More than 24 acres of new woodland has been planted by Jockey Club Estates which runs Newmarket’s historic racehorse training grounds

Nearly 18,000 new trees have been planted in Newmarket creating 24 acres of new woodland around the town.

Jockey Club Estates has also put in nearly six miles of new hedges which will not only aid biodiversity but will will also help to improve safety for the town’s thousands of racehorses, their riders and residents by creating sustainable and secure boundaries.

“As responsible landowners our new woodland, hedges and sensitively managed hay areas will play a vital part in maintaining and enhancing the valuable biodiversity found on the training grounds today and for future generations,” said Alex Payne, woodland and conservation manager for Jockey Club Estates.

“We have planted 17,800 mixed native trees in order to mitigate the loss of older trees from our existing woodland and to allow us to quantify the carbon we can capture, the scheme will be registered with the organic soil association and will create carbon credits to offset the CO² we create.”

He added: “We have planted 5.8 miles of hedges around the estate, with the goal of linking habitats, increasing biodiversity and to replace our wooden fences with a more sustainable and secure alternative.

“The hay areas across the heath are being sensitively managed to protect or improve the native chalk grassland flora and fauna, these areas will be cut once a year after the native grasses and flowers have set seed, and complement the existing sites of special scientific interest we have managed for many years.”

The 24 acres of new woodland are made up of one block at the bottom of Water Hall heading out of town towards the A11 and a larger block on The Links training grounds near the golf club by the railway and Devils Dyke,

Of the new trees planted, more than 3,500 are hornbeams, with more than 2,600 Sessile Oak, and 1,785 Douglas fir, sweet chestnut and Maritime pine.

The planting has cost tens of thousands of pounds and has been funded through the government’s English Wood Creation scheme.

“We are looking to provide woodlands in Newmarket fit for the next 100 years,” said Alex. “The droughts we have had over the last few years have lost a lot of trees, particularly beech trees whose root spread out when they hit chalky soil rather than going down which eventually weakens the tree and makes it more susceptible to disease or being blown down.”

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