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Hargate Forest Appeal 

Help us make Hargate Forest a larger, more vibrant healthy haven for local people and wildlife.

Two areas of woodland bordering Hargate Forest, a wood already under our care, are up for sale. We urgently need your support to raise £1.25 million to protect and expand it. While we've made a start on raising the significant funding – we need your help. Together, we can purchase these parcels of land, connect them with Hargate and manage the woodland into the future. 

Hargate Forest is much loved by locals – and stepping into it, it’s easy to see why. The mix of conifer and mature broadleaf trees open out across the heathland to reveal stunning views over the Sussex High Weald countryside. As you wander further, seasonally wet woodland slopes down towards a steep-sided gill – a classic example of the narrow stream valleys found in the High Weald and a haven for wildlife.

It’s a magical place, rich with biodiversity. Sitting on the fringes of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Hargate offers a rare, rewarding natural escape in a semi-urban location. But now it needs your support to grow into a bigger, bolder and healthier wood.

What makes Hargate Forest so special?

Credit: Marko König / Alamy Stock Photo

A haven for rare wildlife 

Hargate Forest is a vital refuge for wildlife. Dormice live here and are regularly monitored to protect their numbers. Great crested newts and pipistrelle bats have been recorded nearby, while red-listed birds such as marsh tit and skylark can often be spotted. Other significant bird species include firecrest, sparrowhawk and red kite. We need to safeguard, expand, restore and improve their fragile habitat. 

Credit: Laurie Campbell / WTML

Unique habitats with immense biodiversity

Hargate’s gills – narrow stream valleys – provide a warm, moist microclimate that supports a unique ecosystem. They contain extensive, rare and special mosses, liverworts and ferns, as well as native broadleaved trees. The woodland also includes 4.5 hectares (11.1 acres) of important lowland heath, part of the wider High Weald National Landscape – an ancient, medieval landscape rich in archaeology. 

Credit: Trevor Chriss / Alamy Stock Photo

An ecologically rich woodland

While not classed as ancient woodland, key ancient woodland indicators including bluebells, lily-of-the-valley, wood sorrel and wood anemone can be found at Hargate. These species are signs that the woodland is long-established and ecologically rich. 

Credit: Robert Read / WTML

A landscape shaped by intriguing history

Part of the historic Waterdown Forest, once stretching from Kent to Sussex, Hargate also formed part of the Edridge estate (seats of Earls of Abergavenny), where it was likely used as wood pasture for centuries. However, maps from the late 18th century show much of the area as woodland. During the First World War, over 16,000 trees were felled for the war effort and re-planted with fast-growing conifers which we are gradually removing. 

Our plans for restoration 

We’re already restoring Hargate Forest. By thinning non-native conifers and controlling invasive species like rhododendron and cherry laurel, we’re helping existing broadleaves to sprout new growth, native trees to regenerate and ground flora to flourish once more. 

In 50 years, the conifer canopy will have been largely replaced with native oak, birch, beech, rowan, willow and yew alongside scattered specimens of Douglas fir and Scots pine – all forming a diverse, complex woodland. Hargate Forest will be larger, more vibrant and a healthy haven for local people and wildlife to treasure. 

Our careful restoration work is guiding Hargate's canopy towards a healthy, diverse native woodland.

Credit: Robert Read / WTML

Extending Hargate means that the people of Kent and East Sussex will continue to have easy access to a woodland they treasure, its mosaic of habitats will grow and thrive, and rare wildlife will have a healthy home safe from the threat of development.

Helen Osorio
Site Manager

Time is running out. We need to secure the sale of these vulnerable pockets of land, restore them and manage Hargate Forest as a bigger, bolder wood. 

When we first bought Hargate Forest in 1996, it was thanks to support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and a well-supported local appeal. Now, we need your help once again to purchase the two extensions and fund the ongoing restoration and management work of this special wood. 

Please donate what you can. Every pound makes a difference.

Prefer to donate offline?

By phone 

Call us on 0330 333 3300 between 8.30am and 5pm, Monday to Friday, and our friendly team will be there to assist.

By post

Send a cheque to our head office at Hargate Forest Appeal, Woodland Trust, Kempton Way, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 6LL. Please make cheques payable to the Woodland Trust. 

Visit the wood

Woodland Trust Wood

Hargate Forest

Tunbridge Wells

61.72 ha (152.51 acres)

Explore this wood