700 Years, from 1316 to 1923

The history of the Wood is not well documented. Almost the same outline as today is shown on Faden's Map of 1797, on a Map of 1805 and on the Hockering Tithe Award Map of 1839. Much further back, a description of the Manor of Hockering drawn up in 1316 refers to the 'capital messuage, a park, a wood called Swynehagh and a little wood.' Faden shows 'Swinnow Wood' as a separate area of woodland, to the north, which had disappeared by the 19th Century. However, the 1805 Map explicitly refers to 'Hockering or Swinnow. Wood', so Swinnow was clearly an alternative name for Hockering Wood itself. By the 18th Century the Wood formed part of the Berney estate, centred on Morton Hall.

The Last 100 Years or so, from 1923 to 2022

From 1923 to 1956

The Wood was sold in 1923, as part of the Berney's Hockering Estate. Hockering Wood (221 acres or 89.4 hectares) was sold for £22 per acre (£54
per hectare). The sale details mention valuable oak, larch and Scots pine, together with smaller mixed timber and a quantity of underwood, "some of which is fit to cut".
Almost everything worth cutting appears to have been felled in 1926. A few scattered oak, beech, larch and Scots pine remain, together with two small
clumps of Douglas fir, planted about 1905.

The Wood was then used for shooting and little was done to it, except for the planting of some small areas of ornamental oaks and some Douglas fir,
larch and Scots pine in the mid 1930's.

During the war the Wood was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force and was used to store bombs. This entailed the construction of some five miles of
concrete roads, together with some 250 offsets where the bombs were stored.

From 1956 to 1984

In late 1956 the late Captain Ronnie Hutton and the late Mrs Danthe Hutton. purchased the Wood for £7,331 (viz, £33 per acre or £82 per hectare). At
that time the Wood was quite neglected. One third was either bare ground or under 50% stocked and two thirds were more or less fully stocked by the
25-30 year old natural regeneration of birch and lime.

Captain Hutton had been much influenced by Professor Hermann Knuchel's book "Planning and Control in the Managed Forest". His long-term aim was to establish an uneven-aged irregular selection forest, similar to the classic Swiss beech, silver fir and Norway spruce forests. The more immediate
short-term aims were to thin all the well-stocked areas and to restock all the poor areas.

Some 53 acres were planted in 1957/1958, mostly with a rather complicated mixture of larch and Douglas fir, with a small proportion of western red
cedar and some red oak and sweet chestnut. Because there was little or no outside capital available, the next two decades saw a constant struggle to
achieve enough return from thinnings to enable the removal of overhead cover to be carried out.

Meanwhile, areas that had been fully stocked, but which had a high proportion of birch, began to break up as the birch died back. This situation was worsened by the huge January 1976 gale which caused a great deal of damage. There was some pressure from the Forestry Commission to restock the poorest areas, but there was only enough capital available to do part, which was done by using large transplants of beech, oak and sycamore at wide spacings.

The unplanted areas of the Wood were notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1968. In November 1977 a seven year Nature Reserve Agreement entered into with the Norfolk Naturalists Trust (now, the Norfolk Wildlife Trust) accepted the principle that the Wood should be converted to an uneven aged selection forest, restocking with mixed conifers and hardwoods.

From 1984 to 1996

The Nature Conservancy Council, as English Nature (now Natural England) then was, re-notified the site in 1984 and produced a set of much more
restrictive so-called Potentially Damaging Operations. These were contested unsuccessfully by Matthew Hutton, Captain Hutton's son, the new owner of the. Wood. English Nature resisted his arguments based on cost-benefit analysis. and his suggestion of a compromise was not acceptable. Accordingly, it was decided in the latter part of 1984 to enter into a Management Agreement with English Nature as from 1st January 1985 and work was halted until this Agreement was completed. Negotiation took nearly ten years, but was eventually settled in 1993. Fortunately, the Agreement was entered into before the Forestry Commission published their policy for broadleaves and so some financial compensation was available to the Owner.


The scheme of the 1993 arrangement with English Nature was to divide the Wood into various discrete areas as follows:-
* mixed high forest (mainly conifer) (32.9 ha);
* group selection broad-leaved high forest (26.7 ha);
* coppice with standards (16.9 ha);
* non-intervention areas (12.9 ha); and
* widened rides (of about 2.4 ha, to be distributed through the above).

As negotiations continued, it became clear that the areas delineated under the above headings would not necessarily be those most appropriate. Although a scheme along the above lines was initially adopted, the emphasis was, as management meetings occurred year by year, to focus on areas for development as, say, coppice with standards according to what was found on the ground. In particular, the ride widening and the coppice with standards areas were in some cases most conveniently taken together.

In 1996 Matthew Hutton gave the Wood to trustees for the benefit of his children. The Wood has been in the family now for over 65 years and the
long-term plan is to retain it as a Hutton family asset. Under the overall management of Graham Darrah from 1956 to 2021, the day-to-day management has been in the hands of the Cheetham family (first the late Max Cheetham employed by Eastern Forestry in the late 1950's and then on his own since 1962 and most recently his son Jonathan).

