The Archbishop of Canterbury’s deer park at Slindon dates from the twelfth century and the massive banks that surround it today may have been in place by the thirteenth century. Five hundred years later they were planted with avenues of beech to create remarkable picturesque drives. These in turn were surrounded by beech plantations which became internationally famous as the ‘Slindon Beeches.’ The 1987 storm devastated this landscape, but the National Trust has been very effective in reinstating it and increasing its wildlife value.

Working with the National Trust’s ranger team we developed a Conservation Management and Action Plan based around a vision of developing species-rich wood pasture within the park, surrounded by beech-oak woodland and bands of coppice. Key features of the eighteenth-century landscape are to be restored and the site will be robust enough to cope with large numbers of visitors