Great Ridge Wood

Great Ridge Wood, formerly also known as Chicklade Wood,[1] is one of the largest woodlands in southern Wiltshire, England. Mostly within the parishes of Boyton and Sherrington, and entirely within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, it lies on a chalk downland ridge above the River Wylye. To the south are the villages of Chicklade and Fonthill Bishop, while to the north are Boyton, Corton, Sherrington and Stockton. To the east of the wood, on the same ridge, lies another large block of woodland, Grovely Wood.

A Roman road runs from east to west through the centre of the wood,[2] and it has two ancient monuments within it.[3] In recognition of its nature conservation importance, the wood is designated by Wiltshire Council as a County Wildlife Site.

Both names for the wood, Great Ridge and Chicklade, are old. the Penny Cyclopaedia of 1843 says:

"Between the Wily and the Nadder ... are two tolerably extensive woods, Grovely Wood, near Wilton, and the Great Ridge Wood."[4]

The 'Great Ridge Wood' is also referred to in W. H. Hudson's A Shepherd's Life (1910), in which he reports that in the 19th century the old people of Fonthill Bishop and other villages were allowed to take from it as much dead wood as they could find.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford, Antiquity (1928), p. 175)
  2. ↑ Thomas Codrington, Roman roads in Britain (1919), p. 249
  3. ↑ Great Ridge Wood at wiltshire.gov.uk
  4. ↑ Penny cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1843), p. 415
  5. ↑ W. H. Hudson, A Shepherd's Life (BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008 edition), p. 148

Coordinates: 51°07′37″N 2°06′04″W / 51.127°N 2.101°W / 51.127; -2.101


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