Micheldever Wood is a wood near the village of

Micheldever Micheldever is a village in Hampshire, England, situated north of Winchester. It lies upon the River Dever . The river, and village, formerly part of Stratton Park, lie on a Hampshire grass downland, underlain with chalk and flint. Parts of th ...

, in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, England, about north-east of Winchester. It is managed by

Forestry England Forestry England is a division of the Forestry Commission, responsible for managing and promoting publicly owned forests in England. It was formed as Forest Enterprise in 1996, before devolving to Forest Enterprise England on 31 March 2003 and ...

. There are prehistoric remains from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

and other periods in the wood, including a Roman villa.

Description

Its size is ; the M3 motorway runs through the western side. The wood consists mostly of beech trees, interspersed with some conifers. There is a car park; there are picnic places and two walking trails. There is a range of wildlife species, and

muntjac deer Muntjacs ( ), also known as the barking deer or rib-faced deer, (URL is Google Books) are small deer of the genus ''Muntiacus'' native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Muntjacs are thought to have begun appearing 15–35 million years ago, ...

can be found. Notable displays of bluebells can be seen in the spring."Micheldever Woods, Hampshire"
''Meandering Wild''. Retrieved 12 January 2021.

History

The area was part of the Royal Forest of Pamber in the medieval period. Part of the present Micheldever Wood was later held by

Hyde Abbey Hyde Abbey was a medieval Benedictine monastery just outside the walls of Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was dissolved and demolished in 1538 following various acts passed under King Henry VIII to dissolve monasteries and abbeys (see Dis ...

. The abbey was dissolved in the 16th century, and Micheldever Wood was purchased by

Thomas Wriothesley Sir Thomas Wriothesley ( ; died 24 November 1534) was a long serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. He was the son of Garter King of Arms, John Writhe, and he succeeded his father in this office. Personal life Wriothesley wa ...

; it later descended by marriage to the Dukes of Bedford, and was acquired in 1801 by Francis Baring, 1st Baronet. The wood was described in the 1820s by

William Cobbett William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey. He was one of an agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restrain foreign ...

in ''

Rural Rides ''Rural Rides'' is the book for which the English journalist, agriculturist and political reformer William Cobbett is best known. At the time of writing in the early 1820s, Cobbett was a radical anti-Corn Law campaigner, newly returned to Engl ...

'' as "one of the finest oak woods in England". It has been in the care of Forestry England since 1919.'The parish of Micheldever', in ''A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 3'', ed. William Page (London, 1908), pp. 390-394
British History Online. Retrieved 10 January 2021.

Archaeological features

Archaeological features survive from the

to the

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

period, preserved for many centuries by the woodland. The remains are a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. Information boards are provided for some of the features. There is a Bronze Age

cross dyke A cross dyke or cross-dyke (also referred to as a cross-ridge dyke, covered way, linear ditch, linear earthwork or spur dyke) is a linear earthwork believed to be a prehistoric land boundary that usually measures between in length. A typical cr ...

in the south-east of the wood, extending into Itchen Wood to the south; it is thought to mark a territorial boundary. It is a bank wide, with a ditch either side; the part of the dyke in Micheldever Wood is about long. There is a linear earthwork running west–east across the wood. Nearby is a

bowl barrow A bowl barrow is a type of burial mound or tumulus. A barrow is a mound of earth used to cover a tomb. The bowl barrow gets its name from its resemblance to an upturned bowl. Related terms include ''cairn circle'', ''cairn ring'', ''howe'', ''ker ...

, in diameter and high, with a hollow left by antiquarian excavation; and a bell barrow, in diameter and high. There are two

banjo enclosure In archaeology, a banjo enclosure is the name of a type of archaeological feature of the British Middle Iron Age. It is so named because in plan it consists of a small round area with a long entrance track leading inward from one direction. This ...

s; these are regarded as dwelling places or stock enclosures of the middle

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

. These are of area and , with entrance ways to the east in both cases. There is much evidence of a Romano-British settlement. In the 1840s a hoard of more than 1400 Roman coins of the late fourth century were found; other artifacts and foundations of walls were also found. A field survey in 1992 recorded the remains of an L-shaped villa and associated buildings. Around these are traces of garden terraces and trackways, and there are two trackways linking the settlement to the Roman road between Winchester and Silchester.

References

{{Reflist Archaeological sites in Hampshire Scheduled monuments in Hampshire Forests and woodlands of Hampshire

Wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...