Last Updated 4th May 2008

Spring definitely IS here: the wild violets are flowering and the first swallow has been spotted! Not exactly "summer" but it's still a great time to get out and about in the Forest.

LOOKING FOR "GO APE" THE ADVENTURE TREETOP CLIMBING EXPERIENCE AT ALICE HOLT VISITOR CENTRE? >>> CLICK HERE

SEE SPRING EVENTS AT ALICE HOLT VISITOR CENTRE>>>CLICK HERE & FOLLOW THE LINK TO "FOREST DIARY"

Looking for somewhere to eat with the family? Click here for our NEW PUB GUIDE

Welcome to the Alice Holt Forest Website

We started this website one evening around a year ago in a mad rush in order to update people concerned about the campsite planning application. We decided to keep the site going. Partly as a noticeboard to inform the public about other future threats to the Forest but also to act as a general forum for everyone who knows and loves this unique place. The site has just celebrated it's first birthday, with over 15,000 visits so far, from as far away as Argentina, Botswana and even the Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis! Thanks to all our visitors and e-mail correspondents.

We are building up a collection of interesting articles about the Forest, it's history, ecology, wildlife and points of interest. We would like to receive any contributions you may have. No matter how long or short;serious or lighthearted. Nature sightings, recollections of the Forest in past times, interesting facts, events and notices, pictures, poems,scholarly treatises or kids' stuff...please use the contact us link or put it in the "Snail mail". Go to Contact us details

 

DOG WALKING IN ALICE HOLT >>Click here

OSCAR THE JACK RUSSELL RETURNS!

"Oscar" a black, white and tan Jack Russell terrier went missing on Thursday 10th April in the Lodge Inclosure.

Luckily someone from the Forestry Commission caught him and reported this to the Dog Warden. So all's well and the yapping terror of the Lodge Inclosure is back ! Thanks to his anonymous rescuer.

But BEWARE...there are reports of DOG THEIVES operating in the Forest. Especially a couple where the woman engages people in conversation while a man with a goatee beard nicks their dog. Contact info@aliceholt.org or call the Police if you see anything suspicious.

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MISSING ARCHIE
Lemon and white Cocker Spaniel,14 months dog - Archie was snatched from his farm in Arlesford near Winchester,Hants on the 24th April. Archie is big for a Cocker. Please look out for this dog appearing in your area.


Call 01420 563831

1000's of dogs are lost each year. Register your dog with www.doglost.co.uk today!

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Off to the Arctic with Huskies ...all for charity

SPONSOR JO & PETER IN AID OF BATTERSEA DOGS HOME

CONTENTS

Welcome

About This Website

Go Ape Now Open for 2008 Season. Get Directions

NEW! Our guide to the best local pubs . Great places to take the family for lunch. Or enjoy the long evenings over a pint of real ale.

Dog Walking in Alice Holt, Sponored Husky Sledding and Dog Photo Winners

News! South Downs National Park Proposal: Binsted & Alice Holt Excluded

Photo Gallery: More New Photos

History Features:

Alice Holt in Old Maps

Alice Holt in the Roman Period: the Alice Holt & Farnham Potteries

Want to Contribute to this Site?

Nature News:

Feature of the Month : Is it Spring or Winter?

Twitchers' Corner (Rarity List)

Forest News & Diary of Events:

Report of the latest meeting between local groups and Forest Enterprise

Mowing & Grading of Rides: Find out why it's happened and what's the impact

South Downs National Park: Binsted & Alice Holt Excluded

Diary of Events:

See what's on over the Spring at Alice Holt Visitor Centre, Plus other local events

About Alice Holt Forest

The Alice Holt Action Group

Other Organisations & Useful Links

Contacting Us

Trek Peru Challenge

In aid of St Luke's Cancer Fund

St Luke's is based at the Royal County Hosital ,Guildford and it at the forefront of treating and caring for people with cancer in Surrey, Hampshire & Sussex

Kate Fordham will be taking part in the Trek Peru Challenge , walking the ancient Inca way in October, hoping to raise £3000 for St.Lukes. Kate will be joining her mum ,who's already done a Trk China funraiser for St Luke's ,who treated her for breast cancer

You can help by donating at Kate's Justgiving.com site or by taking part in her Auctio of Promises on 7th June. Contact Kate directly on 07855 358971 or Kate's email

New Feature!

