Hanging Wood

Hanging Wood is an off-grid woodland farm on the North Downs in Surrey. Our family has owned and managed these woodlands since 1976, following traditional, low-impact methods that put self-sufficiency and care for the land at the heart of everything we do. The farm has no mains connections — all our water, electricity, and heating come directly from the land itself, through solar power, wood fuel, and harvested rainwater.

The woodland includes a Western Red Cedar plantation, areas of British native species, wildflower meadows, an active beekeeping apiary, a small arboretum, and ornamental gardens. No trees are felled unless absolutely necessary — for example, when they are overcrowded, poorly formed, or diseased. In our managed coppice areas, trees are cut on a careful rotational cycle, allowing the stools to regenerate naturally and maintain healthy long-term growth.

Our apiary is home to a thriving population of bees, where we run beekeeping courses, produce hives and nucleus colonies, and sell raw woodland honey. Beekeeping sits at the heart of our philosophy — working with nature’s rhythms and sharing those skills with others.

Beyond the woodland and bees, we design and build practical solutions for small-scale self-sufficiency, including compost loos with urine separators and soakaways, off-grid solar systems using panels, batteries, inverters, and controllers, and Johnson–Su composters for soil health and regeneration. We also harvest rainwater using IBC tanks and simple 12V pump systems, filtering through paper and carbon filters to provide clean, sustainable water for our off-grid needs.

Our products are handmade or harvested from our own woodland using sustainable, regenerative practices. We are not certified under any external accreditation scheme such as the FSC — instead, we rely on over five decades of direct, responsible woodland stewardship and a deep respect for the landscape.

At Hanging Wood, every element — the trees, bees, water, compost, and power — is part of a connected system, working together toward one goal: living independently, responsibly, and in balance with the land.