Skip over main navigation
  • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
The Forest of Marston Vale Trust
  • Search
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Donate
Menu
  • About us
    • Our Story
    • How we help
    • Community Fund
    • Trustees
    • Our Patron
    • Corporate Friends
  • Explore the Forest
    • Forest Centre and Millennium Country Park
      • Opening Times and Directions
      • The Forest Centre
      • The Millennium Country Park
      • Bike Hire
      • Wetlands Nature Reserve
    • Our Woodlands
    • Walks and Routes
    • Kids and Families
    • Schools
      • Forest School
      • School Visits and Resources
  • Gifts That Give Back
    • Become a Friend
    • Dedicate a tree
    • Sponsor a Habitat
    • Jump for the trees - sponsored skydive
    • Raise £s as you shop
  • Support Us
    • Corporate Opportunities
    • Fundraising Ideas
    • In Memory
    • Volunteer for us
      • Volunteer opportunities
      • Volunteer Tasks
  • What's going on
    • News
    • Events
    • Our blog
  • Shop
    • Commemorative Leaf Plaques
    • Firewood
  • Venue hire
    • Weddings
    • Parties
    • Conferencing
    • Team Building
    • Wakes
    • Green Values
  • Trees for Climate
  • 01234762615
    • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
  • Firewood

Firewood

PLEASE NOTE: Firewood has now sold out for the season. We will update this page when firewood is available again.

We don’t just plant trees

We also thin them out (aka cut some down) as part of woodland management. This is essential in order to let light onto the woodland floor, and give other trees room to grow. Contrary to popular belief, woods can’t just look after themselves – over hundreds of years the plants and wildlife of woodlands have become accustomed to being managed so without it, they wouldn’t thrive.

Firewood and kindling prices 

Firewood is now available for collection in the shop, max 5 nets, for the 2022 /2023 season. Stock is limited and subject to availability.

To find out more about bulk orders for the 2022/2023 season please email [email protected].

Pricing for the 2022/23 stock is as shown below: 

1 net £8
5 nets £37.50
10 nets £70
20 nets

£130 (+ 2 free bags of kindling)

Additional nets over 20

£6.50 per net

30 nets

£195 (+ 3 free bags of kindling)

40 nets £260 (+ 4 free bags of kindling)
1 net of kindling £5.50 
2 or more nets of kindling £5 each

If you want to understand the heat output of wood vs. different fuel sources here is a link to a research paper which can help answer your questions. Heat Output Tests (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Where it all began

In 2010 our team were thinning woodland at the Grange Estate as part of a Forestry Commission approved management plan. The woodland was thinned by 30% across all species, generating many tonnes of timber. If the team had left the timber on the ground, it would have affected the existing and emerging fauna and flora, as well as making access for future woodland management difficult. As part of the Forestry Commission approved management plan, dead wood habitat was created by leaving piles of brash and logs scattered throughout the wood, as well as ring barking trees to create standing deadwood. All thinning operations are carried out to help naturalise the woodlands, by breaking up the uniformed rows, creating more light to the woodland floor to encourage new ground level growth and to provide more room for the remaining trees to grow outwards, rather than just upwards. You can read more about woodland management here.

Having used as much of the timber as possible to create new habitats, there was still more timber left, and so our firewood enterprise was born!

In the beginning, everything was done by hand with axes and hand saws and stored under some tarpaulin. By 2013, things had grown quite a bit with the arrival of our new barn and workshop (thanks to funding from Natural England) including machinery to cut and split the wood. The new machinery dramatically increased the quality and quantity of timber that we could process, and the new storage facility meant that we could properly store and season the wood to an optimum 20% moisture content (there is some more info on seasoning wood here)

A growing woodland economy

The woodland economy is on its knees due to decades of neglect and a lack of investment, which has led to a skills shortage within the industry and many woodlands becoming uneconomically viable, due to poor access from neglected and overgrown tracks. The production of firewood and lumber, as part of a sustainable, certified management plan, is a means to cover the cost of managing our woodlands and protecting them for future generations. Our woodlands are under pressure from pests and diseases, deer browsing, squirrel damage and from closed canopies that give young trees limited opportunities to establish through lack of light. Thinning trees is part of the natural cycle of woodlands and we promote best practice management techniques in our woodlands to benefit ecology, diversity, the rural economy and access for our visitors. Money we raise from selling firewood allows us to create more woodlands - for the benefit of people, wildlife and our planet.

