Covid Lockdown Woods - five years on as 2,500 trees are thriving

Five years after the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, thousands of trees are standing tall in memory of West Berkshire residents who lost their lives.

As the country commemorated the fifth anniversary, a group of friends met in a Newbury park to tend the area’s Lockdown Wood.

The volunteers were in Goldwell Park to continue caring for 500 young trees, planted as part of the Lockdown Wood project, initiated during the first UK lockdown, which began in March 2020.

Since then more than 2,500 saplings have been planted in five small memorial woods around the district, each dedicated to the memory of those lost during the pandemic and in hope of a brighter future for everyone.

The community project invited local people to plant trees, including saplings grown from seeds in their own gardens, and dedicate each one to loved ones affected by the pandemic.

Newbury Friends of the Earth coordinator Dr Susan Millington, the Lockdown Woods project leader, said: “It has been wonderful to see what has grown from this initiative – we now have over 2,500 native broad leaf trees growing well, some over 4m tall now, and many strong friendships forged while caring for our young woodlands.

“In addition, Newbury Friends of the Earth has a new project, linking some of our Lockdown Woods via a Newbury Nature Corridor.”

The Newbury Nature Corridor was launched in May 2024, and is working with local residents, Scout and Guide groups, schools and the town and district councils, as well as other environmental groups, to provide more places for wildlife to thrive and move around the town.

Dr Millington added: “It is vital to do what we can to help our wildlife in these times of climate change and linking up good habitats really helps them to be resilient and thrive.”

There are five Lockdown Woods in West Berkshire, at Westbrook Down in Hungerford; Goldwell Park in Newbury; Barn Crescent in Wash Common; Stroud Green in Newbury; and on a meadow in Hamstead Marshall.

The first wood was the one planted in Hungerford at the end of 2020.

The same month the Lockdown Wood in Goldwell Park was planted. It was then officially dedicated in August 2021, when 70 people gathered together at the site.

At the time, Dr Henry Craven, an ICU doctor at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, offered an account of working on the frontline during the pandemic's first wave.

He showed onlookers the respirator he was expected to wear during lockdown's first week, and spoke of his connection to the Newbury area, having grown up locally.

Children from Hungerford Primary School also read a poem at the planting that had been written for the event, while a number of people spoke about their loss during the pandemic.

The third wood was planted in early 2021 in Barn Crescent, with Stroud Green then planted later that year.

The last wood to be planted was in Hamstead Marshall in December 2022, when more than 20 people gathered to dedicate individual trees to the memory of those lost in the pandemic and look “towards a brighter future for the environment".