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Great Wood is an ancient woodland area covering 71 ha near Grittenham in North Wiltshire. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust purchased the woodland in early 2023, saving it from commercial management or piecemeal ownership. Ancient woodland now covers just 2.5% of the country, but Great Wood is one of Wiltshire's 20 most extensive ancient woodlands. It is also likely to be the largest remaining stand of wild service trees in the country and includes some stands of oak over 200 years old.

Maydencroft was heavily involved with the first restoration phase of this ancient woodland and completed all the work in four months.

Firstly, a range of maintenance work was undertaken, including mowing the main ride system and cutting back the hedge along the main ride, supervising eight man-days of rhododendron clearance, and removing 1,35 km old pheasant pens.

Furthermore, Maydencroft sent in their ecology team, who completed a full GCN Method Statement, which was essential for the harvesting operation to start around the existing pond where GCN has been confirmed in the past. During the harvesting operation, one of our ecologists found two hibernating GCNs, which shows the importance and effectiveness of those surveys. The harvesting operation focused on felling about 6ha of Norway Spruce suffering from poor health due to Great Spruce Bark Beetle. After the felling activities were completed, 1.5km of Deer Fencing and rabbit netting was installed to kickstart restocking. 3,950 trees, mainly oak, hornbeam, cherry and field maple, were planted in single-species groups of up to 100 trees. The trees were planted very densely at 1m to 1.5m spacing (max), which ensured that the trees supported each other when growing.

Among their discovery, they found brown hairstreak butterfly eggs, which had not been detected in Wiltshire for many years. They also supervised parts of the harvesting operation where they replaced large swathes of conifers, which do not support much wildlife or floral diversity, replacing them with a mix of native broadleaf trees such as rowan and witch elm, creating new woodland glades and providing more space for the rare wild service trees to flourish. Thus providing substantial benefits for wildlife and people.

The wood now holds enormous potential for nature’s recovery, with the chance to bring back nightingales, nightjars, purple emperor butterflies – and even a possible reintroduction of wood white butterflies, which have been absent from Wiltshire for quite some time.

Samantha Stork, Head of Conservation at Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, said,

“Dear Cora,

Upon completing the Great Wood project, I want to thank you and Maydencroft for your professionalism and expertise, which have helped us successfully deliver this significant project. The restoration of this PAWS site required a sensitive approach with an understanding of the ancient woodland habitat's associated ecology and special characteristics. Maydencroft immediately understood our aims and helped us to deliver the work to meet the requirements of the funding grant and kickstart the restoration of this superb woodland. Thank you.”

Feature about Great Wood: https://youtu.be/M-aN5suAUFM?si=zlcoil8EmrevwErr