Tree surgeon and fencing services near Burwash

Burwash sits on a ridge in the High Weald National Landscape, with the Dudwell valley falling away below and Bateman's, Kipling's old house, down in the bottom of it. The High Street is a conservation area, lined with timber-framed and tile-hung houses and the mature trees that come with old village plots. The species mix is classic eastern Weald: mature English oak, sweet chestnut from the old coppice woods, beech, hornbeam on the field boundaries, and ash that is mostly going or gone to dieback. The ground is Wadhurst clay and sandstone, heavy and wet in the low-lying parts, which changes how a fence post and a stump grinder both behave.

Burwash falls under Rother District Council, the same authority as Battle, Robertsbridge and Rye, not Wealden like Heathfield and Mayfield next door. Different planning portal, different conservation area boundaries, different officer for a Section 211 notice. We know the council, we know the planning map, and we know which of the older High Street and Burwash Common gardens carry Tree Preservation Orders on their veteran oaks and chestnuts. That distinction is the kind of thing an out-of-area operator gets wrong on the first quote.

Burwash High Street and the gardens running off it sit inside a conservation area. If a tree inside the conservation area is over 75mm in diameter at 1.5 metres off the ground, you generally need to file a Section 211 notice with Rother District Council before any work starts. The council has six weeks to respond. We file the notice for you, with the method, the species and the reason, and we wait the clock out before we put a saw in.

A Tree Preservation Order is a separate process and it's common round Burwash, because the older village and Burwash Common gardens carry orders on the veteran oaks, beeches and sweet chestnuts. A TPO'd tree needs a formal application to Rother, regardless of the diameter or whether the tree sits inside the conservation area. We handle that paperwork too. Rother's portal is the same one we use for Battle, Robertsbridge and Rye, so we know what they want and how to phrase it. Most of the time the answer comes back as a consent with conditions, and we work to those conditions on the day. If you're not sure whether your tree is TPO'd, sitting in the conservation area, or both, send us the address and we'll check Rother's planning map before we quote.

Not sure whether a tree in Burwash is protected? Check it by postcode, read our council-by-council conservation area guide, or see how we handle protected tree work.