Woodborough’s Heritage

Woodborough, a Sherwood Forest Village, recorded in Domesday



Fox Wood - An ancient woodland & 1985 Survey



Fox Wood – a new future?:

An air of quiet desolation often seems to prevail in Fox Wood. Unkempt and seemingly devoid of wildlife, brambles, trip the feet of the foot path walker and dead wood clatters in the breeze overhead. If you are lucky you may spot a sparrow hawk swoop away from the woodland edge.

This air of dilapidation has attracted the attention of the Nottinghamshire Environmental Advisory Council (NEAC) who in a carefully considered management plan, aim to safeguard Fox Wood for future generations.

The management plan has been devised by a working party consisting of representatives of the British Trust for Nature Conservation Volunteers, the Notts Trust for Nature Conservation, and County Leisure Services and the County Archaeologists. Fears for the continual erosion of Fox Wood’s Iron Age earthwork by horse riders and motorcyclists, has been a major concern of the working party. County archaeologist Mike Bishop felt that what remained of this ancient encampment would not survive beyond a few more years.

A survey of the wood which is part of the Woodborough Park Farm and held in Trust, revealed a domination of bramble which was choking out other ground flora. Seventy percent of trees were elm (of which 95% were standing dead timber), twenty eight percent were sycamore (of a mixed age, 10-15 years), and two percent was ash and hawthorn (poor leggy trees).

The management scheme proposes a clearing of dead wood particularly about the ancient ditches and banks which could be cleared altogether of trees and turfed in a way which would clearly define this important site. Access to the monument would be via stiles and pathways. Footpaths would also be clearly defined in order to halt the willy-nilly use of the wood by walkers and riders. At present the official public footpath passes through the west end of the wood and is indicated by footpath signs. NEAC however, recognize that the Preservation Society would like to see the original footpath which passes diagonally through the wood reinstated as the official Right of Way. This footpath is shown clearly on the old OS maps.

The wood is well used by local people. Access in recent years was made possible by the success of the Preservation Society which won the public enquiry at which the footpath from the south west corner of Fox Wood to Park Farm was retained and not diverted to Georges Lane. NEAC’s management scheme seeks to define this access and to give Fox Wood a new lease of life. It could dispel the air of neglect and of misuse. Its management proposals are now being considered by Park Farm’s tenant farmer whose land contains this small but important and fascinating wood.


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