Our Woodland

Chiltern Woodland Burial Park is located on part of the Forestry Commission’s Wilton Park estate just east of Beaconsfield, in a part of the woodland known as Pitlands Woods.

Lying just south of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Pitlands Wood sits within the Green Belt area, and is part of an attractive, heavily treed and wooded rolling landscape. The northern half of the woodland sits on a plateau of land, with the south western area falling away steeply to the south into a small valley.

Pitlands Wood took its name from the winning of clay and brick earth for a brick and tile works which operated on the site duringthe 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Borrow pits of varying sizes remain as a feature in the woodland, with one of the largest forming a permanent pond in the centre of the wood. Ditches also exist in parts of the wood, possibly relating to earlier field boundaries, and all of these water bodies have been found to have wildlife interest.

The majority of the northern half of the wood was planted by the Forestry Commission circa 1959, with Douglas Fir, Grand Fir and Norway Spruce, with some pockets of Scots Pine.

To the south, European Larch predominates, with later pockets of Beech and Oak. Scattered through the coniferous areas are single stands and pockets of Oak, Beech, Hornbeam and Silver Birch, with some Willow, Ash and Cherry.

The principle aim of the woodland management for the landscape at Chiltern Woodland Burial Park is to restore the woodland to a thriving, native, primarily deciduous wood. The techniques involved are very similar to those practised by the Forestry Commission in their Planted Ancient Woodland Site (PAWS) restoration programme, albeit with a far greater level of applied management by the permanent maintenance team here. The aim is to work towards coppice with standard structure to the wood, with a series of glades where appropriate. To maintain diversity, selected conifers, particularly Scots Pine, will be retained, along with any conifers providing existing raptor nesting sites.