Alice Holt Forest in Old County

Maps of Hampshire

See how Alice Holt mysteriously disappeared off the county maps of Hampshire between 1575 and 1759 Click here

New Feature!

Alice Holt Forest in Roman Times

the History of the Alice Holt & Farnham Potteries

See how Alice Holt was, for four hundred years a thriving industrial centre, manufacturing pottery on a vast scale for the citizens of Roman Britannia Click here

Latest "Springwatch" Signs (23rd April)

The Horse Chestnut (Aesulus hippocastanum) is pretty much in full leaf and the "candle" like flowers are just coming out. Traditionally the first Sunday in May is when Horse Chestnuts look their best. See the article opposite about a new disease which is sadly affecting many "Conker" trees.

There are absolutely masses of wild Violets on the Forest floor, including a large patch of white ones in the Lodge Inclosure.I Thought these were Sweet Violets, but they're the unscented Common Dog Violet (Viola riviniana)

Badgers (Meles meles) are now very active in their sett in the Old Arboretum. Lokk for scratching on the tree trunks and places where they've used their stout claws to rip up moss and rotten wood in search of worms and beetles.

The tiny Pipistrelle Bats (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) are flying regularly every evening now.

Coots (Fulica atra) on Bentley Pond have already reared young which are to be seen swimming after mother with their distincive red heads.

Brimstone butterflies (Gonepteryx rhamni) were out in the sunshine on Sunday (20th April) having woken up from hibernation to look for nectar. Once mated, the female will lay eggs on buckthorn. And the pretty little Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines) was flying on 3rd May, looking for the Cuckoo Flower on which it lays its eggs

The first Blackcaps (Sylvia atricapella) arrived on the 22nd April and are now singing in thickets all over the wood. And about a week later the scratchy little song of the Whitethroat (Sylvia communis:RIGHT) was to be heard in the dry prickly scrub it favours

Two of our most symbolic birds: veritable icons of the headlong rush from Spring to full summer: a Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) was heard on Saturday (19th April) although I've not heard it since. And Saturday 19th was also the day I saw my first Swallow (Hirundo rustica) over the River Wey meadows at Anstey Bridge. Apparently last year they arrived in Binsted on April 8th

Bud burst of Oak is a classic springwatch sign. www.naturescalendar.org shows the Sessile Oak (Quercus petrea) is much earlier, the first ones breaking bud on the South Coast in mid February. Alice Holts Pedunculate (or Common) Oaks (Quercus robur) are just breaking bud now, some three weeksafter the first nationally recorded ones in the Thames Valley (15th Feb).

>>>Visit www.naturescalendar.org.uk to see dynamic maps of Spring's progress across the UK

Amphibians must hate this weather, but some are already up and about. Common Toads (Bufo bufo) are waking up from their hibernation under old logs etc and wandering steadily in the direction of their favourite breeding ponds. Frogs are more aquatic than toads and hibernate among the rotting vegetation under water, breathing through their skins. On recent milder nights I've heard them making their breeding croaks in my pond. These are native Common Frogs (Rana temporaria) it's a gentle croak and hard to hear as this frog has no "bullfrog" type vocal sacs. It's quite a contrast to the catterwauling racket set up by the various introduced species such as the Marsh Frog, Edible Frog and American Bullfrog. Newts are awake among the weeds in local ponds and their tadpoles have almost morphed into young adults. I was delighted to find the males I found in my own pond are the uncommon Palmate Newt (Triturus helveticus). This species has an unspotted pinkish throat and the male's breeding crest is straighter and much less prominent than either the Common or the Great Crested Newt.

Reptiles are true hibernators, but even a few Common Lizards (Lacerta (or sometimes called Zootoca) viviparia) have come forth on the warmer days. It's latin name viviparia refers to the fact it hatches it's eggs internally, giving birth to live young rather than laying eggs.

Coming Soon to a Forest Near You...

