Awards

Thoresby Estate Forester Awarded for Half-Century of Service

James Muirhead, woods foreman at Thoresby Estate has received the RFS Long Service Award for 52 years dedicated to the estate's woods team.

By Joe Roberts · September 23, 2024

James Muirhead and Ben Herbert

James Muirhead, 68, has been awarded the RFS Long Service Award for over 50 years of service managing the woods of Thoresby Estate. James joined the woods team as a 16-year-old as an apprentice.

Thoresby Estate’s owner, Gregor Pierrepont, said: “Jim has been involved in every major project in the woods for the last 52 years; everything from establishing Wedding Plantation to celebrate my marriage in 2021 to working to restore the Old Oaks Special Area of Conservation after a period of neglect post-war.”

Now woods foreman, James is integral in the management of the estate’s 4,000 acres, including progressively managed commercial forestry and the largest contiguous area of ancient forest in Sherwood, with one of the highest concentrations of Ancient Oak Trees in Europe”

Gregor added: “Jim has been a fixture of the Woods team at Thoresby not just for my entire life but since my Father came here as heir in 1975, it is simply impossible to imagine a Woods Department without Jim’s eternal smile.”