Park Wood - Talgarth
Site Description
Park Wood is a long, narrow belt of woodland occupying the crest of a low hill and overlooking the nearby town of Talgarth. An Ancient Woodland Site, the wood was bought from the Forestry Commission in February 1985 with funding assistance from The Countryside Commission, Talgarth Town Council and other Woodland Trust fundraising. Park wood is a major landscape feature for many miles to the west and north. It is part of Brecon Beacons National Park and is of reasonable scale in the surrounding hilly landscape.
Surrounding land use is mainly open grazing but hillside woodlands are a common landscape feature locally. Shales predominate as the bedrock and soils are clays, with some forest brown earths beneath broadleaved area. Fossils of Devonian fish have been found.
The management plans Key Features for Park Wood are Informal Public Access and Plantation on Ancient Woodland Site. The southern part of the wood is principally beech, planted 1957, under older ash and oak. The remainder is young planted broadleaves (in the centre of the site), and conifer plantation, mainly Douglas fir, Norway spruce and Western hemlock, planted in the early 1960's, with scant broadleaved content - mainly oak, ash and birch. There is a remnant oak over storey sometimes over 150 years old, although these have been out-competed by the more vigorous conifers. There is a variable content of broadleaved natural regeneration in open ground and thinned areas.
Ground flora characteristic of ancient woodland sites, such as Herb paris (in the south east) and common spotted orchids can be found in association with surviving broadleaved areas and on ride edges. Wetland grasses, mainly Juncus spp, are found in the wetter parts. There is an ongoing programme of gradual thinning and felling in the wood, with the objective of protecting the ancient woodland features and eventually restoring the site to native broadleaves, through natural regeneration.
Management access is by a wide ride running the length of the wood from the south-east corner. Numerous paths and tracks, including four public footpaths, connect with the main ride.
