Hampshire Hangars Project

The Selborne Landscape Partnership is a farmer cluster group based south of Alton. The group is facilitated by Matthew Norris-Hill and Rosie Pratt from FWAG South East. One of the Selborne Landscape Partnership’s main projects is the Hampshire Hangars Project.

The Selborne area is characterized by its Hangar woodlands. The word Hangar comes from the Old English ‘hangra,’ meaning ‘steep slope.’ Steepness is one of the hangar woodland’s key characteristics; it is also one of the reasons that the woodlands are so tricky to manage.

Above: Hangar woodland by Sam Moore from Visual Air

With funding from the South Downs National Park and the National Grid’s Landscape Enhancement Initiative, the Hampshire Hangars Project aims to restore the cluster’s hangar woodlands and lanes. Works will improve the quality of the habitat and the resilience of the woodland. This is a six year project with work taking place on eleven different cluster members’ land.

The management of hangar woodlands typically involves the opening up of the tree canopy, the coppicing of overstood hazel, the removal of trees with ash dieback and the halo-release of specific veteran trees. This woodland management work can often look quite brutal, but it is an essential part of woodland management.

Above: Woodland works by Sam Moore from Visual Air