Knelle Wood South in Great Knelle
- an Ancient Woodland in the High Weald
KNELLE
WOOD
Knelle Wood South is some 36 acres of Great Knelle Wood made up from 4 smaller woods : Middle Wood, Big Pond Wood, Spoon Wood and South Wood. The wood as a whole would not appear to have been actively managed for at least 30 years. Clicking on the area of South Wood on this map will take you to more detail : a separate tab will open in your browser.
Middle Wood has an overstory mainly consisting of mature oak with a high density of chestnut coppice. Other species include of holly, willow and hornbeam. The wood borders farm land on the western boundary.
Big Pond Wood is so named because of the large pond situated in the centre of the wood. The surrounding overstory is made up from oak and sweet chestnut with a lower understory of hornbeam coppice. To the south there is a stand of scots pine.
Spoon Wood has an historical earth workings, probably dug out to supply clay for a small brick works that supplied the materials for buildings in the surrounding area. The earth working forms a pond in the shape of a spoon which normally holds water for most of the year. The surrounding trees consist of an overstory of mature oak and sweet chestnut with a mainly hornbeam coppice understory.
South Wood is the largest of the group. This area of woodland would appear to have been the most badly affected during the great 1987 storm with a number of mature sweet chestnut trees still lying where they fell. Some of these trees, still partially rooted, have grown a number of side shoots resulting in vertical growth with some growth measuring some 20 cm across. This part of the wood however is still dominated by mature sweet chestnut and oak overstorey and has a large number of sweet chestnut coppice stools and holly underneath with bluebells in the spring. The woodland is bordered by farmland to the south, east and west.
Fallow deer are frequent visitors :
