Bissell Wood Equestrian Centre

A hunt photograph of the Cope family from the Bissell Wood archives.

The Bissell Wood Equestrian Centre is named after Bissell Wood, a 70 acres wood which was bought by my late father in 1954, for the enjoyment of the members of the Albrighton Woodland Hunt, of which he was than the sole Hunt Master.

The family Vincent horse box. (Still in the family’s possession)

Over the next few years he had built in the wood and surrounding farmland, which he also owned, dozens of jumps of all types and varieties. In the 19 century, the wood and all adjoining land was owned by the 2nd Lord Dudley, who, himself, was for a period, a Master of the Worcestershire Foxhounds. His land holding then totalled over 25,000 acres, and it was reputed that he could ride from his home at Himley Hall at Stourbridge, to his country palace at Witley Court, without leaving his own land, a distance of 17 miles.

Neville Cope on Tinsel at a recent Meet.

In addition to the commercial growing of timber in Bissell Wood, tens of thousands of Christmas Trees have been grown since my father first started selling Christmas Trees there in 1956, and it is now reputed to be the oldest Christmas Tree sales operation in Worcestershire, and also one of the largest, as our 2007 Christmas Tree campaign confirmed. Please visit our Christmas Trees page and print out your money off voucher to save £5 on the purchase of your Nordmann Christmas tree.

In the 1990's, the wood was developed further to include the very popular sport of Paintballing. This operation is now run by a national company called Paintball Park, which this year includes the super airball game with inflatable barricades.

In 2003, after many suggestions we decided to make my 200 acre estate into an Equestrian Centre and a well known local gentlemen called Maurice Evans and his team, have built 4 Cross Country Courses, starting with a “diddy” course at 18" then 2' 3", 2' 9" and 3' 6", the latter of which was opened on 1st May. In addition, we have built over the last few years 3 dressage arenas, together with 2 more areas for our show and working hunter jumps.

We have stables available for upto 30 horses and ponies, a number of these stables are still available. All liveries have the full use of all our facilities, for more information visit our livery page.

All the above facilities are available to hire, and are also available on our fortnightly open mornings from 10am to 12noon, at reduced rates.

We look forward to hearing from you, call us on 01562 701201, 07788 407409 or 07990 597330 or visit our contact page.

Yours sincerely

June and Neville Cope