Ham Street Woods

Also within

Kent County

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Bracken scrub, Coppiced woodland

Birds & fish recorded

Birds

Description

Area, 172.2 ha. 425.5 ac. Description This site forms a nationally important representative of its main woodland type and includes a series of broadleaved woodlands to the north east of Ham Street village. It supports outstanding bird and invertebrate communities. Centuries of traditional management in British woodlands have resulted in semi natural 'ancient' more than 400 years old woodland rich in characteristic plant and animal species. During recent decades modern forestry especially coniferisation, development and conversion to agriculture have led to the loss of much of this natural diversity and richly wooded areas such as this part of the Weald are now rare. This site lies on the edge of a plateau of sands and clays which is cut into by a number of small valleys. The higher parts of the site have acidic soils, supporting woodland mainly dominated by pedunculate and sessile oaks Quercus robur and Q. petraea, downy and silver birches Betula pubescens and B. pendula and hornbeam Carpinus betulus; other trees include wild cherry Prunus avium, wild service Sorbus torminalisan aspen Populus tremula. The ground vegetation includes bracken Pteridium aquilinum, honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum, wood anemone Anemone nemorosa, bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta and in the most acidic areas ling heather Calluna vulgaris, gorse Ulex europaeus and tormentil Potentilla erecta. The soil of the valley sides is damper and more nutrient rich and here the woodland also includes ash Fraxinus excelsior, hazel Corylus avellana, hawthorn Crataegus monogyna, midland hawthorn Crataegus laevigata and in the wettest areas alder Alnus glutinosa. The ground vegetation is often dominated by dog’s mercury Mercurialis perennis and includes greater butterfly orchid Platanthera chlorantha and early purple orchid Orchis mascula. Most of the site has been managed in the past as coppice with standards and in parts the coppice is still cut regularly on rotation. This allows plants such as bluebell, primrose Primula vulgaris and wood anemone to flourish and plants of open areas such as golden rod Solidago virgaurea and heath cudweed Gnaphthalium sylvaticum to colonise. The complex structure of the woodland provides a wealth of microhabitats which together support a large number of specialised and oftenscarce or rare invertebrates. A particularly rich invertebrate fauna is associated with dead and rotting wood and also with wet areas within pools, woodland and shaded streams. Twelve scarce or rare dead wood species are known to occur, including the nationally rare beetle Tomoxiabi guttata; species associated with wet areas include a rare fly Anthomyza bifasciata which breeds in the seed heads of lesser reed mace Typha angustifolia in forest ponds, as well as two scarce dragonflies, and s carce species of fly, water beetle and lacewing. Recently coppiced open areas and rides support a number of scarce species, in particular those associated with aspen. The site supports many breeding bird species characteristic of woodland. These include common species such as treecreeper Certhia familiaris, spotted flycatcher Muscicapa striata and redpoll Carduelis flammea as well as less common ones such as nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos, hawfinch Coccothraustes coccothraustes and sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus. * 'A Nature Conservation Review' Edited by D A Ratcliffe, 1977 Cambridge.

Species mentioned

Plant communities