Ridley Wood

It's been quite awhile since I last walked through the majestic stands of Ridley Wood.  Stuck out on a knoll, Ridley's exposed to the full rigors of the elements, and this pocket of ancient woodland has suffered greatly from the storms of recent years. Ridley Wood comprises of mighty Oaks and Beeches with a mixed under story, many of the Beeches are clearly grown out pollarded trees of some girth and sporting several giant boughs; usually in the forest this denotes that these trees originated in the pre-enclosure period, as with enclosure came restrictions of traditional forestry practices such as coppicing and pollarding, both outlawed in favour of the single straight trunked trees required by the navy for ship building. Ridley's a lovely pocket of woodland and it's sad to see it so battered, if it's part of the natural cycles, you know, things grow, they live, they die, then new things grow, that's one thing.  My worry is that the acceleration in destruction I've seen in recent years could be attributed to climate change and associated weather anomalies and that bodes less well.