Westridge Wood, Gloucestershire

Westridge Wood occupies most of the top and sides of a limestone ridge, Wotton Hill, a spur off the Cotswold escarpment just north of Wotton-under-Edge. From the town, the land rises by 500 feet, to the mile-long ridge, the sides of which curve round several little valleys and promontories so that the woodland here extends for over 4 miles. To the east, the ridge continues another 2 miles before merging with the main part of the escarpment.

The woodland is ancient in origin and contains plenty of mature trees, mainly beech, while other parts have ash, oak, field maple and hazel coppice plus some planted conifers, these on the flat ground of the ridge top. Westridge is large enough for several hours of walking, and like all the Cotswolds beechwoods is good for fungi and autumnal leaf colours.


One rare flower, found in just a few locations in the wood, is limestone woundwort, spreading from its formerly restricted site a short distance south, in Old London Road Nature Reserve.

Two historic sites within Westridge Wood are the Brackenbury Ditches, an Iron Age hill fort, and the Tyndale Monument, a 111 foot, square-based tower erected in 1866.

Access

Most of the bedrock beneath the flat land on the ridgetop is from the Salperton Limestone Formation, while the upper section of the slopes is formed of a narrow band of the Birdlip Limestone, below which is sandstone, the Brideport Sand. Access to the wood is from the south along Old London Road, from the north off Back Lane or from the west along the B4060 (Wotton Road); paths from these latter two routes are initially quite steep, climbing through the fields across the lower slopes before entering the trees.

The Wood

The main section of the Westridge Wood covers the central area of plateau, and is crossed by the east-west Big Ride, together with various lesser tracks and paths. The Cotswold Way traverses from south to north. The west end of the ride comes close to the hill fort, the Brackenbury Ditches, which consists of two concentric banks and furrows, enclosing a protected area of around 8 acres. To the north, the far end of the ridge is open grassland, the trees only around the rim. The land forms a promontory (Nibley Knoll) to the northwest, overlooking the Severn Vale, and here stands the Tyndale Monument, built to commemorate William Tyndale, famous for producing the first translation of the New Testament into English, in 1525. A spiral staircase, of 121 steps, allows people to climb to a viewing area at the top.