Look out for the large and beautiful Painted Lady butterfly (Vanesa cardui). It's very variable in numbers as it spends the winter in North Africa, on the fringes of the Sahara Desert. From there it migrates in waves accross Europe, each wave of migrants settling down to breed, with their offspring forming the next wave a month or two later. Painted Ladies are arriving on the south coast of England, having flown up to 600 miles in a day and more will arrive until June, by which time the next generation will be moving on northwards, even reaching the Arctic. If you see one record it on Butterfly Conservation's site: they're making a special study of migration and population dynamics.

Bird of The Month:

The Chiffchaff, Spring's harbinger in Alice Holt Forest

Picture: Margaret Barton/Woodland Trust Nature's Detectives

The chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) apparently lives by the maxim that birds, unlike children "should be heard and not seen". But heard they certainly are, and all over Britain they herald the arrival of spring as one of our very earliest migrant birds.

Yesterday (22nd March) I took a walk through the Lodge Inclosure, enjoying the alternate sunshine and flurries of hail and snow. Wondering whether spring was really coming or winter was re-asserting its icy grip, I thought to myself that you can't really say spring has started until you hear the first chiffchaff. I listened to the various peeps, trills and warbles but nothing that sounded like a chiffchaff was apparent. Then this morning, on Easter Day I awoke to a heavy blizzard of snow and , lo and behold! there was not one but three little voices ringing out, clear as a bell from the Forest canopy. The song (or rather "call") is unmistakable . It's.... well, as you might have guessed..."Chiff...chaff" . If that's not descriptive enough listen to this .wav sound file and you'll instantly know the call when you hear it.

>>Chiffchaff call (requires Windows Media Player)

Having heard that you'll see why this bird could hardly be called anything else. Even the Dutch call it "Tjiftjaf" and the Germans christened it "Zilpzalp"

The photo above is one of the best I've seen, because the chiffchaff is very small and quite an insignificant little bird. Both sexes are dullish greeny brown and hop about in the branches and undergrowth . They're not especially shy, just difficult to see clearly except when they venture out onto an exposed twig or flutter into the air to snap up a passing gnat. Now's a good time to look for them. Before long the leaves will come out and camouflage them so effectively that you'll be driven nuts by the number you hear but cannot get a decent look at. They are also notoriously similar to the willow warbler; so similar in fact that it takes an expert examination in the hand to spot the differences in appearance. But that's nothing to worry about. If it's a chiffchaff it will say...you guessed it "Chiff-chaff" . And if it's a willow warbler it'll say something else altogether!

The chiffchaff is always one of spring's first migrants. To be fair there are a few (500 to 1,000 or so individuals in most years) who stay in Britain year-round , mainly in the mild South. But the vast majority of Britain's chiffchaffs will have spent the winter in South West Europe or North Africa. So although you might hear a "resident", the overwhelming chances are that it's one of the fourty million or so of these little birds that invade the deciduous woodlands of Northern Europe each spring to set up territories, take advantage of the emerging spiders, caterpillars and other goodies and get on with raising their broods.

That's why I chose a Woodland Trust picture, as the chiffchaff is one of their key indicator species for Springwatchers (or "Phenologists" to give this science it's proper name). Please do help them continue their excellent work of collecting data on Spring phenomena in order to establish just what impact Global warming is having on our wildlife. Follow the link to their naturescalendar.org website to record your Spring sigtings.

The exquisite , and sadly declining BULLFINCH (Pyrrhula pyrrhula FEMALE left, being "courtship fed" by a devoted MALE right) is a retiring finch which travels quietly around the blackthorn bushes in pairs, softly whistling to each other as they feed on the tight little flower buds.

SPARROWHAWKS (Accipeter nisus) do indeed live primarily by hunting songbirds and they are increasingly common. But with still only some 40,000 pairs in the UK its hard to see quite how they have been responsible for the elimination of literally tens of millions of once common songbirds as some armchair "experts" would have us believe. Habitat loss , farm herbicides and winter ploughing are more plausible culprits. But maybe Terry Wogan, the Editor of Shooting Times and their ilk know best and we should trap and shoot these beautiful hawks just in case!

