools. New growth emerges, and after a number of years, the coppiced trees are harvested, and the cycle begins anew. Pollarding is a similar process carried out at a higher level on the tree in order to prevent grazing animals from eating new shoots. Daisugi, is a similar Japanese technique.
Beauchief Abbey is a medieval monastic house now serving as a parish church in the southern suburbs of Sheffield, England.
Blakenhall is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Doddington and District, in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, about 7 miles (11 km) south-east of Nantwich. It lies on the county boundary with Staffordshire. The parish has an area of 654 hectares and also includes the small settlements of The Den and Gonsley Green, with a total population of 125 in 2001. Nearby villages include Wybunbury in Cheshire and Betley and Wrinehill in Staffordshire. Blakenhall was first recorded in the Domesday survey as Blachenhale, and the parish had one of Cheshire's early ironworks in the 17th and 18th centuries. The area is rural and predominantly agricultural, with small areas of ancient woodland and the nature reserve of Blakenhall Moss, a rejuvenating lowland raised bog. The Crewe-to-Stafford railway line runs through the parish and it is on the proposed route of HS2.
Sedgley Woods is a section of east Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a historical disc golf course site. The site was established in 1977 and has one of the oldest permanent pole-hole disc golf courses. Friends of Sedgley Woods, a volunteer organization, maintains the grounds and runs monthly tournaments, community outreach programs, and occasional events with the Mid-Atlantic Disc Club and the Professional Disc Golf Association.
Beeley Wood is a woodland in the north of the City of Sheffield, near Middlewood, South Yorkshire, England. It is one of 35 ancient woodland areas within the Sheffield city boundary. An ancient woodland is defined as a site that has been continuously occupied by woodland from the year 1600 or before.
Hatfield Forest is a 403.2-hectare (996-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Essex, three miles east of Bishop's Stortford. It is also a National Nature Reserve and a Nature Conservation Review site. It is owned and managed by the National Trust. A medieval warren in the forest is a Scheduled Monument.
Midger is a 65.7-hectare (162-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest straddling the border of Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, notified in 1966 and renotified in 1984. Since the last revision in 1974, the size has been reduced to a 56-hectare (140-acre) site. It lies east of Hillesley, Gloucestershire and north of Hawkesbury Upton, South Gloucestershire. It is at the head of the Kilcott Valley.
The Great North Wood was a natural oak woodland that started three miles (4.8 km) south-east of central London and scaled the Norwood Ridge. At its full extent, the wood's boundaries stretched almost as far as Croydon and as far north as Camberwell. It had occasional landownings as large clearings, well-established by the Middle Ages such as the hamlets of Penge and Dulwich.
The Green Wood Centre in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire – formerly the Green Wood Trust, which was formed in 1984 with the help of many volunteers and specialists who were concerned about the environment – is now the home of the Small Woods Association a registered charity.
Hayley Wood is a 51.7-hectare (128-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-east of Great Gransden in Cambridgeshire. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 1, and it is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. It was the subject of a book by the academic and woodland expert Oliver Rackham, listed below, who regularly visited and recorded his observations of the woodland in his notebooks.
Backstone Bank and Baal Hill Woods is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the County Durham district of Durham, England. It occupies the steep eastern slopes of the valley of Waskerley Beck, alongside and downstream of Tunstall Reservoir, some 3 km north of Wolsingham and is one of the largest expanses of semi-natural woodland in west Durham.
Ariundle Oakwood is situated to the north of the village of Strontian in the Sunart area of the Highlands of Scotland. It is located on the western side of the glen of the Strontian River, to the south of former lead mining sites that lie further up this glen. The wood is part of the ancient Sunart Oakwood, and is a remnant of ancient oakwoods that once spanned the Atlantic coasts of Europe from Norway to Portugal. It was designated as a National Nature Reserve in 1977, and is managed primarily by NatureScot, in conjunction with Forestry and Land Scotland, who own the land surrounding the National Nature Reserve. The reserve is classified as a Category IV protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and also forms part of both a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.
Lower Wye Gorge is a 65-hectare (160-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1954 and renotified 1987. The site includes two Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust nature reserves being Ban-y-gor Wood and Lancaut. The Natural England citation states a revision for Lancaut inclusion.
Dymock Woods is a 53-hectare (130-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1990. The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).
Collinpark Wood is a 66.69-hectare (164.8-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1966, revised in 1974 and renotified in 1983. There was a boundary change in 1983. There are seven units of assessment. Unit 1 is a 15-hectare (37-acre) area owned and managed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. The trust purchased this part of the wood in 1979 with grant aid from WWF. The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).
The Happehatchee Center is a nature sanctuary and spiritual center operated by a non-profit organization in Estero, Florida. It is located on 4.5 acres of subtropics forest, spanning 150 feet on both sides of the Estero River. It is adjacent to the Koreshan State Historic Site and together these lands host a variety of flora and fauna along the river.
Biggin Wood is an area of ancient oak woodland situated within the London Borough of Croydon. The London Wildlife Trust is currently working with Croydon Council and the Friends of Biggin Wood to improve the site for wildlife, as a part of The Great North Wood Project.
Nower Wood is a 33-hectare (81-acre) nature reserve south-west of Leatherhead in Surrey. It is owned and managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust.
Dorothy Gill Barnes was an American artist. She was known for her use of natural materials in woven and sculpted forms.