Whittlewood Forest

Whittlewood Forest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
	Say's Copse
Location	Northamptonshire
Grid reference	SP 721 430
Interest	Biological
Area	400.1 hectares
Notification	1985
Location map	Magic Map

Last updated July 04, 2023

Whittlewood Forest is a former medieval hunting forest east of Silverstone in Northamptonshire in England. It is managed by the Forestry England.^[2] There are tracts of ancient woodland within it and old ditches can be found at the edges of several individual woods. The area has been the subject of extensive academic historical research.^[3] An area of 400 hectares (990 acres) in seven different patches has been designated a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which is about half the size of an average English parish.^[1]^[4] It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 2.^[5]

Extent

The forest is mainly between the villages of Silverstone, Syresham, Abthorpe, Wicken, Potterspury and to the high Buckinghamshire boundary. Interconnecting woods, made up in part by Hazelborough Wood, make up the main section. Isolated woods such as Bucknell Wood and a scattered set east of the village of Whittlebury, as far as Potterspury make up most of the rest. Remnants exist all around the villages and over the county boundary into Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes; such outliers include Whistley Wood, west of Syresham.

Management

It is managed by the Forestry Commission, who also manage neighbouring woods such as Salcey Forest and Yardley Chase. Parts of the wood are protected as an SSSI, especially a number of separate copses which represent the remnants of the old semi-Royal Forest in the Honour of Grafton.

Ecology

It is notable for bluebells in mid-Spring in many parts of the forest together with other ancient woodland indicator species such as Yellow rattle and the Lesser celandine. There are stands of beech and oak interspersed with hazel coppice as well as conifer plantations within the forest. The conifer plantations are slowly being removed as a part of a national policy to restore ancient woodland. They will be replaced with native hardwoods such as oak and beech. As with most ancient woods, coppicing is no longer practised, and many former coppice stools can be seen in the woods.

Three types of deer are in the forest: red, roe and muntjac. Foxes and badgers are common. Birds include buzzards and there are occasional sightings of the red kite, possibly from the expanding population in the Chilterns.

The SSSI is ancient semi-natural woodlands with many trees which are mature or over-mature, especially pedunculate oaks. There are also many ash trees and a scattering of silver birches and aspens. The oaks have nationally rare and nationally uncommon beetles, and there are locally rare lichens.^[6]

Access

Some areas are open to the public, and footpaths go through others such as Say's Copse, but some are private land.

Related Research Articles

Bernwood Forest was one of several forests of the ancient Kingdom of England and was a Royal hunting forest. It is thought to have been set aside as Royal hunting land when the Anglo-Saxon kings had a palace at Brill and church in Oakley, in the 10th century and was a particularly favoured place of Edward the Confessor, who was born in nearby Islip.

In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 1600 is likely to have developed naturally.

Salcey Forest is a fragment of a former medieval hunting forest east of the village of Hartwell, between Northampton and Newport Pagnell in Northamptonshire. It is managed by Forestry England and to promote biodiversity, and is also commercially exploited for timber products. The eastern third of the forest, an area of 159.6 hectares, is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Syresham is a village and civil parish in the English district of West Northamptonshire. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 855. It is near Brackley town and close to Silverstone Circuit. It is surrounded by villages and hamlets such as Biddlesden, Whitfield, Helmdon, Silverstone and Wappenham, and the border with Buckinghamshire lies just to the south of the village. The border itself is defined by the River Great Ouse, which rises within the parish. There are two small hamlets in the parish: Crowfield and Pimlico.

Yardley Chase is a 357.6-hectare (884-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, mostly in Northamptonshire, with a small area in the south of the site in Buckinghamshire. It is in two areas of woodland, pasture and parkland, south-west of Yardley Hastings in Northamptonshire, and north-west of Olney in Buckinghamshire.

Lower Woods is a 280.1-hectare (692-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the village of Wickwar, South Gloucestershire, notified in 1966 and renotified in 1985. The site area has increased at last revision in 1974 to a 284.1-hectare (702-acre) site. The site is a nature reserve managed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.

