Ridley Wood

 

A twin trunk Beech in Ridley Wood.

Ridley Wood

 

Ridley Wood in winter.

And another one gone

Another ancient old lady takes her final bow; out gunned by the elements, undermined by the consequences of modernity, she joins the ranks of the fallen. It never ceases to amaze me that although extensive, the roots of these mighty leviathans appear so insubstantial compared with the enormity they support.

Wintery Walk

It was another frosty morning for our walk in the forest. This morning we began from Wood's Corner on the outskirts of Burley. Getting out early doors meant we beat the hordes, the empty parking spot felt old skool, since the Covid the forest footfall has exploded. Luckily most don't walk far from their cars or remain on the the main tracks, making it easy still to escape and find peace. There was no one about as we skirted the edge of Berry Woods taking in the view over White Moor Bottom; crossing Ridley Green the Mill Lawn Brook tributary running through there was frozen, not seen that in forever; Ridley wood's a lovely old wood set within an ancient earthwork, it's home to some fantastic old beeches, sadly many have been slighted by age and the elements in recent years; we passed Little Wood a clump crowning Ridley Plain before descending into Harvest Slade Bottom, a spookily quiet spot this morning, then up onto Backley Plain; past Soarley Beeches along the edge of Backley Enclosure and across Blackensford Bottom, from where the clump of Soarley Beeches looked like an hillfort in the distance...it's not; then it was the return stretch through the irregular mosaic woodlands of Beech Bed and South Oakley enclosures. 7 miles of New Forest winter loveliness. You can't beat it.

The arse end of a car!

Walking along the edge of Ridley Wood this evening we came upon the arse end of a car, well, the tail bumper anyway. A strange find, made stranger as the busy A31 (the closest road) is some 500m away. How the flip did it get right over here? It must have been one hell of of a crash, or maybe a giant Magpie carried it here. I don't know. It's a mystery! Oh, hang on! As it happens, this bumper turned out to be a prophetic sign, man, as the friend who drove this evening ripped his rear bumper off on a stumpy post as we left the car park. Similar colour vehicle too. Weird!

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.