Stapleford Woods, Newark

A Meet up with Family

Not having seen our daughter and her partner since before the Covid Lockdown started and now that restrictions are being eased we arranged a meet up between our two homes.  A good option seemed to be Stapleford Woods, near Newark, although just in Lincolnshire.  The woods are managed by Forestry England and according to the website there was parking.

We both managed to leave late, but eventually met up in the car park at 1.30 and I was well ready for lunch.  When we arrived, Beth and Alejandro had their chairs and table set up with their picnic ready to go.  We very quickly organised our selves and were soon enjoying a socially distanced lunch.  It was really good to be with them again after such a long time, although, to be fair, we are used to them living in Seville and only seeing them a couple of times a year.  Still good, however.

Having enjoyed a relaxed lunch it was eventually time for a walk.  The woods are an area of ancient woodland and forest.  The woodland boundary marks the county boundary between Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.  It has had a chequered history being clear felled after the 1st World War and bought by the Forestry Commission in 1950 and planted with scots and corsican pine.  Now a managed working forest under the care of the Forestry Commission, surveys in 2004 found that the wood dated back at least 400 years, making it a designated ancient woodland.  The Forestry Commission and North Kestevan council have agreed to a 50 year plan to restore the forest to its original broad-leaf tree state.

We originally set out to walk the 0.7 mile walking trail, but as there is a plethora of tracks and trails we went off piste and must have covered around 3 miles.  We found the wood to be very attractive with a mixture of regimented pines and broad-leaved species, mainly silver birch.

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Vapourer Moth caterpillar