First of the trusts, formed with 12 people in a Norfolk pub in 1926, buys swath of farmland to restore to nature
T
he place where Norton Wood once stood is now a vast field of decaying wheat stubble. The ancient wood was grubbed up during the second world war. No trace of it remains – on the surface, at least. This ghost in the landscape lives on only in the name of the local village: Wood Norton.
But trees will soon be bursting upwards again and the wood will regrow after Norfolk Wildlife Trust celebrated its 100th birthday by buying a swath of farmland to revive for nature.
The first of the Wildlife Trusts, a national coalition of 47 independent charities with nearly a million members and 2,600 nature reserves, marks its centenary on Friday.
