Bentley Wood (), together with the adjacent

Blackmoor Copse Blackmoor Copse () is a woodland in southeast Wiltshire, England, managed as a nature reserve by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. The copse lies within Pitton and Farley parish, about east of Salisbury. A area of the wood was notified as a biol ...

, form one of the largest contiguous areas of woodland in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England. The wood is about east of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

, north of the village of West Dean, and is largely within West Dean parish. An area of 665

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s of the wood was notified as a

biological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

in 1985. The site is important for butterflies, with species present including

purple emperor ''Apatura iris'', the purple emperor, is a Palearctic butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. Description Adults have dark brown wings with white bands and spots, and a small orange ring on each of the hindwings. Males have a wingspan of , an ...

, white admiral and

pearl-bordered fritillary The pearl-bordered fritillary (''Boloria euphrosyne'') is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae found in Europe and through Russia across the Palearctic to the north of Kazakhstan. Description The adult butterfly is orange with black spots on ...

World War II

In the build up to

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

in the spring of 1944, Bentley Wood was used as accommodation for United States troops. The headquarters were in Norman Court mansion,

West Tytherley West Tytherley is a village and civil parish in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Stockbridge, which lies approximately 6 miles (10 km) north-east from the village, although its post town is Salisbury. The ...

, to the east of the wood. NCOs and other ranks were encamped in

Nissen huts A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure for military use, especially as barracks, made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated iron. Designed during the First World War by the American-born, Canadian-British engineer and inventor Majo ...

erected within the wood. The facilities included a hospital in an extended Nissen hut. Most of the wood north of Livery Track was used. Some areas of the wood were laid to gravel to facilitate heavy vehicles, and Livery Track was widened and laid with macadam. A modest number of trees were felled to provide space. Following the end of the war, the wood was used temporarily to store vehicles and other equipment returning from Europe.

Recent history

In 1950 Bentley Wood was acquired by the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

, which undertook a large replanting programme to fill in the spaces that had been cleared to accommodate military facilities in the WWII period. In 1983 the UK Government decided to sell much of the woodland owned by the Forestry Commission, including Bentley Wood. A local resident, Lady Ann Colman, widow of Sir Nigel Colman, formed a trust with the purpose of purchasing Bentley Wood for the public, which was achieved shortly before her death in 1984. The Bentley Wood Charitable Trust that she had formed was guided initially by

Ralph Whitlock Ralph Whitlock (1914–1995) was a Wiltshire farmer, broadcaster, conservationist, journalist and author of over 100 books. Background and education Whitlock was born in Pitton, near Salisbury, Wiltshire six months before the outbreak of the Fi ...

, a local farmer, conservationist and broadcaster. Among his achievements associated with the development of the wood was the formation of ''The Friends of Bentley Wood'', a group of local people whose purpose is to protect the wood as a nature reserve and develop it for the access and enjoyment of the public.

References

External links

Natural England citation sheet for the site, accessed 22 March 2022
*
Friends of Bentley Wood
Forests and woodlands of Wiltshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire {{Wiltshire-geo-stub