During the 1930s, the forest was planted and tracks were built by unemployed men supplied through the Ministry of Labour.^{[citation needed]} Most came from the mining communities and shipyards of the North East of England. They were housed in one of a number of instructional centres created by the Ministry, most of them on Forestry England property. By 1938, the Ministry had 35 such centres across Britain. These were basically work camps, where unemployed men carried out heavy labour and lived on site in wooden huts. The centres were closed in 1938 as unemployment declined in the run-up to war, but some of the huts can still be seen around the visitors' centre, which was originally built as the camp's refectory. The visitors' centre was part of a prisoner of war camp during the Second World War.

A number of Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age flint tools have been found in the forest in Doctor's Gate Quarry. An area of the forest is probably the site of a 15th century iron ore processing site. An area next to Linburn Hall Wood was the site of a medieval convent.

An episode of Time Team in 2008 examined a large stone structure known as "the Castles", with walls five metres thick. It appears to date from the late Iron Age and may have been an animal enclosure.^[1]

• Field, John. Learning Through Labour: Training, unemployment and the state, 1890-1920, 1992, University of Leeds, ISBN 0-900960-48-5

• Forestry England
• Outdoor Centre
• West Hoppyland Farm
• Keys To The Past - Hamsterley Forest
• Tour of Hamsterley Rally