About Us
Hello, we are Emma and Cam, founders of Wilding in the Weald. Welcome to New Coghurst farm, where we live with our son Kobe, a herd of twelve semi-wild horses, two donkeys, a flock of Soay sheep and Maple the pig. The farm is located in a beautiful pocket of the Sussex Weald, just outside of Hastings.
Our journey at New Coghurst began in 2012, as the 'Intuitive Horse' project. Emma wanted to offer her horses a more natural way of life - to 'rewild' them as a herd - which required lots of grazing space. Relocating to New Coghurst gave the horses room to live outdoors all year round and provided Emma with a beautiful place to practice EAPD (Equine Assisted Personal Development), offering 1 to 1 therapeutic sessions, workshops and retreats.
In the process of rewilding the horses, we watched as the land we were living and working on started to thrive alongside the herd. Pretty soon, our focus had shifted from just the horses to the ecological system as a whole and the rewilding project began in earnest. In 2023, the land surprised us again when we discovered evidence of a Bronze Age Settlement at New Coghurst which we are currently in the process of excavating. The land has become truly our teacher and as a result our work continues to evolve and expand more than we could ever have expected.
What We Offer
At Wilding in the Weald we are passionate about facilitating connection with nature and the landscape's ancient history. We invite people of all ages to visit our 110 acres of pasture, wildflower meadows and woodland, where we host a range of experiences and activities. Our vision is to create a space where people and nature come together and thrive in a system of interconnectedness and reciprocity.
We have a diverse range of experiences to choose from. If ancient history sparks your imagination and interest, you can join the archaeological dig or learn how to reconstruct a Bronze Age roundhouse. Book a workshop to take a deep dive into the local ecology or to learn an ancestral skill like basket making, smelting or flint knapping. If you want to deepen your connection to the natural world (or want to provide this opportunity for your kids), visit us and get involved with our rewilding project or join a nature connection session. Click here to start planning your visit.
Meet the Team
Emma Ross
NLP Practitioner, Coach, Facilitator in Equine Assisted Personal Development, Forest School Leader
Emma has been exploring the horse-human relationship since 2002, initially through her personal relationship with her horses. She started to become aware that the horses would reflect her behaviour through their own and recognised the therapeutic potential within this dynamic. In 2009, she developed the Intuitive Horse way, an EAPD (Equine Assisted Personal Development) practice informed by her own observations and experiences. In recent years, Emma has become deeply passionate about facilitating connection with nature; a shift which arose in relationship to the land at New Coghurst and as a result of becoming a mother to Kobe. She has since trained as a Forest School Leader and Children's Forest Facilitator and now teaches nature connection sessions here at New Coghurst alongside her Intuitive Horse work.
Cameron Ross (Cam)
Archaeologist
Cam is an archaeologist and runs the Bronze Age digs at New Coghurst Farm. Originally from Australia, Cam spent a decade living in a self-built cabin in the rainforest, deeply immersed in nature. He enjoyed a successful career as an artist, before going on to train as an archaeologist at University College London, specialising in WW1 and WW2 conflict archaeology. Now, Cam devotes his time to running the farm, uncovering the land’s Bronze Age history and dreaming into how we can be brought back into relationship with this ancestral past. He is currently leading the build of a roundhouse, which will be constructed on the exact site where one once stood during the Bronze Age.
Kobe
Cam & Emma's son and resident bee enthusiast! Kobe loves helping to identify the farm's many species of pollinators.
Sarah
Sarah helps us to care for the farm's four-legged residents and assists with our rewilding project. She is also a prehistoric history buff!
Workshop Leaders
Fergus
Fergus is a experimental archaeologist and prehistoric metalworker. He offers smelting workshops at the farm, helping us to understand more about the smelting sites discovered on our land.
Molly
Molly is a basket weaver, who works with rush and foraged materials. She is interested in exploring how crafting can connect us back to nature and our ancestry. She is offers a series of weaving and crafting workshops.
Mike
Mike is an experienced outdoorsman, hunter, fisher, forager and primitive skills practitioner based in Hastings, Sussex. He offers foraging and ecology workshops, flint-knapping and more!