Salcey Forest is a fragment of a former medieval hunting forest east of the village of

Hartwell Hartwell may refer to: Places * Hartwell, Victoria, a neighbourhood of Camberwell in Melbourne, Australia ** Hartwell railway station England * Hartwell, Buckinghamshire * Hartwell, Northamptonshire, a village * Hartwell, Staffordshire, a loc ...

, between

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

and

Newport Pagnell Newport Pagnell is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes urban area. It is separated ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. It is managed by

Forestry England Forestry England is a division of the Forestry Commission, responsible for managing and promoting publicly owned forests in England. It was formed as Forest Enterprise in 1996, before devolving to Forest Enterprise England on 31 March 2003 and ...

and to promote biodiversity, and is also commercially exploited for timber products. The eastern third of the forest, an area of 159.6 hectares, is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Description

In 2005, a tree-top forest walk was constructed which has attracted many visitors and rises through the forest to a height of about 15 metres (49 ft), at a

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...

not exceeding 1 in 12. At the end, a raised viewing platform sits above it at 18 metres (59 ft) from the ground, which is accessed by stairs.

town can be seen from the top of the final tower. The project was placed first in the Environmental category of the

British Construction Industry Awards The British Construction Industry Awards (BCI Awards or BCIA) were launched by ''New Civil Engineer'' magazine and Thomas Telford Ltd in 1998, at the time both owned by the Institution of Civil Engineers. The awards seek to recognise outstanding ...

2006. There is a similar but longer raised walkway at

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

. In May 2018 the raised walkway was closed to the public following health and safety concerns. There are

public footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a w ...

s through the forest and a range of wildlife can be observed. The forest is a remnant of the medieval royal hunting forest. Reminders of the past can still be found, with several miles of

ancient woodland In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...

, building remains and ancient trees. The 'druids' or veteran oaks in Salcey are rare and distinct wildlife habitats, and some of the veteran oaks are believed to be over 500 years old. Salcey Forest Bridge elephant pond by Robert Kilpin

Salcey Forest Bridge elephant pond by Robert Kilpin

The forest has a café in one of the main parking areas – which is pay and display, next to the children's play area – most of the remaining parking areas in the forest are free. It is an official

Bookcrossing BookCrossing (also BC, BCing or BXing) is defined as "the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise." The term is derived from bookcrossing.com, a free online book club which was foun ...

zone and has two bookshelves where books can be left or taken for free. The cafe closes at 16.00 hours in the winter, and the park itself at 17.00 hours. During the Second World War, elephants from circuses were put to use to fell trees. There is a pond named 'The Elephant Pond' where the elephants could bathe at the end of the day. The forest was served by its own

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

on the

Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

until 1908. Since October 2019, Salcey Forest has hosted a

parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of 5K run, events for walkers, runners and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across six continents. Junior Parkrun (stylised as junior p ...

, a free, weekly timed walk/run every Saturday morning at 9am.

Ecology

This is the largest ancient wood in the county and the SSSI has most of the mature oak trees. The diverse ground flora includes bluebells, false brome, pendulous sedge and enchanter's nightshade. There are many breeding birds and nationally notable moth species.

Access

There is access by a track from Hartwell.

References

External links

Forestry England website
{{SSSIs Northamptonshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Northamptonshire Forests and woodlands of Northamptonshire English royal forests West Northamptonshire District

Description

Ecology

Access

See also

References

External links