Each year, the Lord Mayor of the City of London is invited to visit Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire (covered in 2025 here, 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 Lady Mayor of London was having to host a panel session with several hundred female business leaders at Mansion House, where she was speaking alongside the first Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr; Dame Sarah Mullally, the first female Archbishop of Canterbury; and Dame Antonia Romeo, the first female Head of the Civil Service. As Ambassador of the UK’s financial and professional services, the Lady Mayor was also having to fly to Vietnam that afternoon, so she didn’t make the Burnham Beeches portion of the visit, but she kindly joined us for lunch before catching her flight.
Deputising for the Lady Mayor were Sheriffs of the City of London Alderman Robert Hughes-Penny and Keith Bottomley.
The event began with an introduction from the Junior Rangers. Junior Rangers is a programme for young people aged 11-18 who want to get outdoors, learn real conservation skills, and see what it’s like to care for one of the UK’s most loved National Nature Reserves. You can find out more about their volunteering activities here.
Following a walk around the Beeches, guests met some of the “Eyes and Ears” volunteers, who support the Ranger team in reporting issues and incidents as they go about their visits. Whilst our Rangers have their daily rounds, having a team of volunteers who often go for early morning walks before the Ranger’s come to work, allows them to respond much more quickly to items requiring attention.
One of the adult volunteers we met explained that he had loved supporting the conservation of the site since 1954. Remarkable service!
One volunteer, Liz, gave a short speech about her experience as a volunteer and what made her get involved.
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.
It is an incredibly important technique in tree management, as we seek to make our trees more resilient and to veteranise them earlier to sustain such a wide array of biodiversity in the face of crippling climate change.
Following the visit to Burnham Beeches, guests travelled the short distance to Dorneywood – the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s 250 acre country retreat. 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.
We were delighted to be joined by the Lady Mayor of London, Dame Susan Langley and the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, The Countess Howe, alongside the Chairman and Councillors of neighbouring local authorities for discussions on landscape scale working to ensure Burnham Beeches is protected for years to come.
Juliet Souter, one of the Trustees of the Dorneywood Trust, welcomed guests and gave an overview of the estate’s history, particularly the role that women have played over the years.
We then had a wonderful luncheon, during which time guests had a chance to catch-up on shared projects and challenges.
For hundreds of years, the City of London Corporation has played a role as a convener of people to drive positive change in the world and this annual visit is just one small example of how these partnerships endure today, impacting the lives of the half a million people who visit Burnham Beeches annually or £105.8m in natural benefits over 50 years (split as recreation £43.5m, health benefits £33.2m, carbon sequestration £12m and air quality regulation £11.4m.
You can read more about how we manage the Burnham Beeches charity below.
