Hanging Wood

1 The whole of this wood of 8ha overlies large and possibly Medieval ridge and furrow so it is clearly a secondary wood. There is a large holloway within the wood along its south west edge. A woodbank divides the wood into two more or less equal portions, although the two portions have been united for at least a century (large-scale OS maps, WCRO). The two portions of the wood were formerly called Hadley Kings Coppice and Arinley Coppice but had been amalgamated (and included a small former garden) by 1885, when the entire wood was called Arinley Coppice.

The presence of a large stool of small-leaved lime Tilia cordata on the north-eastern edge and two service trees Sorbus torminalis at other points on the periphery, both species largely confined to ancient woods or woodland relict hedges, suggests that the wood may have colonised inwards from relict hedges when the arable was abandoned at an unknown date. The wood has many ground vegetation species which suggest it is ancient; much of the wood is on clay, which also partly explains its relatively rich flora.