Recreation Craftsperson

Job Introduction

We are Forestry England.

We live and breathe forests.

Job title – Recreation Craftsperson (Kielder Forest)

Salary- £26,959

Contract type – Permanent

Hours –37 Hours per week

Vacancy closes - Sunday 22nd March 2026 23:58

Join us. We're foresters, professionals and experts. We are a passionate team who love to share our enthusiasm and want to make a positive difference for you and the environment.

Together, we’re using our scale and expertise to grow the nation’s forests for everyone. We’re already adapting our landscapes for tomorrow, and getting stuff done today, like creating amazing places and experiences for you to enjoy. We're providing vital homes for wildlife, making our air cleaner to breathe and producing sustainable timber.

What you’ll do…

We are looking for a Recreation Craftsperson to be an integral part of the Forestry England Northumberland based Recreation team to maintain recreation and site infrsatructure: car parks, cycle routes and accessible trails within the forest and Kielder Castle centre to ensure that we deliver a high-quality visitor experience.

Working across the Kielder Forest area and when required the wider recreation sites across the Northumberland Forest. You will also work with wider Beat team and volunteers to maintain our visitor facilities, making sure our visitors have a smooth, inclusive safe and enjoyable visitor experience. 

You will help cultivate a supportive and positive work environment that encourages positive work environment that encourages teamwork, productivity and individual growth.

Weekend working is a core requirement of this role to ensure 7-day recreational ranger service and allow team members to have 2 rest days per week. 

During peak loads of visitors, the role will be more supporting visitor services, in quieter periods the fole will be hands on maintenance and projects of facilities such as trails on both forest walks and mountain bike trail networks. Work will include a range of power tools including operating tracked barrow and chainsaw.

Where you’ll work…

Kielder Forest, Northumberland- based at Kielder Depot, Kielder Village.

Benefits…

Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.

• 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
• STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
• free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
• a commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.

Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.

How to apply…

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form. 

You will be assessed on experience, a technical skill and strength based questions during your interview. 

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are – 

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first. 

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website. 

Nationality requirements…

Read more about nationality requirements here. 

Working for the Civil Service…

Forestry England is part of the Civil Service. The Civil Service has a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). This means candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria during the application process will be guaranteed an interview. We also offer a Redeployment Interview Scheme to current civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the role. This role is also part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans and Prison Leaver Recruitment initiative. 

Within Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, it is essential that applicants should have the ability to provide conversation in accurate spoken English.

Our recruitment process makes appointments based on fair and open competition and merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in in line with/according to these principles and you wish to make a complaint, please email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk.