In the rolling countryside of Essex, just within sight of London’s distant skyline, a bold experiment in rewilding is underway. Harold’s Park Wildland, a 509-acre nature reserve in Waltham Abbey, is being transformed from a patchwork of exhausted farmland and abandoned Christmas tree plantations into a haven for wildlife and a model for sustainable land management. The unlikely heroes of this transformation? Three Iron Age pigs—half wild boar, half Tamworth—already snuffling and rooting through the ancient soil, setting the stage for a remarkable ecological revival.
This stretch of land is steeped in history. Once the royal hunting ground of King Harold Godwinson, England’s last Saxon monarch, the estate has seen its fortunes rise and fall over nearly a millennium. In recent years, it struggled to thrive as commercial farmland and even as a vast stable complex housing nearly a hundred horses. But now, thanks to the vision of nature restoration firm Nattergal, Harold’s Park is at the forefront of a movement to restore the UK’s battered wildlife and habitats using a blend of “soft engineering” and innovative funding from the emerging biodiversity net gain (BNG) market.
At the heart of the project is a deceptively simple idea: let nature do the heavy lifting. The three Iron Age pigs are the pioneers, churning the soil much as their wild ancestors once did, creating the kind of patchy, disturbed ground that benefits countless plant and insect species. They will soon be joined by cattle and ponies, whose grazing and trampling will help mimic the lost influence of now-absent large herbivores like bison and wild boar herds. These animals, once common in the landscape, shaped the mosaic of scrubland, wood pasture, and open glades that supported a rich variety of life.
“Nothing is working as it should,” explained Tom Moat, Harold’s Park site manager, in a conversation with BBC News. “We’ve lost beavers, bison, herds of wild boar, and big herbivores. Deer are not behaving naturally as a result.” Moat and his team are determined to restore these natural processes with as light a touch as possible. “We are replacing that, and as a re-wilding company, we’re trying to do that as light touch as we can and letting nature do the rest,” he said. The hope is that, over time, fields will soften into scrubland and wood pasture, creating new homes for rare and threatened species, including the nightingale and the turtle dove.
The transformation is already visible. Conifer plantations, once planted for commercial timber, are being cleared away, making room for native saplings to take root. Historic hedgerows—living relics of the English countryside—are serving as seed banks, helping trees and shrubs recolonize former fields. In the winter months, new ponds will be installed to slow the flow of water off the land and reduce flooding beyond the estate’s boundaries. Machinery has carved a broad, muddy track through the woods, which Moat calls an “artery of wildlife.” “This won’t be mud for long; the grass will come and then the flowers behind it,” he said, envisioning a vibrant corridor teeming with life in the seasons to come.
But the project is about more than just restoring nature for nature’s sake. Nattergal is placing Harold’s Park into the biodiversity net gain market, a system that requires property developers to pay not only for replacing any habitat lost to construction, but also to deliver a 10% improvement for nature. According to The Guardian, more than 10% of the BNG units available for Harold’s Park have already been sold or are under contract, a promising sign for the project’s financial sustainability. “If we sell them all it more than washes its own face in terms of every cost,” Moat noted.
This innovative funding model is attracting attention far beyond Essex. Archie Struthers, Nattergal’s chief executive, highlighted that BNG is the world’s first statutory biodiversity market, and it’s already made a significant impact: 5,000 hectares of land restored, £450 million in economic value generated, and an estimated 4,000 jobs created. “Nature is critical infrastructure, and therefore the economic realities of us failing to manage, repair, restore, nurture that infrastructure are becoming ever more painful,” Struthers said. He warned, however, that potential government changes to the BNG scheme—such as scrapping requirements for smaller sites—could “take away at the knees” the emerging market and jeopardize private investment in nature restoration. “It just feels to me like an own goal at a time when we have a chance to be a world leader, and instead, we’re undermining that,” he added.
There are other, more immediate benefits as well. The reserve is being designed with people in mind, not just wildlife. Plans are underway to open Harold’s Park for educational visits, especially for children from urban areas who may rarely experience true wildness. Tourism and corporate retreats are also on the horizon, taking advantage of the estate’s existing structures and ample parking. There are even proposals to link the revitalized landscape with nearby Epping Forest, creating a larger network of green spaces for both wildlife and people.
Dr. Simon Lyster, chairman of the Essex Local Nature Partnership, is optimistic about the project’s potential. He believes that nightingales and turtle doves could soon make Harold’s Park their home, and that the reserve could help relieve the pressure on other outdoor spaces that are overwhelmed by visitors. “The soft engineering is very important and has been very successful elsewhere,” Dr. Lyster told BBC News. “It creates space for wild plants, protects the scrub areas, which is very good for nightingales.”
The project has drawn praise from local government officials as well. Peter Schwier, Essex County Council’s cabinet member for the environment, visited the site last year and described it as “an opportunity for anyone interested in nature and re-wilding to benefit from learning a lot about it.” He added, “It’s going to be a great day out, completely different to the average of what goes on at the moment.”
It’s not just the wildlife and wildflowers that stand to gain. The project is already forging partnerships with developers to relocate wildlife—dozens of slow worms have been moved from construction sites to Harold’s Park, giving them a new lease on life. An orchard is planned along the estate’s perimeter, both to prevent windblown wildflower seeds from spreading to neighboring properties and to provide fruit harvests from the land itself.
Harold’s Park was identified as a high priority area in Essex’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy, published earlier this year. With its blend of ancient woodland, innovative funding, and community engagement, it may well become a blueprint for nature restoration projects across the country. As the pigs root, the cattle and ponies graze, and the landscape slowly transforms, all eyes will be on this corner of Essex to see just how quickly—and how richly—nature can recover when given the chance.
