Warren Woods Ltd
Social Enterprise Companyno 07176786
The Warren, Bodfari, Denbigh LL16 4DT
01745 710626 (day) 01745 710477 (evenings) 07711 472033 (mobile)
email :
website :
NEWSLETTER MAY 2014.
1Current projects
Courses
Bookings for courses are going well with many courses being fully booked.
Ysgol Tir Morfa
a)Hazel Hurdle Project. We have had a group of 6 pupils coming to us for a day a week for 10 weeks. They have learned about coppice management, tool use, harvesting and preparing hazel and have made a number of hurdles to site in the grounds of their school. There is one more session left and the hope is that the school can set up a mini-enterprise making hurdles in the future.
b)Volunteer Project. The school has asked if they can send two groups which would each come to us for one day every week from September. We have agreed to taking 1 group and will review the situation later to see if we can take a second group.
Aberwheeler Nurseries
We are running 3 projects with the Nurseries which are run by the County Council as sheltered work placements for adults.
a)Training in coppice and greenwood crafts. Non-accredited courses for 10 people. We have completed 1 course of 2 days with 5 students and are doing another course with 5 more students in June.
b)OCNs in coppice products.These are OCN accredited courses and cover : cleaving and working green wood using axe, froe and draw-knife; making charcoal; making hazel hurdles; pole-lathe turning.We have delivered the first course – 3 days with 5 students – and will deliver the second course later in the month.
c)Volunteer Project. The Nurseries will be sending a group to us for one day each week. This will start next month.
Kids Club Rhyl
This is a charity running activities for children with special needs. They have booked 10 visits for Forest School days for all the school holidays this year.
Home Education and general volunteers
We have a regular volunteer group on Tuesdays which has some home education families and others who want to work here.
Hafod y Green is a specialist residential care home in Trefnant. Most of the residents are suffering from some form of brain damage, either stroke or physical trauma. We have just started a long-term project with them on Friday mornings. They bring 3-5 residents and 2-3 support workers. They are almost all confined to wheel-chairs. We talk about and demonstrate traditional crafts involving them as much as possible. We are looking at how we can extend our work with them by modifying tools and equipment and working techniques. We also need to extend wheel-chair access to the workshops and to the area outside Y Ganolfan – the orchard, arboretum and small woodland.
Heritage Orchard
This has been planted. The trees are doing well and each has a name plaque.
Arboretum
We have planted at least one example of all the trees in Warren Woods (24 species) in the area near to our new building. These now have bi-lingual name signs.
Battle of the Trees
This is an Arts Council funded project and will involve 2 artists performing in the woods on the evening of Tuesday 27 May at 7.30. The performance is based on ancient Celtic stories. Tickets are available from the Centre - £8 adult and £4 for 10-18 years old. More details are at
Growing the Future
This is a project being run by the National Botanic Garden of Wales encouraging people to grow more fruit and vegetables. The courses are being run at 11 centres across Wales and we are hosting the courses in the north-east of the country. Further details are on the Growing the Future website.
Holiday Club in the Woods
We had a good attendance for the 2 days in April and have a further 8 days planned.
Denbigh Scouts
Our programme continues with the Group making use of the woods and Forest School sites for evening sessions and overnight camps. We also run sessions for the youngsters and training for the Leaders.
2Future Projects
Flintshire Mind and Flintshire Voluntary Services run a volunteer project on Tuesdays. They hope to bring the group to us to work in the woods on 1 or 2 days a month. This could be a permanent project.
Vanessa Morris is a support worker for people who haveearly onset dementia and wants to come with some of her people to join our volunteer programme.This is going to start later this month.
We have been contacted by other organisations asking us to run projects for them but we are waiting to see how our current programmes settle down before making further commitments.
3 The Woods
We continue our programme to manage the Warren Woods for people, wildlife and profit. There is plenty more to do in the main woodland and we hope that the Volunteer Project will help us with the work.
We are working on plans to develop the area of some 4 acres outside Y Ganolfan. We already have the Heritage Orchard, the Arboretum, young woodland and a Forest School area. We hope to add a pond, wildflower meadow and 6-8 allotments (which will add some income towards the site costs.) An urgent need is to open this area up to wheel-chair users and we hope to start on creating suitable paths later this summer. The provisional name for this area, to distinguish it from the Warren Woods, is the Warren Fields.
Rod Waterfield
Company Secretary – Warren Woods Ltd
Centre Manager – Woodland Skills Centre