Heaths Countryside Corridor Sites

For more information on all sites and events see, "Newsletter", "Grants" and "Events" pages. If you want to join HCC, but have any doubts, we urge you to visit one of these sites and see what special places these are, or to contact one of the Trustees. The membership form has been distributed locally, alternatively, please use the form available on the "To Join" page.

The purchase and development of all of these three sites SNCI has been made possible by the generous support of many different organisations, the community and especially Jason Adams, Sally Evans, and David Standen. Please see "Grants" for full details of funding

Part of Chilston Park, Lenham Heath Road, Sandway:

Chilston Park is a historic parkland site with SNCI status. The 25 acre area owned by HCC is split in 2 by CTRL, 1 half having an ice pond and being closer to the White Horse pub, the other being easily recognised from the M20 by the well known pine trees on this sloping site. HCC raised nearly £100,000 to cover the cost of purchase and surveys, so the hard work has yet to start. We hope that the community will be able to get involved in the drafting of a management plan for this site.

Part of Hurst Wood, Hurst Lane, Charing Heath: this 16 acre site is half ancient woodland and half newly planted native trees. We will be waiting for a management plan before clearing paths and improving the access to this site. We want to make sure that the paths cause the minimum impact to the wildlife in this SNCI site.

Bull Heath, Bull Lane, Lenham Heath: This is the first site we purchased. The lichen/moss carpet makes this a very unusual site. We have improved access to the site, coppiced, cleared around the "pond" (yes we know there is no water in it) and installed some benches. Coppicing is important in this site to provide better habitats for birds and insects and to enable the lichen and mosses to flourish. Coppicing needs to be undertaken regularly event, so if you walk through and see trees being cut down, don’t be alarmed it is in the long term benefit to all. We are very grateful to the Kent Wildlife Trust for the management plan they provided for this site and their continued advice.

Additional planting: Heath Farm, on Egerton Road, agreed to allow HCC to plant 2000 trees on it’s boundary with CTRL. The area planted is about 500m by 20m and will provide a "wildlife corridor" alongside the bridle path, as well as a visual screen of the CTRL and M20. In 2005 Swadelands School completed our planting program by planting a further 80 trees in this area.

The Trustees would like to thank everyone for their continued support.
 
 September 2006