An E-biking Tour Of England’s Newest Forest

Over nine million trees have been planted in the east Midlands’ National Forest, where mines once churned up the land, offering great cycling routes that explore villages and industrial heritage

You couldn’t make it up. As early autumn darkness deepened around Whistlewood Common – tealights a-flicker, guitars twanging around the campfire – I found myself sitting between Peter Wood and Gill Forrester. It was a pincer movement of nominative determinism: Wood, a woodworker and teacher of heritage crafts; Forrester, community and wellbeing manager at the National Forest. Both – along with members of the Whistlewood community – were singing the praises of planting trees.

The National Forest is the Midlands’ great rewilding. In 1991 this ambitious environmental project launched to green-up an area of 200 square miles and connect the remnants of two ancient forests: Needwood in Staffordshire and Charnwood in Leicestershire. Back then, scarred by years of coal mining and clay extraction, this was one of the least-wooded parts of Britain – only 6% forest-covered. But in summer 2024, having planted 9.5m trees, the National Forest hit 25%.