Rooks Bridge Wood

A few years ago, where Mill Lawn Brook becomes Red Ride Brook, narrows and splits into two channels which encircle Rooks Bridge Wood, brook became choked debris. One channel was completely blocked, that coupled with the general slowing of the stream through restoration, led to the waters backing up to the point where the other channel couldn't cope either and burst its banks. Since then the blocked channel has all but ceased to flow, now the excess waters flood Rooks Bridge Wood, before they find their way back into that blocked channel about 50m past the blockage through dozens of small cascades, and the brook again is on course. Eventually, after a few more years (I don't think it's policy any more for forestry to intervene, after all, this is what the restoration project set out to create, bog woodland environments), a new course through the wood will become properly established and the woodland will be water free again. Until the next time, that is. The forest, as tranquil and timeless as it appears, is a landscape continually changing. Take a good look along the environs of any of the woodland streams, and you'll see myriad previous courses covering hundreds of years. This is the forest living.