Woodland lovers are being invited to an open day in a beautiful woodland carpeted in bluebells.

Families and anyone interested in nature are invited to visit Leighbeer Coppice, near Clearbrook, on Saturday, May 16, 11am-3pm, for a special Bluebell Day.

Visitors are offered guided walks and craft demonstrations using coppiced wood. They are welcome to bring along children, picnics and dogs on leads.

There will also be wooden items for sale, created from this working wood. Entry is free, but visitors are encouraged to donate £2.50.

Leighbeer Coppice is a managed woodland which relies on volunteers to maintain a productive and healthy wildlife habitat.

Frank Wells, a key figure in the coppice voluntary group, has spent most of his life working with wood, including for the Duchy of Cornwall and contractors.

He said: “Anyone who likes spending time in the open air and appreciates nature, is more than welcome to come along to our Bluebell Open Day.

“It’s really open to anyone. Families have come in the past with a picnic and their children and really enjoyed themselves. We’ll show people around and explain how us volunteers are keeping the woodland as a thriving working woodland.

“This means we are cutting back trees and undergrowth in ‘coops’ (specified areas) across the coppice to encourage healthy new growth and then fell them every few years on a cyclical basis to produce pea and bean sticks for allotments and gardens and to make witches’ broomstick brushes, for example.”

He said this process was how most woodland used to be managed when wooden products were commonly used: “This is a very sustainable process which is also good for the environment because we’re creating habitats for birds as we go along.

“One dedicated habitat is our ‘dead hedge’, built out of twigs and other off-cuts for dormice and hedgehogs.”