 From 1996 to 2011

In 1996 the Trustee Owners and their advisers felt cautiously optimistic about the financial basis for the future management of the Wood, with the
annual compensation received from English Nature mentioned above, together with annual grants of up to £2,000 from English Nature for conservation
works. The compensation payments continued until 2003/04, but were then discontinued, as were (from 2004/05) any payments for positive conservation. It therefore became a struggle to meet the management objectives while seeking to break even over a five to seven year cycle.

The Owners signed a Site Management Statement on 30 September 2006 with Natural England (which English Nature had become) which stated the
following:

Agreed Objectives

”The Wood will be managed as an example of an uneven aged acidic predominantly oak lime woodland natural to the area with features of wildlife interest being maintained and enhanced. Long term management should aim to produce a mosaic of primarily lime high forest, with the existing
coniferous areas gradually returned to mainly native deciduous woodland."

Thinning the conifer/mixed areas produced income to offset the deficit created by a fairly intensive management regime. In mixed compartments
broadleaves were favoured. 'Halo' thinning around mature oak and lime was undertaken to create areas suitable for natural regeneration.

English Nature had wanted removal of all the conifers within the woodland by 2010. The Owners argued that this would be disadvantageous in all aspects: financially, silviculturally and aesthetically. English Nature eventually agreed that up to 5% of conifers and 5% of sycamore could be maintained through the Wood.

An ever-increasing number of people started to visit Hockering Wood for leisure and recreation, once the Wood was opened for general public access
in 2001. Visits by colleges and universities were encouraged and the Woodland became an important element in the curriculum of students.

From 2012 to 2022

Commercial forestry operations in the Wood have been constrained by the following factors, indeed also both going back to 1996 and looking forward to the future:
1. The need and the desire to facilitate good public access, whether this is enjoyed by the residents of Hockering Village or by those coming
from further afield.
2. The Trustee Owners have made and continue to make the Woodland available for educational and for academic use.
3. Considerable attention is given to the biodiversity of the Wood and to achieving the Objects of the Woodland Management Plan agreed with the
Forestry Commission and Natural England in 2013.
4. The fact that Hockering Wood is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
5. In the light of the Management Objectives established in 2013, managing and improving wildlife habitats.

In all of the above, the Owners encourage input from other stakeholders, in particular from Norfolk County Council and the Local Council.

All of this means that managing Hockering Wood is a multifaceted operation. Public funding received over the years and prospectively (where the Owners plan to apply for a Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship Scheme (w.e.f. 2024) is relatively small, given the national importance of the Wood. The Owners need to meet their annual expenses and then are looking to provide some return to the Beneficiaries of the Trust.

The above said, the commercial forestry operations over this ten year period have been:

A. Ride management and small-scale coppicing, in the interests of meeting the demands of amenity and biodiversity.
B. Light crown thinning of the broadleaves, restricted by increasing numbers of deer. Deer management has now become critical, given the desire
to establish coppice and the select felling of the conifer areas with the aim of establishing natural regeneration.
C. Continuous thinning of mixed species compartments, preferring broadleaves, with the gradual removal of the conifers.
D. Select felling of the conifer areas.

Looking Ahead from 2022: the Next Ten Years and Beyond

The Site Management Statement agreed with Natural England is the guiding document for the 20-year period to expire on 30 September 2026. The broad picture for the next 10 years or so can be summarised as follows.

Aims of the Owners

* Respecting the status of the Wood as an SSSI, to manage the Wood commercially to produce financial returns.
* To fell most crops at their financial rotation age, restocking mainly by natural regeneration, while accepting and encouraging whatever
species are seen as most suited to the Site.

Objectives agreed by the Owners, Natural England and the Forestry Commission

* To manage the Wood as an uneven-aged acidic oak-lime ancient woodland natural to the area, maintaining and enhancing features of wildlife
interest.
* The long-term aim is to produce a mosaic of primarily lime high forest, gradually returning the existing coniferous areas to remain as native deciduous woodland, while allowing small areas of conifer regeneration.

Management

* Continued silvicultural thinning of the conifers and the broadleaves.
* Select felling of mature limes adjacent to existing mature and semi-mature oaks, within fully stocked compartments.
* Establishing up to 2ha of mature coppice per annum, subject to 100% grant funding.
* Ongoing deer management, with the aid of grant-funded moveable deer fencing.
* Ride management, for all of biodiversity, amenity and public access, within a 10-year plan for grant funding.
* Encouragement of 12ha of hazel coppice in rotation.
* Maintenance of 10% of the Wood as open space.

Nature Conservation Objectives

* Restoration to and maintenance of the small leaved lime and pedunculate oak woodland stand types and woodland ground flora in favourable condition.
* Increase in biodiversity through commercial woodland operations.

Woodland Composition

* Small leaved lime, oak, birch, hazel and ash to occupy 85 - 90% of the overall woodland canopy.
* Gradual reduction of conifer areas to 5% cover.
* 5% sycamore cover generally accepted.