Upper Wood

From small acorns mighty oaks grow

The upper part of the wood backs onto nearby houses and their gardens. The bank is less steep here, making the area most suitable for meetings. We've established 'base camp' near to some glorious maples at one of the original woodpiles. 

This page is growing and soon have more information, for now please enjoy our photos of some of the special (and not so special) places in the upper wood at Old Hutchcomb's Copse. Come back soon !

Five large oak trees stand proud in the upper wood at between 109- 114 m above sea level. In November 2022,  we 

assessed them using the Woodland Trust (WT) formula: All Oak are classed as ancient from 400 years onwards. Although many will have ancient characteristics from around 300 years.  Typically, a veteran Oak is 150-300 years of age, and a notable Oak is 150-200 years old. 

Record all Oak with a girth size more than 4.5m.  Every 2.5cm increase in circumference corresponds to about one year of growth.  So, to determine the age of a live tree, divide the girth by 2.5.  When a tree grows to reach 40cm in circumference (girth), it will be sixteen years old. Girth to be measured in cm at 1m up from the ground. Also record  ancient/ veteran indicator features.

We then estimated the age of the trees using both the Woodland Trust (WT)  and the Tree Guide (TG) criteria. We consider the Woodland Trust estimate to be definitive.