Mouse over links for pictures; click for detail page.
An ancient wood close to the River Stour and the RSPB reserve Stour Wood and Copperas Bay. It consists mainly of coppiced sweet chestnut and hornbeam. It was severely damaged in the great storm of 1987 and sections of the wood have been left in their devastated state for wildlife value and for scientific study.
After the Trust bought the wood in 1980 coppicing was re-introduced, and this has produced carpets of bluebell, yellow archangel and red campion. Among other flowering plants are moschatel, white climbing fumitory, and a few sweet woodruff and vervain. The wood is rich in ferns, soft shield-fern being particularly well represented.
100 species of bird (43 of which have nested) have been seen, including all three species of woodpecker and the nightingale.
Purple hairstreak is notable among the 23 species of butterfly and over 300 species of moth that have been recorded.
Visiting
The reserve is one mile from the village of Ramsey on the B1352 from Ramsey to Manningtree. The entrance is 300m down a public footpath (the Essex Way) beside a large white flat-roofed house. Parking for two cars only at the entrance, or on the roadside.
Regular buses between Harwich and Colchester go past the reserve
Accessible at all times
May and June, when wild flowers are everywhere and migrant birds such as the nightingale are in full voice.
A footpath about 2 km in length runs round the perimeter of the main wood. Please keep this path, from which all the main features of the reserve can be seen.
.jpg)