Bedgebury Forest is a forest surrounding Bedgebury National Pinetum, near

Flimwell Flimwell is a village in the civil parish of Ticehurst, in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. It is located close to the border with Kent at the junction of the A21 road with the A268 and the B2087. The village is situated in an Area ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. In contrast to the National Pinetum, which contains exclusively coniferous trees, the forest contains both deciduous and coniferous species. It forms part of the

High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is in south-east England. Covering an area of , it takes up parts of Kent, Surrey, East Sussex, and West Sussex. It is the fourth largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in England ...

, and is one of the so-called "Seven Wonders Of The Weald". Bedgebury Forest has facilities for

cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from t ...

, mountain biking, riding, orienteering and adventure play.

History

Bedgebury is first mentioned in an Anglo-Saxon charter in AD 841, the name deriving from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

'' bycgan'', meaning "buy", and the Kentish , meaning "to bend or turn", possibly in reference to a stream. Bedgebury Forest has always been wooded and is classed as an

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 ...

. Heather is present, which indicates that parts of the forest may have been managed as wooded

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler a ...

. Streams in the Forest show evidence of dams, storing water for the

Wealden iron industry The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Iron ...

and later the ornamental lakes on the Bedgebury Estate.

Geography

Bedgebury Forest is located between

Goudhurst Goudhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. It lies in the Weald, around south of Maidstone, on the crossroads of the A262 and B2079. The parish consists of three wards: Goudhurst, Kilndown and ...

Hawkhurst Hawkhurst is village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The village is located close to the border with East Sussex, around south-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells and within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Na ...

and

in the High Weald of Kent. It is situated on a high plateau, amongst the rolling hills of the Wealden Group. The geology is mostly

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

, and the soil is poor and

acidic In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a ...

, which is the reason for the woodland's persistence: better, more accessible land was cleared for agriculture long ago. Bedgebury Forest falls within the catchment areas of the rivers Medway and

Rother Rother may refer to: General *Rother (surname) (also sometimes spelled Röther) *Rother District, a local government district in East Sussex, England *Rother FM, an independent local radio station for Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England *Rother Kup ...

Activities

Bedgebury Forest is open to the public and provides facilities for cycling, mountain biking, riding, orienteering and adventure play. The network of paths and tracks that run through the forest provide opportunities for walking and running. Track through Bedgebury Forest - geograph

Track through Bedgebury Forest - geograph

Cycling

There are of surfaced cycle track and of single-track mountain-bike routes, and a "free-ride" area has been set up that allows riders to perform jumps and stunts. The Visitor Centre provides cycles for hire. In 2006 Bedgebury Forest Cycling Club was set up.

Running and orienteering

Bedgebury Forest has four orienteering routes of varying difficulty levels, designed by a British Orienteering Federation-affiliated group. The shortest is , the longest is , with maps provided by the Visitor Centre. Bedgebury Forest also hosts an annual

10 km 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

charity run.

Horseback Riding

There are dedicated way-marked horse-riding trails across the forest that link to existing bridlepaths, creating a network of horse-friendly routes. Riders must be in possession of a TROT permit.

Adventure play

Bedgebury Forest has a specially designed adventure play area incorporating trails, swings, climbing walls and other child play facilities. A

Go Ape Go Ape! is an outdoor adventure company which runs tree top ropes courses under the names Tree Top Challenge, Tree Top Adventure and Zip Trekking, as well as ground-based Forest Segway Safaris, at locations across the United Kingdom and the United ...

adventure course was installed in spring 2007.

References

External links

Forestry England's Bedgebury website
{{Goudhurst Forests and woodlands of Kent