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 (Sun - Thurs)
Vacancy closes - Monday 8th June 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 Recreation team to maintain recreation facilities and site infrastructure: Car parks, cycle routes and accessible trails within the forest to ensure that we deliver a high-quality visitor experience. Working across The Kielder Forest and supporting wider recreation sites across Northumberland Forests. You will also work with the wider Beat teams and volunteers to maintain our visitor facilities, making sure our visitors have a smooth, inclusive and enjoyable experience. You will help cultivate a supportive and positive work environment that encourages teamwork, productivity and individual growth.
Weekend working will be core requirement of this role to support the team and support wellbeing of the team to be able to have 2 days non work per week as legally required in a 7-day period.
During peak loads of visitors to the forests the role will be more supporting visitor services, in quieter periods the role will be hands on maintenance of facilities such as trails on both forest walks and mountain bike trail network in addition to supporting car parks and Kielder Castle centre and also learning how integrated operational works with facility management to best practice standards.
Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.
Where you’ll work…
Based at Kielder Depot, working across Kielder Forest and also supporting the wider recreational sites located at forests of Northumberland when required.
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.
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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.
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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.
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free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
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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 –
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Working Together
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Delivering at Pace
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Managing a Quality Service
Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.
If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email [email protected].
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: [email protected].
