The WoodlandThrough the years
2002
David Hood dies in April leaving the idea and legacy for the If Not Now When community woodland. The Charitable Trust is set up and the trustees have their first meeting.
2003
After much discussion, planning permission to change the use of the land from agricultural to amenity is finally granted. The logo is designed.
2004
Hard landscaping begins; the path, question mark and scrape are constructed.
2005
Tree planting begins, the labyrinth is constructed and the slate benches are installed.
2006
We get our first sign and bike racks are installed. 21 Southern Marsh orchids were counted.
2007
The meadow area of the wood is awarded County Wildlife status as it provides a good example of wet meadow plant communities. We get a bench and to protect the water stand pipe, a re use of a shower tray is engineered.
2008
We have an Open Wood party where 100 people joined us. We commission a local sculptor to make our moving owl. We finally plant four Lord Suffield Apple trees.
2009
We make an insect haven and a willow dome. After years on clambering up the question mark mound, we get some steps.
2010
After years lying on the field, the reclaimed arch stones are cleaned and reconstructed. We also make a start on the pergola and get the columns standing.
2011
A map is made of the woodland and made into an information board. We get a bridge over a ditch.
2012
A local sculptor makes the Silver Surfer sculptures and we install a BBQ. And we celebrate being 10 years old, everyone is invited.
2013
To give a home to the resident owl, we put an owl box up in one of perimeter trees. Norfolk Moths record a nationally scarce moth, Phyllonorycter dubitellaat.
2014
We join North Walsham Garden Centre at their Apple Day and hold our first Dawn Chorus walk.
2015
We take part in Suffield Open Gardens and hold another Dawn Chorus walk with 33 birds being identified.
2016
Fruit tree labels are added. We receive a donation and are able to reuse an old chimney pot to make a sun dial. A night time geocache based at the wood wins first prize in the British and Irish National Geocaching Awards.
2017
The roof of the pergola is finally finished and we get a visitors book.
2018
We buy a bat detector and are featured in a local press walk.
2019
We have our first bat night and identify Pipistrelle, Long-Eared and a Daubenton Bat.
2020
A deer successfully raised twins on site. So successfully in fact that we had to close for a while to allow her twins to grow and mature. But we did manage to remain open for the majority of the year, providing a place of peace in these difficult times.
2021
We appointed some new trustees to the If Not Now When charitable trust bringing the number of our super helpful and committed volunteers to ten
We put up lots of new bat boxes and renovated the shed. We even kept the panel where a bat had made its home last year.
In order to encourage apples and pears to grow higher on the fruit trees for the benefit of wildlife, we started an experiment in our pruning regime where we complete a winter prune and prune of water shoots over the summer.
We had a visit by Dr Paul Dolan, an ecologist from the UEA who was very happy with the diversity of the site, particularly the plant variety in the scrapes. But unfortunately the scrapes have been affected by the non-invasive aquatic plant species, Crassula also known as New Zealand Pygmyweed. This reproduces rapidly and can quickly get out of control and disrupt the balance of the ecosystem. We had to spray the scrapes this year by a specialist and will hopefully have a good management of it for the years to come.
An eight year old boy completed the fantastic challenge of cycling 100 miles in May to raise funds for the wood.
2022
This year was our 20th anniversary. Twenty years has passed since David Hood died and the start of his legacy, the If Not Now When community woodland. And to keep that legacy going we saw positive developments in fundraising as well as more people getting involved to help make it such a beautiful place….
To mark our 20 years, we held a bring your picnic in a beautiful evening in that very hot summer. We were joined by lots of local residents, friends of David and a lovely dog who travelled in style on a bike.
We had some good work days. With the help of a local scout group, Rural Roughton Mill Scouts, we sorted a pile of salvage ready to make some installations and wildlife hotels, cleared ditches and trimmed the willow dome.
A cash donation box was installed on the shed, upcycling an old safe David used to have in his office. We also set up a Just Giving account, linked on our website. These kind donations will all help to fund the upkeep and maintenance of the wood, which is currently over £3000 a year.
We had our first fundraising evening and we sold out. Good music from The Gits and food from Emma’s Kitchen. Raising nearly £500 and lots of happy faces and a chance to have a dance.
2023
A local craftsman worked magic with some left over salvage that David Hood had collected over 30 years ago. We now have a new bench, planter and a mirror on the shed.
We put our crafting skills to work and made wreaths, decorations, candles to sell at the always popular, Suffield Christmas Fair. We made over £200.
We had a number of work days throughout the year where we pruned the willow dome, cut back aspen, cleaned ditches and made some more insect hides. The Rural Roughton Mill Scouts have been given us massive help and their many willing helpers put their hands to anything and do a great job.
A satisfying circle was completed. We installed a beautiful sign, hand painted by Owen Bushell, son of Hilary – David Hood’s last partner.
2024
The 1st Rural, Roughton Mill Scout Group have been busy. This year they designed and built what we are calling Iron Henge from old agriculture iron salvage left on site when David died.
Another Cub Scout group, 8th Norwich Sea Scouts, visited the wood has part of their first night away. They had much fun completing the tree trail and doing the conga around the labyrinth.
The section of Brick Kiln Lane which runs along the wood has been designated a Roadside Nature Reserve. In the 1990s, Norfolk established Roadside Nature Reserves (RNRs) to protect and enhance nature next to our roads. Some of these RNRs, representing remnants of Norfolk’s natural grasslands, give sanctuary to rare species and provide essential corridors for wildlife, connecting Norfolk’s diverse habitats.
For more information on this check
https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/article/57402/Norfolks-Roadside-Nature-Reserves
Unfortunately we had some vandalism and damage to repair. We had things bent, broken and had googly eyes fixed to various things. However comical this was, it has still meant we have needed to pay for repairs. Teucer Wilson also had to repair the Field of Dreams table which had cracked.
We held our first successful cyclists café with over 20 cyclists attending and had over £50 of kind donations for a splendid range of cakes and tea. These events will be repeated for 2025 on the first Saturday on June, July and August 11am – 2pm.