Saturday 14 July 2007

Kingsdown Wood

Kingsdown Wood (or the Bluebell Wood or the Magic Wood) sits on a clay outcrop through the chalk, providing a contrast to the surrounding countryside. The vegetation is more like that of the weald, with bluebells, celandines and wood anemones in spring, and becomes a dark gloomy place when the canopy closes in the summer.

The south-west part has quite large trees (mostly ash) while the greater part of the other half is hawthorn, knarled with age.
Now that the spring flowers have gone, there are just a few areas of red campion, and the splendidly-named enchanter's nightshade to brighten the gloom.

Mosses, bracken and lichen abound in the undergrowth, quite unlike the dry chalk downlands around the wood.
Until recently, the wood has been quiet in summer, with few birds apart from roosting wood pigeons, but over the past few years some clearings have been made, opening up parts of the wood to the sunlight, and encouraging nesting birds like green woodpeckers, blackcaps, blackbirds, robins and wrens, and butterflies (speckled woods and red admirals) and other insects. The variety of plants has also increased in these areas.


A young robin

Hedge Woundwort

Harlequin Ladybird

There is a hole at the eastern edge of the wood, which has become a good play area for kids, but which is of uncertain origin. We've found old bottles and crockery in the soil there, perhaps indicating the site of an old refuse tip, but others say it is a crater from a wartime bomb.

This part of the wood has large numbers of small pebbles in the soil, which I think occur naturally, although Tony Pettit, a naturalist and man of wisdom, told me that they may have been collected by early inhabitants of the wood, as ammunition for slings.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.

BRUCATER said...

Who do I contact about information on bluebell wood .. thank u

Kingsdowner said...

Hi,
The wood is owned by the National Trust but surrounded by land owned by Hill Farm.
Hope this helps,
K

Unknown said...

Do you happen to know what other trees are found in this particular wood? I've not been able to visit for many years now due to my disabilities and the wood being blocked off at all entrances to wheelchairs sadly (I believe this is done primarily due to those with bikes etc who enjoy using the bomb hole, as we used to call it as children, for somewhere to mess around, though sadly it also keeps out those of us with accessibility needs who just want to enjoy nature!), but am beginning a sketchbook full of botanical illustrations based on local flora and this wood is so very special to me. I am trying very hard to gather as much information as possible about the plant life there while limited to my bed.