Friends of Hopwas wood

At the AGM on 29th. April the members present proposed that the subscription for the coming year should be £10 and this was passed unanimously.

Payment is now due by the end of July 2026.

20260311-Firing Times_SWTC-O – May 2026

As seen in the Security Defence Review, the Army are at heightened readiness due to a new era of threat. This has placed greater demands on the Defence Training Estate across the UK, which is being used for training more regularly and at shorter notice.

As such, the firing time notifications published on Gov.UK have been standardised to show the daily timings for when live-firing is permitted on the UK DTE. This is a change from the previous method of showing when training bookings had been made in advance.

This to ensure safety of all users, as it is not possible to change Gov.UK notifications at short notice. Broadly, the only guaranteed safe times for access are before or after the firing times provided on this page, however there may be exceptional circumstances where extensions have been requested.

If you wish to use the DTE for recreation, please always refer to onsite safety warning signals to understand if the site is safe to access before doing so

Monday: 8.30am to 4.30pm

Tuesday: 8.30am to 11.00pm

Wednesday: 8.30am to 4.30pm

Thursday: 8.30am to 11.00pm

Friday: 8.30am to 4.30pm

Saturday: 9am to 11.00pm

Sunday: 9am to 4.30pm

Whittington Firing Times February 2026

Notice of forestry works at Hopwas Wood (2)

The Parish Council have informed us that they have heard from Tarmac that the Forestry Commission will be carrying out an inspection over the next few weeks and any damaged trees will be felled if deemed necessary.

1 NEWSLETTER April 2020

1 NEWSLETTER April 2019

The latest Newsletter has been sent to members.

1 NEWSLETTER April 2018

Lafarge Tarmac has asked Staffordshire County Council to withdraw Hopwas Woods from the Minerals Local Plan, which is currently under public consultation.

Stuart Wykes, Director of Land and Natural Resources, Lafarge Tarmac said:

“Following dialogue with stakeholders and partners we have asked Staffordshire County Council to withdraw the Hopwas Woods proposal from the Minerals Local Plan. We pride ourselves on working in harmony with local communities and want to do so at Hopwas”

“We want to work with local stakeholders on the stewardship of Hopwas Woods and we are willing to fund an independent study on its long term sustainability. This could include issues such as public access and environmental protection”

“We are committed to managing and enhancing the local habitat everywhere we operate.

We did not have firm plans to develop Hopwas but intended to use the public consultation on the Minerals Local Plan as an opportunity for dialogue to agree a way forward”