National Forest & Visitor Centre

It’s just a tree. An oak tree in fact …

Quiet small, a nice shape but otherwise unremarkable. You’d be forgiven for thinking it no different from thousands of others planted around 1991. But this tree is unique, it marks the centre of The National Forest, the first dedicated woodland of this size and type to be planted since William the Conqueror created the New Forest in 1079 as a royal hunting range. It has come to symbolise the regeneration of a former mining and farming community beset by job losses, CAP reforms and tumbling profit margins.

First mooted during the late eighties, the area designated for The National Forest boasted tree cover of less than 6%. By transforming derelict mining areas and redundant farmland into a patchwork of sustainable, individually owned woodlands, interspersed by rolling countryside, small villages and market towns this is set to increase to 33%.

Almost two decades later, this woodland in the English Midlands is now firmly established in over 200 square miles of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire countryside.

Spearheaded by The National Forest Company, which administers grant aid from DEFRA, the forestry Commission, Strategic Sub-Regional partnerships and others, this remarkable change has been brought about in part through the unique National Forest Tender Scheme in which local landowners are given the opportunity to tender bids for grants to enable them to convert some of their land into woodland.

The forest itself is based around two ancient existing woodlands Charnwood on the eastern fringe and Needwood to the west. The objective is to join these up through a network of multipurpose, sustainable woodland. These woods vary in size but those in the Tender Scheme tend to average out at about 16 ha. Most have a clearly defined identity, complete with their own names and profiles such as Sarah’s Wood, Quakers’ Wood, Walker’s Wood, Sunnyside Wood all of which make for great walking!

Through tourism, leisure and a sustainable forest economy these individual woodlands will cumulatively bring far reaching environmental and economic benefits to the area.

These benefits have had a dramatic impact on the region’s local economy with major tourist attractions helping to swell visitor numbers. The flag ship of which is the “Conkers” discovery centre, a hands-on family experience situated near the former mining village of Moira, at the very heart of The National Forest and just a couple of miles from that rather special oak tree.

This award winning visitor attraction stands on the site of an old

NationalForest Visitor Centre, Conkers

colliery and is a unique experience consisting of interactive exhibitions that tell the story of The National Forest and life in a British woodland. The mine’s ugly spoil heaps have been transformed into a wonderful woodland walk consisting of sculpture and nature trails, lakes, assault course, adventure playground and a concert amphitheater.

The Conkerchoo train linking the two National Forest centre sites