Tom Wood - Charlesworth
Site Description
Tom Wood lies on a steep gullied valley running down into the River Etherow near the village of Charlesworth. The surrounding land is the rolling country between the hills of the Peak District National Park (one mile to the east) and the outskirts of Manchester (two miles to the west). The underlying ground is clayey surface water gley soils derived from carboniferous mudstones and shales, these are waterlogged for most of the year and make access over the steep terrain difficult. The wood itself is composed of chiefly sycamore with ash, oak birch and alder. It is a good example of ancient semi natural woodland on the west Pennine fringe and forms part of a ribbon of such woodland fragments extending down between the Peak District National Park and the urban sprawl to the west. It holds a mosaic of various woodland types (although these have never been rigorously surveyed), ranging from alder- ash woodland (NVC W7) in the valley floor through herb rich ash-elm-sycamore woodland (NVC W8) to dry grassy oak-birch woodland (NVC W10) on the upper fringes with the pasture land above. The ground flora is dominated by spring flowering species - bluebell, wood sorrel, ransoms, cuckoo pint and dogs mercury: with carpets of opposite leaved golden saxifrage in the wet gullies and ferns throughout. Rhododendron is extensive throughout the wood and is subject to an ongoing programme of eradication.
The fauna of the wood has never been properly surveyed, but it will form an important refuge for woodland species in the locality.
A recent historical survey showed how little is known of the history of the area. In the middle ages the surrounding land was part of a royal hunting forest and under control of the cistercian abbey of Basinwerke in Flintshire for the production of cattle from 1157. Unfortunately the abbey records, and those of the grange established close by, were destroyed by a fire in the eighteenth century. From the Elizabethan period the land passed into the hands of the Howard family where it remained until the twentieth century, however no estate maps have been uncovered that show the wood. A survey of the parish of Charlesworth in 1849 shows that it was 45% under trees which is very significantly higher than it is in the present day. This indicates that the surrounding area must have been relatively underdeveloped agriculturally.
The wood is served by one permmissive path and two public footpaths, that link in well with the network of paths in the area. Unfortunately. local parking on Woodseats Lane is difficult which will deter many potential visitors to the woods but parking is available in nearby Broadbottom. Considering the access difficulties the wood is fairly well used and there is a high level of local interest in the wood and its footpaths.
