Jobs in Ancaster england

The work of the Woodland Trust Legal Services team is varied, rewarding and genuinely unique. Every day brings opportunities to contribute to projects that help protect, manage and expand our estate of ancient and newly created woodlands across the UK. Each site has its own opportunities and challenges, making the work both interesting and meaningful.

We're looking for an experienced agricultural property solicitor who shares our commitment to our cause including creating, protecting and restoring woodland, and who can bring their expertise and experience to help us achieve our ambitions.

In this role, you'll work closely with colleagues in our land and property and natural capital teams across the organisation, providing practical, high-quality legal support on a wide range of property matters. You'll help us navigate the complexities that come with managing and growing a large and diverse landholding, including mixed-use sites and our responsibilities as both landlord and custodian.

The Role:
Managing and growing the Woodland Trust estate is at the heart of what we do. With sites across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, you'll have the opportunity to work on a diverse range of property matters within a truly unique portfolio.
Your caseload will include freehold acquisitions, including mixed-use sites and gifts of land, as well as supporting our growing natural capital work, including Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG).
Effective estate management is essential to protecting our sites and supporting the Trust's long-term objectives. As a result, you'll advise on a wide variety of matters, including:
Easements
Wayleaves
Boundary issues
Encroachments
The granting and surrender of leases
Business tenancies
Agricultural tenancies
We support hybrid working from day one. You'll usually work from home, with attendance at our Head Office in Grantham, Lincolnshire, around once a month.
Our Hybrid Working Policy is designed to provide flexibility and support a healthy work-life balance. Occasional travel to sites across the UK will be required, supported by our expenses policy. Flexible working arrangements are available.

The Candidate:
You will be an experienced agricultural property solicitor. Ideally. you will have gained your experience in-house within a charity, local authority or similar organisation and you will either advised charities or have sound working knowledge and experience of the legal framework governing charity property transactions.
You'll be comfortable providing pragmatic, practical, balanced and timely legal advice that helps colleagues make informed decisions and progress important projects with confidence.
You'll bring strong agricultural property law experience, including of leading on:
Freehold acquisitions
Encroachments
Adverse possession
Agricultural tenancies
Options
Pre-emption agreements
Experience of natural capital schemes, including BNG, would be beneficial.
This role works closely with our Land and Property team and acts as an important link between operational and legal colleagues. Building strong relationships, communicating effectively and working collaboratively with a range of stakeholders will therefore be key.
We want this to be a role that is both professionally rewarding and personally satisfying, offering a good balance of challenge, variety and autonomy. You'll be comfortable managing your own workload and using your judgement, while knowing when to draw on the expertise and support of colleagues.
A flexible mindset, curiosity and a willingness to learn will help you thrive in the role.
You'll be a UK-qualified solicitor with a current practising certificate for England and Wales and substantial post-qualification experience in agricultural property law, ideally gained over seven or more years. Alongside this, you'll have strong drafting, negotiation and stakeholder management skills.

Benefits and Wellbeing:
Joining our team means you’ll be part of our fight for a greener, healthier planet for people and wildlife. We take good care of our staff, offering support and training opportunities. We also offer:
Enhanced Employer Pension
Life Assurance
Flexible and hybrid working options (7am - 7pm)
Generous annual leave - 25 Days plus Bank Holidays (pro rata for part-time)
Buy and sell holiday scheme
Enhanced parental pay
Employee assistance programme
To support inclusivity and remove barriers for candidates, we publish all salaries upfront and proudly follow the We Show the Salary pledge. The salary listed is the set salary for this role, and we don’t ask applicants to state their current pay or expectations. If you choose to apply, we’ll take that as confirmation that the advertised salary meets your expectations.

About Us:
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity. We want to see a world where woods and trees thrive for people and nature. The Trust engages and inspires people to make a difference by protecting, restoring and creating woodland and getting more trees in the ground.

Our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:
To achieve our mission, we need to better reflect society and the communities we work in. People of colour and disabled people are currently under-represented across the environment and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we particularly encourage you to apply.

Application information and advice:
For fairness we keep our candidates’ personal details hidden from the hiring managers, and CVs are redacted until after shortlisting is complete. Make sure that you answer the application questions to show your relevant skills and passion for the role.
Completed applications will be reviewed by a hiring manager and/or a member of the recruitment team, and you will receive an update on the outcome of your application via email.

Acceptable Use - Artificial Intelligence (AI):
We understand that candidates may choose to use AI tools to support their job applications. However, we ask that any information submitted reflects your own experience, skills and understanding. During interviews, candidates are expected to respond independently without the use of AI tools.

Apply now:
If you're ready to make a difference and grow with us, apply today. We might close advertising early if we get a lot of applications, so it's a good idea to apply soon. If we do close the advert early, and you have an application in progress, we will email you prior to closing to give you time to complete.

Interviews will be held via Microsoft Teams in December 2026.