Sensory Gardens can be calming, therapeutic spaces that stimulate the senses of all, as a way of connecting better with nature by appealing to the senses of sound, smell, taste, sight and touch.

The Woodford Halse Kindness Group is hoping to create a sensory garden in the Woodland.

The Parish Council is making an area of land available next to the Co-op-Station Road path as this can be made wheelchair accessible.

The Great Central Woodland provides a great space for young people to experience and appreciate nature.

Forest Bees run woodland adventure and forest school sessions in the Woodland.

Woodford’s Great Central Woodland offers a great location for learning bush skills.

A community group is working with Will Lord Prehistoric Survival to create a permanent den in the woodland that will be a centre for learning bush skills.

The Great Central Woodland Management Committee is planning to set up a “Railway Heritage Trail” around the part of the woodland that was occupied by the railway wagon yards until the 1960’s.

The trail will have a series of boards next to paths in the woodland, indicating what used to be there and its importance for village history.

The Parish Council initiated a project to create a new footpath, inside the woodland along the Byfield Road from the Cinder Path to Kitchen Lane. This new path was jointly funded through an HS2 Community & Environment Fund grant from HS2 and GroundWork and funding from the Council’s Community Infrastructure Levy paid by local developers.

Here is a plan of the new pathway:

The patch of land beside the skew bridge on Station Road is being planted and maintained by the Woodford Halse Garden Club.

The area is intended to remember those who have suffered illness or the loss of loved ones and as a tribute to the work of the local community and key workers.

Planting includes 500 white narcissi bulbs to naturalise and multiply over the year donated by the club and additional plants provided by the Parish Council.