 It was once owned by E. M. Forster, who used to live nearby and purchased the wood using funds from book sales - principally from "A Passage to India" - in order to prevent it from being developed into housing.When Forster died in 1970, he transferred ownership of the land in his will to the National Trust.In 1926 Forster wrote a short essay about Piney Copse in "Abinger Harvest", entitled "My Wood".