Community Woodland

During 2020 the Parish Council, in response to a national campaign to plant more trees, decided to create a woodland within Dawson Memorial Field. Chelmsford City Council offered to help create the woodland and to organise the site preparation, erect a rabbit protection fence and the planting of the new trees. The woodland design ensured that there was a wide curving pathway through the centre of the woodland and that access was possible from footpath 20 at Penny Royal Road. The design also included picnic benches and seats at various points along the pathway.

Creating a woodland from scratch is a slow process and can take more than 10 years before it matures.  The planting consisted of 15 semi-mature trees and hundreds of small whips.

The aim, where possible, was to plant native trees such as : Alder, Ash, Aspen, Birch, Blackthorn, Elder, Hawthorne, Hazel, Hornbeam, Lime, Filed Maple, English Oak (Quercus robur), Scots Pine, Rowan, Spindle, Whitebeam, Yew.

A lot of the initial planting of the whips was carried out by volunteers. Chelmsford City Council  undertook the planting of the semi -mature trees and the initial management of the woodland. Unfortunately, the Coronavirus Pandemic delayed the completion of planting, and it wasn’t finished until spring 2021. In 2022 it was decided to call the woodland the Danbury Community Woodland and dedicated to all those affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic.