A review of the area and distribution, management and utilisation of chestnut is presented. Chestnut is an introduced species in the UK, grown predominantly in Southern England as intensive coppice and as high forest. The forest area is decreasing and the forest type changing from predominately coppice to high forest. As traditional agricultural and horticultural markets are declining, finger jointing and pioneering wet gluing technology has developed to produce new products. This paper also gives structural data for chestnut as a construction timber in the UK, obtained for the first time.