Sidley Wood

Also within

Hampshire County North Wessex Downs Scenic Area

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Bracken scrub, Coppiced woodland

Geology & landscape

Rock Type: Chalk

Description

Area, 11.94 hectares 29.52 ac Description Sidley Wood is an ancient secondary wood, developed over an ancient field system, situated ona south facing chalk promontory along the North Hampshire Downs. The wood assumes particular nature conservation importance for its stands of ancient hornbeam coppice, no comparable stands are known elsewhere in South Central England. Parts of Sidley Wood comprise pure hornbeam coppice, many of the stools are more than two metres in diameter, suggesting that the wood is of great age and of natural origin. Hornbeam is also abundant mixed with field maple, ash and hazel throughout much of the remainder of the wood, where the structure is oak standards over mixed coppice. The hornbeam coppice generates a dense shade, suppressing the development of the field layer which is typically dominated by bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta with sparsely distributed plants of pignut Conopodium majus, yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon, wood millet Milium effusum, wood avens Geum urbanum and bramble Rubus fruticosus. In the mixed coppice areas the field layer is, by contrast, more varied with primrose Primula vulgaris, bracken Pteridium aquilinum, three nerved sandwort Moehringia trinervia, sanicle Sanicula europaea, wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella, wood speedwell Veronica montana and dog's mercury Mercurialis perennis all abundant. Less frequently occurring species include moschatel Adoxa moschatellina, Solomon's seal Polygonatum multiflorum and giant fescue Schedonorus giganteus. In the extreme western sector of the wood, hornbeam is absent. Oak and ash form a dense canopy over a shrub layer of hawthorn, coppiced field maple and hazel; bramble and dog's mercury dominate the field layer.

Species mentioned

Insects to look out for

These moths, butterflies and beetles are known to feed on plants recorded at this site, and carry a notable UK conservation status — but a host-plant being present doesn't mean the insect has actually been recorded here. Treat this as "worth watching for," not a confirmed sighting.

Host-plant data: Cook et al. (2025), Traits data for the butterflies and macro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland, 2024, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology / Butterfly Conservation; and Padovani et al. (2020), Database of Insects and their Food Plants (DBIF), UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (both Open Government Licence). Contains data supplied by UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

Plant communities