Knight Wood

The forest is full of magical hidden places, places that are a little off the beaten track, the places in-between, overlooked and rarely trodden. Places where you seldom, if ever, see others, and connection to woods and nature is easy. These are some of my favourite places, as they retain a certain something only felt, impossible to articulate. Above, a restored Warwickslade cutting meanders through the misty stands of Knight Wood; the restoration has resulted in the woodland slowly becoming waterlogged... it's welly country, and will only get wetter as the effects of restoration bed in. Knight Wood is unenclosed deciduous old forest, the oldest tracts being those of majestic veteran beech on the, slightly, higher ground, more recent the mature oaks through which Warwickslade cutting flows (they date somewhere in the 1800's, and drainage). Some of these oaks are not liking the wetter aspects of the restored landscape one bit, their broken limbs litter the woodland floor and several of the trees are looking rather peaky. Full restoration to bog woodland will be a long journey mind, it'll take decades for these oaks to be replaced by returning carr species. You know, I don't remember ever seeing another soul amongst these oaks, I'm sure there must be other visitors, and maybe they're thinking that they've never seen anybody here either.