About the reserve

The woodland is coppiced on a 10-year cycle and visitors can see how the ground flora changes as the sunlight is reduced by the new growth on the coppiced stools.  Coppicing involves cutting down trees almost to the ground; this enables new growth and ensures a constantly evolving habitat for wildlife.  The coppice standards at Broadmoor include oak, ash, birch, rowan and hawthorn.  Flowers include wood sorrel, wood anemone, bluebells and yellow archangel with tufted hair-grass along the path.

Shortly after entering the wood, a flight of steps descends to a path across a small marshy dingle (with a carpet of opposite-leaved golden saxifrage) to a narrow path that skirts an alder bog.  This is the silted-up part of the uppermost spring pool that once provided water power for the sword mills downstream.  Visitors are rewarded with a magnificent display of marsh marigolds here in early spring.  The pool is beautiful with beds of reed-mace, horsetail, watercress and other water plants, with a rich waterside flora along the dam.

The woodland is part of the National Trust’s Chadwich Estate. Most of the wood lies on Keele Clay with sandy patches while breccias forms the west bank of the pond.