Bowdown and Chamberhouse Woods

Bowdown Woods

Bowdown and Chamberhouse Wood in Berkshire

Bowdown Woods Nature Reserve lies between Greenham Common and the River Kennet

Bowdown and Chamberhouse Woods (grid reference SU509654) is a 66.8 hectares (165 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Crookham in Berkshire, notified in 1983.^[1] It is an area of ancient woodland lying on the scarp slope north of Greenham Common, close to the eastern edge of Newbury, most of which is a Nature Reserve open to the public.

Nature Reserve

54.5 hectares (135 acres) of the woodland is the Bowdown Woods Nature Reserve, owned and managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT). It is the biggest such reserve in Berkshire,^[2] and has a diverse range of tree species, an 'exceptionally rich woodland ground flora' and a diverse fauna, notably birds, reptiles, dragonflies and butterflies.^[1]

The Nature Reserve is open to the public and has three car parks, all accessed from Bury's Bank Road, between Greenham and Thatcham.^[2] The three access points relate to the three areas of the reserve, each of which has its own history.

Baynes Wood

Baynes Wood (itself comprising Great Wood and Parklodge Gully) is at the south-eastern end of the reserve, and may have been part of Chamberhouse Park. It is shown as woodland on 16th century maps, and was probably coppiced until 1798 when the Tull family bought it. It remained in their family until 1939 when Baynes timber Co acquired it, and promptly felled a considerable proportion of the trees. Following natural regeneration, a further spate of felling occurred in 1981. A re-apraisal of its management at this point enabled the BBOWT to initially rent and then buy the wood, since which it has been managed as a nature reserve.^[3]

Bowdown Wood

Bowdown Wood is at the opposite end of the reserve, and the first that is known of this woodland is that it was bought by the Dorner family in 1920. They then sold it to the BBOWT in 1984. It is more heavily dissected than the Baynes woods, with a number of valleys cutting through it. Although there is little flowing water there are large areas of permanently waterlogged ground.^[3]

Old Bomb Site

Between these two woodlands is the rather more prosaically named Old Bomb Site, which was used by the military during and after World War 2, in conjunction with RAF Greenham Common. This too was acquired by BBOWT, and is now a mozaic of heathland, acid grassland, scrub and woodland.^[3] The former ammunition stores are still there, in a decayed state, and the rubble provides good habitats for reptiles. This section is also still criss-crossed by a network of concrete paths built for military purposes, but now providing all-weather paths and good access to the site for less mobile visitors.^[4]

West Berkshire Living Landscape

The woods are within the area of the West Berkshire Living Landscape, an initiative headed by the Wildlife Trust to link up areas and 'islands' of rich wildlife to create landscape-scale interlinked habitats.^[5] In addition to Bowdown and Chamberhouse Woods SSSI, this includes Greenham Common SSSI, the River Kennet and Thatcham Reedbeds SSSI and the areas linking them together, forming a 27 square kilometre area 'for people and wildlife to thrive side by side'.^[4]

Footnotes

1 2 English Nature citation sheet for the site (accessed 27 December 2007)
1 2 http://www.bbowt.org.uk/content.asp?did=23529 Wildlife Trust page for Bowdown Woods Nature Reserve
1 2 3 Reading and District Natural History Society report No 37, 1985, p.14-19
1 2 pdf link for Wildlife Trust Leaflet on Bowdown Woods Nature Reserve accessed 19/Oct/2011
↑ West Berkshire Living Landscape page accessed 19/Oct/2011

External links

English Nature website (SSSI information)

Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Berkshire

Aldermaston Gravel Pits Ashridge Wood Avery's Pightle Bisham Woods Blackwater Valley Bowdown and Chamberhouse Woods Boxford Chalk Pit Boxford Water Meadows Bray Meadows Bray Pennyroyal Field Briff Lane Meadows Brimpton Pit Broadmoor to Bagshot Woods and Heaths Cannoncourt Farm Pit Catmore and Winterly Copses Chawridge Bourne Chilton Foliat Meadows Cleeve Hill Cock Marsh Cold Ash Quarry Combe Wood, Frilsham Croker's Hole Decoy Pit, Pools and Woods Easton Farm Meadow Enborne Copse Englemere Pond Fognam Chalk Quarry Freeman's Marsh Great Thrift Wood Greenham and Crookham Commons Hampstead Marshall Pit Heath Lake Hog's Hole Holies Down Inkpen and Walbury Hills Inkpen Common Inkpen Crocus Fields Irish Hill Copse Kennet and Lambourn Floodplain Kennet Valley Alderwoods King's Copse Lardon Chase Lodge Wood and Sandford Mill Longmoor Bog Old Copse, Beenham Parkfarm Down Pincent's Kiln Redhill Wood River Kennet River Lambourn Sandhurst to Owlsmoor Bogs and Heaths Seven Barrows Snelsmore Common Stanford End Mill and River Loddon Streatley Warren Sulham and Tidmarsh Woods and Meadows Swinley Park and Brick Pits Thatcham Reed Beds Wasing Wood Ponds Wellington College Bog West Woodhay Down West's Meadow, Aldermaston Westfield Farm Chalk Bank White Shute Windsor Forest and Great Park Winterbourne Chalk Pit Woolhampton Reed Bed Wraysbury and Hythe End Gravel Pits Wraysbury No 1 Gravel Pit Wykery Copse

Neighbouring areas Buckinghamshire Hampshire London Oxfordshire Surrey Wiltshire

Coordinates: 51°23′07″N 1°16′12″W / 51.38537°N 1.26994°W / 51.38537; -1.26994

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