Brampton Wood is a 132.1-hectare (326-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Cambridgeshire. The site is west of Brampton in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

Sulham and Tidmarsh Woods and Meadows is a 75.7-hectare (187-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Reading in Berkshire. Previously known as Pang Valley SSSI, the site is mostly sandwiched between the River Pang and the Sulham Road and includes Broom Copse, Herridge's Copse, Hogmoor Copse, Park Wood, Moor Copse and Barton's Copse. Much of the southern part of the site is the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust's Moor Copse Nature Reserve. The whole site lies within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedford Purlieus National Nature Reserve</span> Ancient woodland in Cambridgeshire, England

Bedford Purlieus is a 211-hectare (520-acre) ancient woodland in Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. It is a national nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest owned and managed by the Forestry Commission. In Thornhaugh civil parish, 10 km (6.2 mi) south of Stamford and 14 km (8.7 mi) west of Peterborough, the wood is within the Peterborough unitary authority area of Cambridgeshire, and borders Northamptonshire. In Roman times it was an iron smelting centre, during the medieval period it was in the Royal Forest of Rockingham, and later it became part of the estates of the Duke of Bedford. Bedford Purlieus appears to have been continuously wooded at least from Roman times, and probably since the ice receded. The woodland may have the richest range of vascular plants of any English lowland wood. It acquired particular significance in the 1970s as an early subject for the historical approach to ecology and woodland management.

Maulden Wood is a woodland situated in Bedfordshire, England, near the village of Maulden, on the greensand ridge that stretches from Leighton Buzzard to Gamlingay. It includes Maulden Wood and Pennyfather's Hill, a 148.8 hectare, biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Potton Wood covers an area of 85ha and is two miles east of the small town of Potton in the county of Bedfordshire, England. It is part of Ampthill Forest and is managed by Forest Enterprise and owned by the Forestry Commission.

Trodds Copse is a 25.23 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), in central Hampshire, notified in 1989. It comprises ancient semi-natural woodland, unimproved meadows and flushes.

Pamber Forest and Silchester Common is a 341.7-hectare (844-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Tadley in Hampshire. Pamber Forest and Upper Inhams Copse is managed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Pamber Forest is a Local Nature Reserve.

Frithy and Chadacre Woods is a 28.7-hectare (71-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the parishes of Lawshall and Shimpling in Suffolk, England.

Lower Wye Gorge is a 65-hectare (160-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1954 and renotified 1987. The site includes two Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust nature reserves being Ban-y-gor Wood and Lancaut. The Natural England citation states a revision for Lancaut inclusion.

Dymock Woods is a 53-hectare (130-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1990. The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).

Foxley Wood is a nature reserve in Foxley, Norfolk, England, the largest ancient woodland and coppice in Norfolk. The Norfolk Wildlife Trust, which manages this reserve, bought it in 1998. It is 123 hectares in size. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 2, and a National Nature Reserve.

Dingle Wood is a 9.95-hectare (24.6-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1972. The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS). The wood is located within the Forest of Dean Forest Park and the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Shabbington Woods Complex is a 305.6-hectare (755-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest ( between Horton-cum-Studley and Worminghall in Buckinghamshire. It comprises Shabbington Wood, Bernwood Forest, Hell Coppice, Oakley Wood and York's Wood. Shabbington Wood is owned by the Forestry Commission, and a small area of 7.5 hectares called Bernwood Meadows is managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

References

1 2 3 4 "Designated Sites View: Whittlewood Forest". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
↑ "Whittlewood Forest - Bucknells Wood". Woodland Trust. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
↑ The Whittlewood Project
↑ "Map of Whittlewood Forest". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
↑ Ratcliffe, Derek, ed. (1977). A Nature Conservation Review. Vol. 2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 85. ISBN 0521-21403-3.
↑ "Whittlewood Forest citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 11 April 2017.

52°04′52″N0°56′56″W / 52.081°N 0.949°W / 52.081; -0.949

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[dsv-1] 1 2 3 4 "Designated Sites View: Whittlewood Forest". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 11 April 2017.

[2] "Whittlewood Forest - Bucknells Wood". Woodland Trust. Retrieved 11 April 2017.

[3] The Whittlewood Project

[map-4] "Map of Whittlewood Forest". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 11 April 2017.

[5] Ratcliffe, Derek, ed. (1977). A Nature Conservation Review. Vol. 2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 85. ISBN 0521-21403-3.

[6] "Whittlewood Forest citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 11 April 2017.

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