Rewilding Allestree Park

Nature-led recovery is restoring habitats at Allestree Park, boosting wildlife, natural processes and carbon storage.

• Nature-led restoration mimicking missing species, from wetland creation to seed dispersal
• 3 hectares of flower-rich grassland enhanced, with plans to extend to 8 hectares
• Local volunteers trained to survey and monitor grassland species over time
• Fixed-point photography and community images tracking visible change across the site
• Research projects with the University of Derby exploring soils, water and biodiversity
• Ongoing professional and community wildlife monitoring across the park

Local people are central to caring for Allestree Park, building stronger connections to nature and positive environmental action.

Our achievements:

• 40+ events engaging nearly 3,000 people from local communities, schools and groups
• 320+ volunteers supported through 40 practical volunteering sessions
• Junior Rangers and Nature Tots programmes launched to help young people connect with nature
• Nature Schools Network established to support local forest schools
• Students supported to gain qualifications and hands-on project experience
• New community spaces and park features co-designed with local people
• 140+ people joined guided wellbeing walks at Allestree Park
• 200+ people took part in nature-based wellbeing activities
• Nature Buddy programme launched to support access to activities
• Community leaders trained to embed wellbeing in their work
• Outdoor clothing kit-store created to remove barriers to participation
• Partnership with a local GP surgery to become a Nature Connected practice

Allestree Park is a leading urban community rewilding project, shaping policy and practice across Derbyshire and beyond.

Find out about Allestree Park by clicking the link below:

Learn More

The Allestree Park Rewilding Project has various opportunities to get involved.

Community Events and Training Workshops 

Each year, shaped by conversations with local people, we create a timeline of events and training opportunities at Allestree Park. These include hands-on rewilding and wellbeing activities, on and off site, such as ‘Be a Beaver’ and ‘Be a Wild Pony’, where we explore the roles of species missing from the landscape.

View 2026 Allestree Timeline 

View full calendar of events across Derbyshire

Volunteering 

As part of the Community Rewilding Project we are looking for interested, local people to volunteer with us to carry out different practical habitat tasks and surveying at Allestree Park.

We have regular practical volunteering in partnership with Derby City Council, on the second Thursday and last Saturday of each month, starting from Thursday 12^th February 2026. In addition to this, we have ad-hoc volunteering for practical habitat management tasks as well as surveying opportunities that may happen in the week or weekend. When a task arises, we will send out an invite to signed-up volunteers. There is no commitment to a certain number of days required as the opportunity is flexible. No prior experience is necessary, just a willingness to get involved in the rewilding project.

If you’re interested, we’d love to hear from you at allestreepark@derbyshirewt.co.uk or you can directly apply for the opportunity on DWT’s volunteering platform, Team Kinetic.

Create a Team Kinetic account and apply for the volunteering

Youth Programmes

We deliver a range of programmes at Allestree Park to help young people connect with, and learn through nature. Examples include Nature Tots and Junior Rangers. 

View at the bottom of the 2026 Allestree Timeline

There are lots of different definitions of rewilding. A clear example comes from Rewilding Britain. 

"Rewilding seeks to reinstate natural processes and, where appropriate, missing species - allowing them to shape the landscape and the habitats within" - Rewilding Britain, 2021 

Learn more about rewilding

Community rewilding places people at the very heart of nature recovery and celebrates the benefits a wilder place brings to the community.

What this looks like in Allestree Park is an end to mowing across most of the site and taking a more nature-led approach, that will see animals and plants change the habitat themselves. We expect more wildflowers, grasslands, scrub and small trees - but what emerges will be guided by nature. Of course, people are a really important part of this process and by continuing to walk, play and use the park in all the ways we do now, people will also affect what develops. 

We are working with the University of Derby and local interest groups to develop and implement a site-wide monitoring programme, including assessing impacts on stored carbon, so we can measure and look at the impacts as the rewilding changes happen over the next few years. 

People's ability to walk, run or play games in the park will not be lost. It is important that everyone is able to enjoy Allestree Park safely. The project will also enable nature to use more of the park and will lock up carbon too - it's got massive potential and could encourage other city parks to work in the same way.

Litter is always a concern and we will still encourage people to use bins and take litter home. We hope this will be such a beautiful place, that people won't want to spoil it with lots of litter.

Allestree Hall is a 19th-century former country house situated in the centre of Allestree Park but has been unoccupied for many years.

The Grade II*-listed building was first put on the market in 2019 but a deal to turn it into a wedding venue fell through in 2022, following the pandemic, the Hall was put back on the market in summer 2024. The council does not have the resources to bring the building back into use, so it has been decided that disposal of the building by a long lease would allow it to be renovated, safeguarding its future and preventing it from falling into further disrepair.

The new owners will be expected to take immediate action to prevent further deterioration of the hall, and to maintain access to public toilets at Allestree Park. They would also need to confirm that they will work with the council and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust to ensure the future use of the hall aligns with the ongoing community rewilding project at Allestree Park.