Our wood is licensed by the Grown in Britain scheme, whose sole aim is to encourage the use of British timber by individuals and businesses throughout the UK, which ties in perfectly with what we want to encourage – a growing woodland economy.

For more information on firewood or woodland management please email us.

 


Get involved

Sign up to our newsletter

You can choose to just hear about our events, or our campaigns and the work that we do locally. The more people that get involved, the quicker we'll be able to plant 5 million more trees and that can only be a good thing. Not just for the local area but for the planet. 

Published: 3rd August, 2017

Updated: 24th January, 2023

Author: Sam Hayden

Share this page
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Latest

  • Party with a Princess

    Party with a Princess

    Party with a princess! Join the Princesses for a children's afternoon tea fit for royalty, followed by meet and greets, games and sing-a-longs. £15 per ticket - book online now.

  • The King's Coronation kids' crafts

    The King's Coronation kids' crafts

    Join us at the Forest Centre this Easter holidays and get creative at our kid's crafts sessions. Book online now - two sessions available to choose from. £4 per child.

  • Decorate your own butterfly house - kids' crafts

    Decorate your own butterfly house - kids' crafts

    Join us at the Forest Centre this Easter holidays and get creative at our kid's crafts sessions. Book online now - two sessions available to choose from. £4 per child.

  • Valentine's

    Valentine's

    A gift that lasts longer than flowers and chocolates.

Related

  • What are you doing about the climate crisis

    What are you doing about the climate crisis

    We want to know what changes you're making to live a more sustainable life and help the planet.

  • Changing lives

    Changing lives

    Trees work in mysterious ways - not just to help the health of us and the planet, but also by bringing people together.

  • Wilstead Community Woodland

    Wilstead Community Woodland

    Near Wilstead.

  • DEFRA 1 Million Trees

    DEFRA 1 Million Trees

    We're helping DEFRA plant 1 million trees with school children in the UK. Children from 4 local schools planted an amazing 1000 trees last year, and we've got even more planned for this year...

  • Trees we plant

    Trees we plant

    A handy guide to all of the trees and shrubs we plant in the Forest of Marston Vale!

  • Managing our sites

    Managing our sites

    It takes a lot of work to look after our 11 sites - from woodland management, to pond clearance to picking up after dog owners...

  • Waypost Wood

    Waypost Wood

    In Cranfield.

  • Folly Wood

    Folly Wood

    In Lidlington

  • Granary Wood

    Granary Wood

    In Lidlington.

  • Conquest Wood

    Conquest Wood

    In Houghton Conquest.

Most read

  • Opening times and directions

    The Forest Centre's Opening Times and Directions to the Millennium Country Park

  • Walks and routes

    Walks and routes

    Our suggestions for great walks, bike rides and bridleways throughout the Forest of Marston Vale.

  • Weddings

    Weddings

    Give the Forest a future by starting your future with us. The Forest Centre is a stunning wedding venue

  • Become a Friend of the Forest Today

    Become a Friend of the Forest Today

    Join now to help us to plant 5 million trees in the Forest

  • Jobs

    Jobs

    Job Opportunities at the Forest Centre

  • Opening times and map

  • Car parking charges

    Car parking charges

    In order to carry on maintaining our sites and planting more trees we need to step it up.

  • Bike hire

    Bike hire

    From just £7 for an adult bike, explore the Millennium Country Park

  • Our story

    Our story

    Trees make life better

  • Wetlands Nature Reserve

    Wetlands Nature Reserve

    In the Millennium Country Park

Tag cloud

Birds Spiders Trees for Climate Wildlife

Sign up to help us plant 5 million trees!

* indicates required
I want to hear about:

Useful Links

  • Contact us
  • Jobs
  • Press
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy and Cookies policy
  • Community Fund
  • Accessibility
  • Terms and Conditions

Follow us

  • Trip Advisor
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

The Forest of Marston Vale Trust is a Registered Charity No. 1069229.
Company registered in England No 3462405.

Registered Office: The Forest Centre, Station Road, Marston Moretaine, Bedford MK43 0PR.
Marston Vale Services t/a The Forest Centre Ltd, registered in England No 3538255 & Marston Vale Farms Limited, registered in England No 06537891 are subsidiaries of the Forest of Marston Vale Trust.

Manage Cookie Preferences