The earliest unfurlings of HAWTHORN (Crataegis monogyna) shot on February 10th, and (Right) the same bushes on March 22nd with the "bread and cheese" soft green leaves, tasty to both man and beast fully open. Now the blossom is out. It's such a feature of this time of year it's simply called "May blossom"

The familiar "PUSSY WILLOW", GOAT WILLOW or SALLOW (Salix sp) There are two main kinds Salix caprea, the true Goat Willow and Salix Cinerea the Great Sallow. I must confess I'm not sure which one this is! The left picture shows the female catkin and the right the emerging male catkins which will soon open up to show the pollen-producing yellow stamens

The YEW (Taxus baccata) often has a strangley yellowish ,washed-out look about now, instead of its usual dark, glossy-green foliage. The masses of little pollen-bearing male flowers (Left) are the cause. The European LARCH (Larix decidua, Right) has just started showing fresh new needles to replace those which fell in Autumn

Beauty and the beast: the delicate "Wind Flowers" of the WOOD ANENOME (Anenome nemorosa-left) and (Right) the large and rather sinister green flowers of the STINKING HELLEBORE (Helleborus foetidus) both survive where coniferisation has not done too much damage to the ground flora of Alice Holt

Fighting male BROWN HARES (Lepus europaeus) and a wing-whirring Cock PHEASANT (Phasianus colchicus)

WOOD PIGEONS (Columba palumbus) love the black, bitter berries of IVY (Hedera helix) as a source of winter food. But come the spring, they spend a lot of time on the ground looking for tasty new green weeds to crop.

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NATURE NEWS

Spring Proper is Here at Last!

"When the time is ripe for certain things,
these things appear in different places in the manner
of violets coming to light in the early spring"

Farkas Bolyai, Hungarian Mathematician (1775-1856)

Feature Of The Month:

The Roman potters who worked in Alice Holt would have dedicated the first month to Janus. This god of the New Year was depicted with two faces: one looking forward to the New Year and one on the back of his head reviewing the year past.

 

 

Somehow I feel he's more appropriate to March than January. A veritable tug-of-war always seems to happen at this time of year between the onward progress of spring and the retrograde grip of winter. As the background temperatures steadily creep up, and the days lengthen past the Equinox, Arctic blasts do battle with the billowing warm air masses coming up from the sub-tropical Atlantic. The clash of the two often , as now results in turbulent periods of low pressure as the rival air masses swirl about one another, setting off gales, thundery showers and downpours of hail.

But snow in April? Proper white snow-flaky stuff? Surely this makes the whole Global Warming thing look suspect? On the contrary, as the planet warms there is more energy in the atmosphere and the oceans that needs to be dissipated. And storms are exactly that, the Earth's way of transferring energy from the warmer to colder latitudes and dissipating it in howling winds, rain, hail thunder and...yes...even snow.

Think "Global Warming = Global Disturbance": not just warmer summers but more extreme weather of all kinds. Remember that "climate" is by definition the long term trend of the weather (the average over fourty years to be precise). There will always be little ups and downs which go against the overall trend in the short term. Hence the importance of accurate and consistent data. One of the best ways you can help (Other than lagging your loft, switching the TV off, foregoing the occasional long haul flight etc etc!) is to help scientists track what's really happening to our wildlife as Global warming gathers pace. Go to the Woodland Trust's excellent website naturescalendar.org and record some of the key indicator events as you observe them. The data collected by amateurs and members of the public everywhere is hugely useful , and looking out for frogspawn, bumble bees or chiffchaffs (see feature opposite) is hugely rewarding too!

 

 

Whatever the day-to-day conditions much of the wild life seems to carry on regardless. All around the signs of new spring growth are there if you look. In some places the snowy white blossoms of the Blackthorn or Sloe are faded and giving way to the leaves, while in colder, frosty hollows the flower buds are barely breaking, and still provide food for the beautiful Bullfinch. Pairs of these exquisite birds move quietly from hedge to bush and back again, easy to approach if you're quiet, but soon off if you make a noise.The male is quite a sight with his black bonnet, grey-blue back and bright pink chest. The female, who's never far away from her partner is best spotted by her prominent white rump which flashes as she flies and draws attention to her otherwise under-stated brown plumage. They love the little buds of blackthorn and it's domestic cousins such as plums and damsons. For this reason it was widely shot in fruit growing areas.

