Chance Wood

This 2.8 hectare woodland was planted as an ornamental wood in the 19^th century.  It is dominated by large oaks and beech with big specimens of hornbeam, ash, sycamore, horse chestnut and a few conifers.

Visitors to this open woodland on a hillside overlooking the River Stour will come across glades of bracken and bramble.  A dry valley runs through the reserve and down to the river.

Wood sage and foxgloves thrive on the rather acid soil, produced by underlying well-drained pebble-beds and sandstones.  Extensive carpets of snowdrops appear early in the year, followed by daffodils and bluebells later.  Frequent visitors will also discover dame’s violet and Italian lords-and-ladies, a relative of wild arum with dark green leaves and palely marked veins.  The latter are garden escapes which have become neutralised.

Many woodland birds thrive in this reserve; tits, woodpeckers, nuthatches and treecreepers are frequently seen.  The old trees provide a good supply of invertebrate food and contain suitable nesting holes.  These have been supplemented with nest boxes and bat boxes. 

The woodland also features a small cemetery for dogs on the hilltop.  The headstones date back to 1869.  Who was “Punch, died 1898”?