The Millennium Wood The land on which the Millennium Wood now stands was purchased by the Parish Council in 1915 and was used as allotments until about1978. By then all the allotments had closed in favour of a more convenient location near the King’s Head public house which had piped running water. The field was then just let for sheep grazing until the Parish Council planted this new wood in January 2000 to celebrate the Millennium. Contractors planted all the trees except for about 170 in the north east corner which were planted by the children of North Elmham Primary School and by the local Scouts and Guides. A plan showing which child planted each tree has been deposited by the Parish Council in the Norfolk Record Office.
Jubilee Wood In 2012, the year of H.M. The Queen’s Golden Jubilee, the Parish Council organised a community tree planting day on additional land which had been part of a County Council smallholding. This was to extend the wood to join it up with Church Lane, a public footpath. Included in this new area was an oak purchased from The Queen’s Sandringham Estate as a part of our Jubilee celebrations. The second planting brought the total area of community woodland up to about 8 acres (3.25 hectares).
The two woods have been planted with native species, although with the onset of ash dieback some diseased ash trees were removed in 2016 as a part of the routine thinning process. The Parish Council is also creating areas of snowdrops, which are at their best in February and March, while some of the rides have been lined with daffodils which follow the snowdrops into flower in March and April.