Semi natural ancient woodland chanced upon

I had walked by this wood on a fair few occasions over the years, on the track from the Tidenham Chase car park to the Wye Valley woods, but had never set foot in it. The reason being it appeared unpromising, views from the path indicated it to be a modern conifer plantation and I'd never thought to look at it more closely on the ordnance survey map or on google maps satellite view. Recently I was looking for a plantation on ancient woodland site (PAWS) to make a photographic record of any spring woodland flowers present and remembered this wood. The 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey explorer map was scrutinised and it showed symbols for deciduous, evergreen,  coppiced trees, scrub and bracken. The wood had a mixture of boundaries; linear, an indeterminate boundary and the longest boundary was distinctly irregular and adjoining cultivated fields. The adjoining cultivated fields had fairly straight boundaries of planned enclosures, except where the fields bounded the wood on the north side.

1:10,600 surveyed 1880 printed 1887

 A look at the Ordnance Survey 1:10,600 (1 mile = 6 inch)  county map and the wood boundary was extant in 1880 and deciduous trees, firs and brushwood are mapped.

Revision 1900 Published 1903

A check on newer revisions of the 1880 map showed some additional detail in 1900 with woodland rides mapped.

Google satellite view

A Google satellite view shows predominantly deciduous woodland, so my preconceptions of a conifer plantation were way off the mark. The woods place name of Clayton is either a persons name, or Old English for 'clay' and 'town' or 'place with good clay', I thought the persons name more likely as I know Drybrook sandstone outcrops in the core of the Tidenham Chase syncline and is an area undergoing heathland restoration by the Forestry Commission.

BGS Bedrock geology

The BGS geology map shows the wood is underlain by Carboniferous limestones, mudstones and clays with the overlying Drybrook sandstone outcropping just to the south, so the name Clayton Wood seems to be a based on the geology. The geology indicates that the soils might be base rich, which would be a suitable habitat for wildflowers and clay on a north facing slope, would be a good reason to leave the land wooded. My speculation on the woodland and geology had proven to be wide of the mark, so a visit was made.

Clayton Wood - post harvesting operations 

The ground between the heathland on the Drybrook sandstone and Clayton wood was a distinct band of heavy clay, planted with pine and I was thankful for the spell of dry weather.

Singled coppice and wood anemone carpet

Clayton Wood itself was a revelation, recently harvested  of Western Red Cedar/Hemlock and juvenile beech trees the woodland floor was covered in brash and carpets of spring wildflowers.

Wood spurge and Ransoms

 The canopy and understory of the wood are western red cedar/hemlock, beech, oak, hazel coppice, ash, holly, hawthorn, cherry, birch and I suspect some of the suckering coppice stools are small leaved limes that along with some other trees, need to be in leaf for me to make a positively ID.

Dog's Mercury and Primrose

The wildflowers ticked most of the boxes for ancient woodland indicators with carpets of wood anemones, ransoms, dog's mercury, wood spurge and again some other flowers that will need to be in flower to positively identify. I also forget to check if a wood bank defined the boundary, some yellow flowers weren't examined at closer quarters to see if they were celandines or something else and mosses/lichens/rushes/sedges and grasses were overlooked too. I didn't notice any bluebells or patches of nettles, which might be my oversight and I'll check on a future return visit.

I found this an interesting exercise, with desk study and a field visit to establish a woods potential ancient credential and further visits may reveal some more indicators and insights.