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Small pearl-bordered fritillary (Boloria selene)

Wyre Forest is a large, semi-natural (partially unmanaged)

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

and forest measuring which straddles the borders of

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

and

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, England.

Knowles Mill Knowles Mill is the remains of an eighteenth-century water-powered grain mill, located in the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire, England. The mill has been owned by the National Trust since 1938. The mill and its surroundings feature extant machiner ...

, a former corn mill owned by the National Trust, lies within the forest.

Natural history

The forest covers an area in local terms of 2,634 hectares (6,509 acres), or on the larger scale and is noted for its variety of

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...

. Although now the Wyre Forest has been much deforested, it still extends from east of the A442 at

Shatterford Shatterford is a village in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England, located north-west of Bewdley. The Bewdley School and Sixth Form Centre provides secondary education for pupils from the area. The village hall always has local e ...

, north of

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it had ...

in the east, almost to

Cleobury Mortimer Cleobury Mortimer (, ) is a market town and civil parish in southeast Shropshire, England, which had a population of 3,036 at the 2011 census. It was granted a market charter by Henry III in 1226.''Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londinensi ...

in the west and from

Upper Arley Upper Arley () is a village and civil parish near Kidderminster in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, the village had a population of 741 at the 2011 census. Amenities The Arley railw ...

in the north to

Areley Kings Areley Kings is a Worcestershire village on the River Severn 10 miles north of Worcester in the picturesque area of the Wyre Forest. The area is featured in the Domesday Book and many historical places of interest, like Areley Hall, are open to ...

, near

Stourport Stourport-on-Severn, often shortened to Stourport, is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District of North Worcestershire, England, a few miles to the south of Kidderminster and downstream on the River Severn from Bewdley. At the 2011 ce ...

in the south. It is one of the largest remaining

ancient woodland In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...

s in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

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 ...

looks after around half of today's forest. Around two-thirds of the forest has been designated as an

SSSI 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 ...

(1,753.7 Ha), while a further fifth (549 Ha) is listed as a national nature reserve. The Dowles Brook flows through the heart of the forest, and the A456 road also runs through the southern edge of the woodland.

It is one of the largest areas of semi-natural (partially unmanaged)

in the UK. Bird species to be found in the forest include

hawfinch The hawfinch (''Coccothraustes coccothraustes'') is a passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Coccothraustes''. Its closest living relatives are the Chinese grosbeak (''Eophona migratoria'') ...

dipper Dippers are members of the genus ''Cinclus'' in the bird family Cinclidae, so-called because of their bobbing or dipping movements. They are unique among passerines for their ability to dive and swim underwater. Taxonomy The genus ''Cinclus'' ...

wood warbler The wood warbler (''Phylloscopus sibilatrix'') is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe, and just into the extreme west of Asian Russia in the southern Ural Mountains. This warbler is stro ...

common crossbill The red crossbill or common crossbill (''Loxia curvirostra'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. Crossbills have distinctive mandibles, crossed at the tips, which enable them to extract seeds from conifer cones and other ...

spotted flycatcher The spotted flycatcher (''Muscicapa striata'') is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It breeds in most of Europe and in the Palearctic to Siberia, and is migratory, wintering in Africa and south western Asia. It is decl ...

, pied flycatcher,

common redstart The common redstart (''Phoenicurus phoenicurus''), or often simply redstart, is a small passerine bird in the genus '' Phoenicurus''. Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, (Turdidae), but is now known to be ...

and

long-eared owl The long-eared owl (''Asio otus''), also known as the northern long-eared owlOlsen, P.D. & Marks, J.S. (2019). ''Northern Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)''. In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook o ...

, among many other woodland animals and plants. The small but colourful

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

Oecophora bractella ''Oecophora bractella'' is a species of gelechioid moth. It belongs to the subfamily Oecophorinae of the concealer moth family (Oecophoridae). As the type species of its genus '' Oecophora'', its affiliations and phylogeny (which are not compl ...

'' has one of its few English populations here, and does not seem to occur much further northwards. The forest's adders have been the subject of a notable study by Sylvia Sheldon.

History

This historic extent of the Wyre Forest is debatable. Leaflets distributed in recent times have included Eymore Wood, in Kidderminster Foreign on the opposite bank of the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

, but that was merely a tract of woodland belonging to

Worcester Cathedral Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, in Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified ...

