Chiffchaff Wood, Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire

Chiffchaff Wood is a plantation style broadleaf woodland of mainly oak, planted approximately 40 years ago, and has been effectively managed, thinned and nurtured to its present excellent condition. A good quantity of cherry and birch are mixed in with the oak providing interest and spring blossom as well as good forage for birdlife. Further variety is present throughout the woodland, areas of holly, hazel and hawthorn make up the understory and a crab apple or two provide more food for pollinators and wildlife.

The woodland was thinned recently allowing space for the remaining oak to grow on and mature, and there will be the option for the oak to be extracted as a valuable timber crop in the future, should the owner wish to do that. The thinning also keeps the canopy in check, allowing light to the forest floor resulting in ferns and grasses, and wildflowers of all variety through spring and summer which are a delight to see; violets, bluebells, primrose, wood anemones and sorrel, and lesser celandine to name a few. Several of these are noted as ancient woodland indicators and Kiln Ground Wood, the larger woodland of which Chiffchaff Wood is a part, is indeed designated ASNW (Ancient and Semi Natural Woodland) which indicates it has been under continuous tree cover since before 1600AD. Old maps going back to the late 1700's and early 1800's show it clearly as woodland.

Chiffchaff Wood's southern boundary is marked by a hedgerow running along the very quiet country lane and a short distance inside the southern boundary a grass path runs east west across the full width of the woodland. Set just off this path at its eastern end is a small seasonal pond or scrape, always an asset to woodland life and biodiversity and palmate and great crested newts have been spotted in here.

Further into the woodland are another two larger rides crossing the woodland on the same axis, all of which contribute to easy access and management. Set within the gorgeous surroundings of the larger Kiln Ground Wood this is a lovely, manageable, broadleaf woodland perfect for the nature and conservation buff who is keen to take on the responsibility of stewarding a protected species.