There will be five more Black Down hectares for Haslemere residents to enjoy this summer.

The five hectares of woodland called Castle Copse is no longer the missing piece of the National Trust’s holding at Black Down. 

The addition was announced by the chair and director-general of the National Trust, Hilary McGrady, on June 12 at the trust’s annual Educate and Inspire lecture.

Her talk concluded with a quote from Octavia Hill, one of the three co-founders of the National Trust: “We all want quiet. We all want beauty. We all need space.” 

Written in 1883, Ms McGrady showed how this quote, and the work of the trust, is just as relevant then as it is today.