Hebe's Wood Recent History

Hebe’s Wood is a 45 acre site in Rutland that Suzie Manley and Min Burdett inherited from our Aunt, Betty Duffus. It used to be three fields, a plantation of about 12 acres which Betty planted around 1995, and Bushy Wood, an ancient coppice wood. In the last 10 years or so the three fields have not been farmed, and already there are 20 foot trees and other woodland plants reclaiming the ancient woodland ground.

Hebe "pronounced (Heebee)" is the godess of youth and regeneration, and, from memory, the cup-bearer for the gods.  It is also the name of my grandmother who gloried in the name of Hebe Ellen Etheldreda Curwin Collis.  (My father, Arlingham Jerome D'Arcy Burdett was let of lightly when it came to the naming thing).  Collis and Co were hop merchants in the city of London.  When her only brother died in 1948 Hebe went from being a penniless wife of a Burdett to a minor heiress when the hop merchants was sold.  She bought Chapter Farm for her daughter Betty (not my mother, my aunt) and then Dad joined in in 1958 when he left the Navy.  So we thought it very appropriate that the wood was named after her.

destination address for this site
http://www.hebeswood.co.uk/