Foal Hurst Wood & a few thoughts on nature

Part of the Town’s DNA

Imagine a place in the parish where the habitat is as nature intended, which for our part of the planet is broadleaf woodland; the climax habitat. Before people arrived in this part of Southern England, virtually all of the landscape would have been woodland. The plants , insects, birds, mammals, fungi, mosses, everything would have been beholden to and associated with the broadleaf trees dominating the woodland. This was the great ‘Andredsweald’, the Saxon forest which ran from Petersfield in Hampshire, across the countryside until the English Channel was reached in the east. From the bottom of the North Downs to the foothills of the South Downs, all trees, as far as the eye could see. We know it now as ‘The Weald’, of Kent and Sussex.

An aerial landscape view of Foal Hurst Wood, 

looking south from above the railway line.

Foal Hurst Wood is just a small block of that once mighty forest, part of our DNA, in the same way that the amazon forest, or the great plains of North America, were everything to the native peoples of America, before Columbus arrived in 1492. It is a part of the parish that we should return to, if we wish to try and understand why all life on this planet is sacred, not just those species we enjoy seeing, or (ab)use for our benefit.

The wood in springtime.

Appreciating our planet : a message from the Earth

There is no work involved with appreciating Me. Just come out into my spaces and love me, enjoy me, drink me, breathe me, sense me.

Your love for the trees, the streams, the rocks, the animals will help to keep them safe and show your love for me.

Your love of me, will strengthen me and I will be able to give you my beauty and love back.”

In this way I will save you and you will ‘save’ Me.

Bracken frond unfurling.

Past History

In the mid 1990’s the town council was looking for a meaningful millennium project for the year 2000. Something to last for another 1000 years and they happened upon Foal Hurst Wood, which the Kent County Council wanted to dispose of. In May 1999 the new nature reserve was formally opened by the Mayor of Tunbridge Wells and placed in the guardianship of the people of the town. Since then the Paddock Wood Town Council and a group of volunteers have continued to honour the desire of keeping the wood as a place for nature to survive and for people from the town to enjoy.

May 1999, the official opening walk.

The wood is 12 hectares / 30 acres in size (think of 30 football pitches), with another 5.5 hectares (13 acres) of grassland & meadow surrounding the wood, to complete the land covering Paddock Wood’s only nature reserve; dedicated to all of nature’s creation.

Although Foal Hurst Wood has always been woodland, as thus classified as ancient woodland, it is not virgin woodland. In reality it is secondary woodland, in which the trees which have grown on the land has been harvested and allowed to regrow. It is part of a national ‘wood store’ which was regularly cut, or coppiced, to meet our past need for building material and firewood, for more than 1000 years. This lengthy period of management of regular cycles of coppicing (usually 12 – 15 year cycles), has allowed the wildlife to adapt and survive.

A recently coppiced area.

It is tempting to see woodland as consisting of just the trees, but a wood is so much more than this. It is a community of plants and animals which co-exist together. However what makes woodland a self-sustaining community is the life which exists below the ground, which not only is far greater than life above ground, but often forms a symbiotic relationship with the trees, where all parties benefit. This is particularly true of fungi, which are often associated with particular trees, for example fly agaric fungi and birch trees. This all takes time to create. Whereas a pond can be a dynamic habitat within three years, when it comes to a complex woodland community, firstly plant the trees and then wait about 200 years for it all to knit together!

Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria)

Why all this ‘nature love’ talk? Well because I think it is important to establish how vital Foal Hurst Wood is as a nature reserve for the town and why it needs careful management, if it is to continue to support all the wonderful plants and creatures which presently call it their home. At last count that included 183 plant species, 49 fungi, 185 insects, 16 mammals, 5 reptile & amphibians and 51 types of bird. Of these, 18 bird species are on the red or amber endangered list, 5 of the mammals are legally protected, along with two of the reptile species. And this is only the ones we have so far been able to find and identify. There is no doubt that if we had the resources of wildlife experts we could discover much more life in the wood.

A winter view.

The establishment of a major new housing development next to this nature hotspot requires very careful planning, if centuries of balanced coexistence are not to be broken. It can be done, for it has been done in the past, as I will explain in a future post. But for now that is probably more than enough of my nature ‘love in’ :-).