Woodland Trust - Jubilee Woods - Swanton Care Centre

Recipient: Swanton Care Centre

Date: Wednesday 21 Nov 2012

Swanton Care Centre was the first of the Barchester homes to create and plant their Jubilee Wood. In November last year. A working party got together which consisted of staff and service users from Swanton, Heathersett and the Warren along with Ben Collard and Bill Wilson. Olympic athlete James Dasaolu planted the first tree along with Mike Parsons founder and CEO of Barchester.

To celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee the Woodland Trust planned their most ambitious tree planting project to date, and embarked on the Jubilee Woods Project, with a target to plant 6 million trees. On the 27th March 2013 they reached their target. Our new wood will be recorded for posterity in an online and offline Royal Jubilee Tree Planting Record with the offline record presented to Her Majesty, the Government and the British Library.

At Swanton Care Centre great emphasis is placed upon quality of life. People who require assistance to live life to the full are provided with an environment which is both conducive to good health and safety. To this end the 1000 trees which make up our Jubilee Wood, Hastings Coppice, provide a rich habitat for wild life and for people to enjoy the natural, healthy environment which it provides.

Hastings Coppice is made up of two existing ancient Oak Trees, around which a variety of young small leaved limes, sessile oaks, alder, goat willow, bird cherry, silver birch, crab apple, hazel and hawthorns have been planted. Path ways and occasional spaces have been created in order for people to be able to access all areas of the wood. Recreational benches have been placed in an informal manner in order for the natural environment to be enjoyed by all ages.

Barchester Healthcare has set a target to plant a tree for every member of Staff by the end of 2015 (17000 trees). The inspiration for Hastings Coppice is that it will provide an area of natural habitat for an abundance of wild life, at the same time as providing an area for the People living and working at Swanton Care Centre to enjoy.