Eyeworth

Eyeworth wood is an area ancient woodland where giant aging Oak and Beech jostle amongst younger pretenders and the thick clumps of smaller tree species which huddle around them; the wood is dense, shrubs and trunks, bramble and thicket, impassable in places for tree debris, much of which dates back to uncleared victims of the '87 storm.  Adjacent  to the natural randomness of ancient wood is the order of Island Thorns.  Island Thorns Enclosure (1854) has been thinned over the last couple of years, the regularly spaced adolescent Oaks given space to grow and mature; the enclosure takes on a less formal air.  The creators of these great enclosures must have had belief in their wooden ship technology and that it would endure, as growing timber for ship building is a long game, covering several generations.  The enclosure, as ship building timbers, was outdated almost at the time of its creation; by the end of the 19th century iron was cheap enough to take the place of wood in hull construction, although wood remained favoured as decking. Island Thorns Oaks are tall, straight and true, and would have surely made for fine globe trotting ships.  The difference between the enclosed and the ancient woodland is striking.  We follow the path of Latchmoor brook, now nothing more than a very light flow compared with the bank busting torrent of winter. 

A large herd of deer, containing several young stags, grazes the lush green emerging shoots of spring; more alert than usual, they spook easily and can only be viewed from a distance.