Otterbourne Park Wood - Otterbourne

Site Description

The Woodland Trust owns the majority (23 hectares) of Otterbourne Park Wood following the purchase of the bulk of this land in 1986 and the gifting of the north-western section in 1996. It has been classified as a County Heritage Site. The woodland is now cut off from other wildlife habitats of any substantial size by the M3 motorway to the north and west separating it from the extensive Cranbury Park. To the south lie the urban sprawl of Eastleigh and more closely the expanding village of Otterbourne Hill. To the north are the villages of Otterbourne and Shawford.

Otterbourne Park Wood is high forest and classified as ancient semi-natural and is comprised of areas of:

- pedunculate oak coppice with birch and an under storey of holly. This stand type is found on the plateau gravel areas generally in the higher west.

- Pedunculate oak standards with ash and an under storey of hazel. This stand type covers much of the rest of the higher elevations.

- Ash-maple stands, mainly on the lower lying clays in the north and east.

- Wet valley alder woods, which are concentrated along seasonal stream valleys and major ditches in the south and far north.

There are a significant number of individual trees with stool diameters greater than 150cm in the coppiced oak, ash, alder and hazel. Field maple stools are up to at least 100cm diameter at the base thus indicating their longevity. There is also a yew in the wood, prominently positioned above the line of the Roman Road, which has a base diameter measurement of over 140cm. Approximately 60 Turkey oak were planted in the wood during the early 1900s.

Silviculturally, the woodland was probably last worked prior to World War 2, indicated by the present size of coppice re-growth of a number of species. It is highly probable that most of the trees under 60 years of age are of natural regeneration origin following opening up of the canopy by thinning/ felling works. It is likely that deer and rabbit pressure on re-growth was much reduced during this period. The present natural regeneration is mainly oak, birch and ash. Wild cherry, black poplar, rowan, sallow, aspen, hawthorn and elder are also present in the wood.

The ground flora is dominated by bracken, bramble and ivy but there are many typical woodland plants including yellow pimpernel, yellow archangel, moschatel and yellow saxifrage throughout much of the wood. Common rush and wood rush are found along the paths and butchers broom is scattered throughout the wood. In the wetter areas, bugle and yellow marsh saxifrage occur with kingcups and lesser spearwort is abundant. Starwort, Callitriche verna has been found in the wood and there is also an area of cowheat, Melampyrum, together with patches of early purple orchid.

Otterbourne Park Wood is popular with visitors and mainly used by dog walkers, the majority of whom are local. There is an informal space for parking outside of the management access gate off Park Lane. The wood is considered of value by many local people, predominantly as a landscape buffer and wildlife refuge. A public footpath runs from the management gate in the west of the wood off Park Lane, down the hill and exits onto a field on the eastern boundary. Complementing the single public footpath is a well developed and maintained permissive footpath network which provides pleasant circular walks of varying length.

There are a variety of soils in the wood. Following the last glaciations, a large, east-flowing river removed much of the sand of the overlying Reading Beds, leaving a valley between the chalk to the north (e.g. Twyford Down) and the London Clay to the south. At this point the beds are dipping to the south and the valley is steep sided, so that a virtual scarp face of the clay is formed, facing N to E. It is to this formation that the wood owes its existence, since the wood was historically too steep and too slippery for arable farming.

The line of a Roman road runs through the northern part of the wood. The main Roman road leaving Winchester (Venta Belgarum) in a southerly direction to Otterbourne, still remains in use today along Shawford Hill. This route forked shortly after it crossed the Otter Bourne (river) north of the wood with one fork continuing straight through the wood where it can still be seen today, on its way to Bitterne (Clausentum). Where the Roman road passes through Otterbourne Park Wood, much of the road can be seen. The agger, heavily laden with pebbles, can be seen under the leaf litter, but more obvious is the shape and straightness of the road, higher in the middle with sloping sides.