. Another view is that once it stretched from

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. History B ...

along the west bank, but evidence for that is thin. Wyre Forest has none of the legal peculiarities of a historic forest at all, instead has those of a

chase Chase or CHASE may refer to: Businesses * Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York * Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company * Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England * Chase Co ...

(of

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect Wood fuel, wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

) with hunting rights belonging to the

Mortimer Mortimer () is an English surname, and occasionally a given name. Norman origins The surname Mortimer has a Norman origin, deriving from the village of Mortemer, Seine-Maritime, Normandy. A Norman castle existed at Mortemer from an early point; ...

family, who had the title

Earl of March Earl of March is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of England. The title derived from the "marches" or borderlands between England and either Wales ( Welsh Marches) or Scotland (Scottish Mar ...

from 1328, as holders for centuries of the manor and liberty of

, which technically still enjoys such hunting rights. Legally, only the crown could have a

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

, a subject could only have chases. How far north the Mortimer family's hunting rights extended is debatable, but it may have included the whole area in south east Shropshire of which they were overlords at the time of

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

. While they may have had hunting rights there, much of the woodland in fact belonged to other manors, such as

and

Kinlet Kinlet is a small village and civil parish in the south-east of the county of Shropshire, England. The parish is on the northern edge of the Wyre Forest and is in the Bridgnorth District of Shropshire. The parish incorporates the hamlets of Kin ...

. A large tract of woodland on the north side of the Dowles Brook was Kingswood, a detached township of the parish of Stottesdon. The town of

Bewdley Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the Riv ...

, a Mortimer foundation, may have been cut out of the forest.

Far Forest Far Forest is a small village in north Worcestershire, England, approximately west of Bewdley, and next to the border with Shropshire. It is on the A4117 road, on the edge of the Wyre Forest near Fingerpost, Worcestershire, Fingerpost. Far For ...

was until recent times part of the borough of Bewdley, though separated from the rest of it by New Parks, which were in

Rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

parish. Most rights to land in the forest belonged to these

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

manors. The rights of the Mortimer family passed to the crown as a result of the accession of Edward IV, who was (amongst other things) previously

to the crown. Its description as 'forest' probably dates from that period. The extent of woodland two to three centuries ago was probably similar to that today. The manor of

was alienated in the 16th century, leaving the crown only with the manor of Bewdley and Far Forest. Historical references to the Wyre Forest in this period seem to relate to this rather smaller area owned by the crown. In fact the crown's involvement was slight as its rights were leased to local gentlemen. One series of leases related to the manor of Bewdley, but another concerned something called the 'Wyre Forest'. This may have related to Far Forest, but that is not clear. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the forest was intensively managed as

coppice Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeated ...

to provide cordwood for the production of

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

. The charcoal was used to fuel iron forges at

, and at Wilden and elsewhere in the Stour valley. These supplied iron from manufacture into finished iron goods mainly in the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ro ...

. Charcoal burning continued into the 20th century. A branch of the

Severn Valley Railway The Severn Valley Railway is a heritage railway in Shropshire and Worcestershire, England. The heritage line runs along the Severn Valley from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster, following the course of the River Severn for much of its route, and c ...

, known as the "

Tenbury Line The Tenbury and Bewdley Railway was an English railway company that built its line from Bewdley in Worcestershire to Tenbury station, which was in Shropshire. The line connected the Severn Valley Railway at Bewdley with the Tenbury Railway at Tenb ...

", once ran through the Wyre Forest. It branched from the main line north of Bewdley station and crossed the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

at Dowles Bridge, the piers of which still remain. The trackbed of the railway is now a walking route through the forest.

Knowles Mill

One of nine possible mills that historically worked on Dowles Brook,

was built in the eighteenth-century, and was later modified in the nineteenth-century. The surviving building is two storeys high and the site also preserves an overshot mill wheel made of iron and a great spur wheel, alongside other remnant machinery. The first record of a mill on the site dates to 1757 when it was listed as for sale in a local newspaper. The mill and its surroundings are owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

Namesake

The

Wyre Forest District Wyre Forest is a local government district in Worcestershire, England, covering the towns of Kidderminster, Stourport-on-Severn and Bewdley, and several civil parishes and their villages. Its council was previously based in Stourport-on-Seve ...

of Worcestershire containing the towns

and Stourport on Severn takes its name from the forest however just over half the woodland is not in the district and instead is in Shropshire to the north.

References

External links

Wyre Forest on Forestry England siteWyre Forest Visitor and Discovery CentreAerial Photowww.geograph.co.uk : photos in and around the Wyre Forest today