Hugletts Wood Farm Animal Sanctuary

A Home for Life — Please Help Us Keep the Gates Open

There is a quiet corner of East Sussex, tucked between ancient woodland and rolling green fields, where over 300 animals get to simply be. No slaughterhouse. No auction ring. No countdown to a date that was never theirs to choose.

Just grass to graze, mud to wallow in, friends to lean on, and two people — Wenda and Matthew — who have spent more than thirty years making sure that every creature who finds their way to Hugletts Wood Farm gets to live out a natural life, on their own terms, right to the very end.

This didn't start as a business. It started as a promise.

Hugletts Wood Farm Animal Sanctuary began in 1995, born out of months spent protesting live exports on the docks at Shoreham. Wenda made a decision that day that has never wavered since: if she couldn't stop the whole system, she could at least give these animals — the ones who made it to her gate — somewhere safe to land.

What started with nine cows, four sheep, and two pigs on a rented field has grown into a lifelong home for hundreds of rescued cows, sheep, pigs, birds, and more. Every single one of them arrived with a story that should break your heart — and every single one of them now gets an ending that will mend it.

Why we need you right now

Wenda and Matthew run this sanctuary largely by themselves. They grow their own food, work the land, and pour everything they have into keeping this place alive — but round-the-clock care for hundreds of animals, many of them elderly, sick, or requiring palliative support, comes at a real and constant cost. Feed. Bedding. Veterinary care. Fencing. Winter warmth.

The simple, unglamorous things that stand between an animal's comfort and their suffering.

We don't put our residents on display for visitors every day. We don't ask them to perform gratitude for their rescue. We just ask for help so we can keep doing what we've always done — quietly, faithfully, one animal at a time.

What your donation actually means

It means Thelma gets to find her shady spot in the grass. It means an elderly cow nearing the end of her life is held, not hurried. It means the next frightened, injured, or unwanted animal who arrives at our gate — because we never turn one away — has somewhere to go. You will likely never meet these animals in person. But your kindness will reach them anyway, in the shape of the hay in their field and the hands that care for them every single day.

Challenges we face today

Over the last couple of years, the climate crisis has disrupted the weather so drastically that there have been significant crop failures globally. As a result of these shortages, the costs of animal feed have shot up.

The average monthly cost of running the sanctuary including the feed etc is now £8100.

The current shortfall is piling up at £1685 a month now that the cost of hay and straw has doubled.

We serve 83 cows, 70 sheep, 6 pigs, around 100 rescued domestic birds, 30 cats and a dog. We have just taken in 7 kittens with calici virus who are being treated too.

How to help

Donations can be made directly:

Account name: Hugletts Wood Farm Animal Sanctuary

Sort code: 23-05-80

Account number: 55053537.

Monthly contributions are the easiest way to sustain this support.

Every pound goes back into the land and the lives it holds.

Thank you for reading this far. Thank you for caring about beings who are so often forgotten. Whatever you can give — Hugletts Wood, and every animal in it, is grateful beyond words