Our history can be traced
back to 1950s Britain…

Our proud history

We’re lucky enough to have a timber heritage which we value enormously. It traces a path from then to now.

From the 40s to the 90s: The Great Storm

In the late 40s and early 50s Oakover and Wealden Woodlands were two companies providing management services across Kent and Sussex.

At this time across the UK thousands of men and women were engaged in the clearance of “redundant” broadleaves and the establishment of new conifer plantations created to rebuild the country’s timber resource.

Up until then all felling was done by hand but into the 60s and 70s forest machinery crept into use.

At the same time as the technology developed there was a beneficial tax regime in place which allowed woodland owners to manage their woodlands at little more than net cost. This provided a big boost in employment for foresters everywhere.

In the late 60s Oakover and Wealden woodlands merged becoming English Woodlands Ltd. and in 1983 the company acquired one of the many active sawmills in the area then named The Sussex Resaw Company at Cocking Sawmills. In 1986, the two operating Directors, Hugh Gent and George Marchand, bought out the sawmill business incorporating as English Woodlands Timber Ltd, and thus creating the timber company we know and love today.

No sooner had they got their partnership underway than the following year saw the great storm of 1987 which delivered huge volumes of windblown timber into sawmills that were already at capacity. The timber needed processing and English Woodlands Timber focussed solely on milling well into the late 90s.

The work after the storm…

Once volumes of storm logs were cleared the company diversified into providing more management services alongside the milling business. It was at this time that our Director, Tom Compton, was appointed to bring forest management back into the heart of the business.

Understanding that the management of woodlands requires very different professional skills English Woodlands Forestry Ltd was established in 2015 realising an ambition to launch a stand-alone forestry business. It now sits alongside a traditional Sussex timber business with a long history of supporting productive woodland management and providing best quality home-grown timber for furniture, joinery and building works.

The business grew rapidly providing a whole range of professional and operational services to support its clients, recruiting staff who shared the passion and drive to deliver the very best woodland management. It invested in state of the art harvesting equipment to help its clients bring timber to market with strong operational control.

An ever stronger offering…

To provide an even stronger offering to our clients in the harvesting and marketing of timber English Woodlands Forestry went into partnership with Powell Forestry in 2018 (forming the umbrella group Land & Forest).

This has allowed our professional foresters to focus on the long-term management planning and grant securing that are so valued by our clients. New woodland creation is now also right at the heart of the business along with expert tree safety knowledge to complete the full cycle of our services and help clients manage their responsibilities and objectives.