Each year, the Lord Mayor of the City of London is invited to visit Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire (covered in 2024 here, 2023 here and 2022 here). It is an annual tradition for the Lord Mayor to inspect the condition of the Beeches, to help the Rangers pollard a tree and to meet with local stakeholders.
As a reminder, Burnham Beeches comprises of 220 hectares (540 acres) of ancient woodland, heath, wood pasture and wetland. It is a Special Area of Conservation, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a National Nature Reserve. Since 1879, it has been owned and maintained by the City of London Corporation as part of its portfolio of 11,000 acres of open spaces retained for public recreation and enjoyment across 4 counties in England. It welcomes over 600,000 visitors each year and its natural capital valued at £3.6m annually in public benefits. It operates as a registered charity, overseen by the City’s Epping Forest and Commons Committee.
Unfortunately, the Lord Mayor (Alderman Alastair King DL) was taken unwell the morning of the visit and so Sheriff David Chalk kindly agreed to officiate proceedings in his stead.
We begun our visit at the wonderful Beeches Eco Cafe, with some networking with volunteers, before the Sheriff was invited to officially open the newly refurbished Information Centre. The funding from the refurbishment was generated following the licensing of Disney’s ‘Snow White’ film at Burnham Beeches, over several years.
The centre includes lots of interactive games and useful information for visitors, explaining why we ask people to model certain behaviours, and the impact if they don’t on the many rare species of flora and fauna found within Burnham Beeches.
We then set off for a stroll around the Beeches in beautiful autumn sunshine. We inspected the sensory woodland sculpture trail opened a year earlier, with the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire (The Countess Howe), checking the the QR codes still work – I am pleased to report they did – and they are still being well used by visitors.
We then met-up with a wonderful class of students from Farnham College Village Schools, who have recently been working with our Community Rangers to design posters asking visitors to help protect the Beeches by sticking to the paths provided. There were some highly creative designs and messages which will be used in a campaign later this year.
Each of the guests stopped for a chat with each students and talked to them about their work. The primary school students were also particularly interested to talk about the Sheriff’s impressive gold chain!
As our visit continued, we checked-in on the herd of British White cows, who were hard at work, munching the brambles and undergrowth to allow light to continue to reach the grassland below.
One of the cows kindly stopped for a photograph with the Chair of Burnham Parish Council, (Councillor Marie Hammond) and the Chief Commoner of the City of London (Deputy Henry Pollard).
Our next stop was the tree pollarding site. The traditional conservation technique of pollarding trees is a clever way to extend the life of a tree and, over time, create old rot-hollows and other niches on the trees, providing nesting holes for birds and bats, bark surfaces for lichens and mosses and a whole host of opportunities for wild animals, insects and plants.
Dressed in appropriate PPE and under the watchful supervision of Head Ranger Martin Hartup, the Sheriff made light work of the sawing.
The Sheriff then addressed the guests and students assembled to thank them, particularly the volunteers and staff who do such a wonderful job in supporting the City of London Corporation to conserve this natural environment for future generations to enjoy.
Just down the road from Burnham Beeches is the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s 250 acre country retreat, Dorneywood House. The house is owned by the National Trust and leased to the Dorneywood Trust who work closely with team at Burnham Beeches on landscape management.
In 1942 Lord Courtauld-Thomson decided that, on his death (which occurred in 1954) the house, with a small endowment, should pass to the nation for use by a senior member of the government. Under the terms of the trust, it stated that the house would be offered to the senior cabinet minister, if not, it would be offered to the Lord Mayor of London or the American Ambassador. So each year, we are delighted that the Lord Mayor exercises his right to utilise the house and gardens to host a lunch for local policy makers to discuss mutual interest with the City of London Corporation.
This year, we were delighted to welcome the Member of Parliament for Windsor, Jack Rankin, who was fascinated to hear about the City Corporation’s role as conservator and trustee.
Dorneywood Trustee, Nicola Andrews, kindly gave a speech outlining the history and use of the building and presented some of the wonderful art collection in the house – including a painting by the late Sir Winston Churchill.
A ‘state of the union’ address was given by the new Chair of the Epping Forest and Commons Committee (as defacto Chair of Burnham Beeches charity) Caroline Haines and the City of London Sheriff David Chalk, recognising many of the recent achievement, but also emphasising the need for greater partnership to overcome the challenges ahead, together.
After a final bit of networking, guests then departed for home. A thoroughly useful visit, made all the more enjoyable with catching-up with some old friends and making some new ones along the way. Here’s to next year’s visit!