Alas, as with so many familiar birds of our countryside, the bullfinch is suffering a sharp decline in number. Around half of the population or some 350,000 birds were lost in the late 80's and early 90's and the picture does not seem to be improving. Studies have discounted the myth, beloved of such "all this greenie stuff is nonesense" luminaries as Sir Terry Wogan that it's all the fault of magpies and sparrowhawks. Rather the finger points more towards loss of the unkempt, overgrown blackthorn hedges it so loves and the reduced supply of the weed seeds it relies on in winter due to winter ploughing and the treatment of set aside or field margins with more and more herbicides.

Sparrowhawks are indeed on the up and up , population-wise, especially in urban and suburban areas. They're suprisingly few and far between in Alice Holt, although I did spot a lovely male "dashing" down a ride the other day. Compact and powerful in form, the Sparrowhawk hunts by a combination of stealth and speed. It patrols hedges or perches patiently in a tree and then in a flash launches a surprise assault on small birds such as tits or even tackles those as large as thrushes and blackbirds.

Hazel is developing rapidly. The "lambs' tails" have more-or-less done their stuff of polinating the tiny female flowers, and are fading to brown and falling, as the buds begin to unfurl. Hawthorn too is coming on with the soft green leaves now fully unfurled

Larger trees are still bare, but some show signs of spring growth. The Sallows or Goat Willows (I'm never sure which one's are Salix caprea and which are the larger Grey Sallow S.cinerea) now have the classic "Pussy Willow" catkins with their silky white coating as well as the larger female catkins.

Another tree that's been displaying curious flowers recently are the male Yew trees, which look strangely washed out until you realise it's the yellowy ting of thousands of little pollen-bearing flowers. They're technically a conifer, and the Larch , our ownly common deciduous conifer is just showing it's first flush of delicate new needles.

On the ground there are more flowers out than last month. As well as the really early ones like the Lesser Celandine, there are some spring favourites like this Primrose I snapped that on Easter Saturday, flowering without a care in the world from among drifts of snow and hailstones.

Primroses are one of our most joyful spring flowers, beloved of the Victorians, Queen V herself brought posies of primroses to Disraeli's funeral on 19th April 1881, thereafter called Primrose Day. It's a perennial with deep fleshy roots. It's crinkly green leaves may survive the winter, of may spring up anew after being killed off by cold, damp weather. Individual specimens live in the wild for up to 25 years, but it also seeds freely, and often comes up quite densely wherever there's been some disturbance, such as felling of trees or clearace of ditches. There are two forms, one with the sexual organs of the flower protruding through the "corona" of petals, and the other where the stamens and stigma are hidden inside the central tunnel of the flower. All the ones I've seen in Alice Holt are the latter type, although both kinds do occur together as on the downs above Guildford.

Alice Holt's ground flora is not what it once would have been. Large-scale conifer growing over several decades has depleted much of the Forest of the characteristic flowers of native oak-ash woodlands. However ,the fact that it's Ancient Woddland ,where the conifers are grown on land that's pretty much always been covered in trees of one kind or anorther means that some of the delightful Spring flowers have survived and even thrived in patches of the Forest where conditions are right. So on the dry land under the old beech hedges of the Abbott's Wood and Willow Green Inclosures, you'll find little patches of Wood Anenome flowering now. And in damp clayey paths under the oaks of the Lodge Inclosure, the strange Stinking Hellebore is coming into flower: quite a distinctive sight as it's green flowers open.

Easter, of course is associated with eggs and bunnies. The pagan Anglo-Saxons worshipped Eostre, goddess of the spring, dawn, new life and beginnings. She lent her older Spring festival to the Christians. Her 'familiars' were the egg, which became the Christian symbol of new life and resurrection and the Hare. The latter, a symbol of riotous fecundity which transmuted into the Easter "bunny" was once actually beleived to lay eggs, rather than bear live young.

