History

Several posters were quickly displayed at every entrance leading in to the woodland, encouraging walkers to take an accompanying letter explaining how they could help save Geers Wood! The aim was to try to raise enough money to bid at auction and purchase Geers Wood for ourselves, in order to prevent it from becoming Heathfield’s next housing development.

Extract taken from Allsop & Co Auction House Catalogue, detailing Lots 110 & 112. A very tense morning that finally saw our hard work come to nothing, as we were eventually outbid on both the woodland and the adjoining grassland…

Tim Brown manages to negotiate a price with the new owners, a Lancashire based property developer, for the woodland and adjoining areas. But despite additional pledges we are still £19,000 short, with time running out and a rival corporate PLC threatening to close their own deal. So we try one last throw of the dice – we detail our plight in the local newspaper for help towards saving our ancient woodland…

The pressure only grew more intense, from ALL sides…

The local newspaper article had worked; a gentleman from Hove and a lady from Mayfield read our story and came forward – we finally had enough money to conclude the purchase! Chris Barber completed the legalities for us on 24th December 1999 and so Friends of Geers Wood Ltd was born. Posting these slips through every letterbox in Geers Wood felt like delivering the best Xmas present EVER!…

A new Millenium, and with it the announcement in the local press that we had secured the future of Geers Wood for many generations to come…