Woodman to Head Forester: Shaun Purkiss-McEndoo receives Long Service Award
Congratulations to Shaun Purkiss-McEndoo of Zetland Estates for completing 46 years on the estate and being awarded a RFS Long Service Award!
Shaun, now Head Forester, began working for Zetland Estates in 1979 as a general woodman. Since then he has used his skills extensively over the years, and came up with the idea to use timber from the estate for a biomass heating solution installed 20 years ago. The estate is now producing timber again from the first area cleared back in 2006.
Throughout his career on the estate, Shaun has worked on a range of large and notable projects, including felling an estate Oaktree for the rebuild of York Minster in 1985.
Over 100 hectares of new woodland have been created on the estate, testament to Shaun’s hard work and dedication over the last 40 years. Silver Hill, the largest at 47 hectares, was planted in 2020 and is made up of conifer trees. As a result, these projects have raised around 23,000 tonnes of carbon credits.
More recently, the forestry team have been part of the community woodland project, Rufus Woods, to mark the 950th celebrations of Richmond, which has seen residents born in 1921 and every decade in between plant a tree at Rufus Woods. It currently consists of 950 trees ranging from oaks to wild cherry trees.
As well as managing the estate’s forestry, firewood and biomass fuel businesses, throughout the years Shaun has helped lost walkers, committed to community projects, and regularly engage with the public about the importance of their work, all while enjoying the occasional bag of fish and chips!
Shaun, Head Forester said: “I still very much enjoy my work and never stop learning. We’ve had some fantastic work colleagues on the Estate and as we have moved in the last 25 years to a more contractor based Forestry department, we have found some loyal and professional businesses to carry out our operations.
“I consider myself very lucky to have walked into a life of work on Zetland Estates, they continue to be a pleasure to work for. Forestry and working outdoors, when you tell people that’s your job 99% of the time they wish they could be doing it! That says it all.”