 

 

Hares are surprisingly common in woodlands, although I've not seen one in the Forest proper. To see "Mad March" hares performing their territorial races and boxing matches, keep a sharp look out in the open fields around Binsted, or on the chalk ridge behind Bentley ,towards Crondall and Long Sutton.

On the egg front, some birds are laying already: the Rooks at Bentley Station started gathering sticks to patch up their nests soon after Christmas. Herons too breed early: unfortunately one is feeding up by shamelessly visiting my pond and helping itself to the rudd and carp!

Wood Pigeons are also early breeders, generally laying two white eggs on their rudimentary nest: a seemingly inadequate bed of sticks ,often balanced only only a few feet up in a hawthorn bush. The huge flocks that go crop raiding in Autumn and Winter have broken up , and pairs of these hefty birds are to be found crashing about in the lower tree branches and feeding voraciously in the fields. They are after the freshly sprung greenstuff such as chickweed and shepherd's purse, which makes a change from their late winter staple of Ivy berries. I'm told pigeons shot late in winter have a strong and rather unpleasant taste due to the amount of these berries they consume. Other birds laregely avoid them ,turning to them as a source of food only in hard weather.

The Pheasant is not breeding yet, but they are courting. The male progressively rounds up as many hens as he can, repeatedly calling and whirring his wings to remind them who's boss, and having small scraps with any other cock who ignores the wing-whirring and comes too close.

>>Hear the Cock Pheasant's call and "Wing-whirr" (Windows Media Player needed)

Yet while all this nesting activity is getting underway, we're still playing host to some winter migrants, especially the large flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares who roam the countryside, waiting for the time to head North back to their summer breeding grounds in Scandinavia and Russia.

 

This Janus-like counterposition of Spring and Winter reminds us that our seasons are not discrete events. Spring is more like a continuous process of changes in the birds, plants and animals that starts as soon as midwinter arrives and progresses by degrees until the last frost of gone and the 'Dog Days' of Summer are here.

 

Keep your eyes and ears open for each sign as it arrives and , if you want to compare notes with other springwatchers, go to the Nature's Calendar section of the Woodland Trust website

 

 

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"Twitchers' Corner" Rarity Bird List ( PLEASE CONTRIBUTE ANYTHING SPECIAL YOU'VE SEEN!)

No new rarities spotted this month, although the little egret has been putting in regular appearances along the river wey and up at Wrecclesham. I wonder if there is a breeding pair?

March : Red kite

April: Golden pheasant

May: Little egret

June: Little egret

December: Little Egrets again in River Wey

Do drop us an e-mail if you've spotted any rarities

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ABOUT ALICE HOLT FOREST

Alice Holt Forest lies between Farham in West Surrey and Alton in North East Hampshire.Today's Forest probably originated as trees gradually colonised this part of southern Britain after the last Ice Age (around 7000 years ago) Oak eventually emerged as the main tree species. Man has dwelt in the forest precincts from Lower Palaeolithic ("Old Stone age") times. The Romans used the local clay for large scale production of pottery in kilns fired by the abundant wood, but this sloping ground with wet clay below and stony gravels on the higher tops has never been attractive for farming, helping to keep the site largely wooded . During the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval periods the area was preserved for hunting by, among others the Bishops of Winchester, later passing to the King and becoming a Royal Forest. The woods have been managed by man for centuries and in the 18th Century provided oak for the Navy. The Forest was "enclosed" in 1812, taking away many of the rights of the local "commoners". Conifers were introduced to the Forest in the latter part of the 19th Century and there are many fine mature specimens. Alice Holt Forest was acquired by the Forestry Commission in 1924, and a Research Station set up there in 1946. In common with so many ancient Forests under the Forestry Commission's management, more and more became given over to conifers in the post-War drive for State-subsidised timber production. The Commission and their commercial arm Forest Enterprise have however maintained a good mix of conifers and broadleaved trees within which blocks are periodically felled and replanted. Pressure to find alternative income and to exploit the recreational potential of the woods has led to an increasing provision of organised family leisure facilities (Including soon-to-open restaurant and "Go Ape" adventure) at the Visitor Centre near Dockenfield . However the rest of Forest retains much of its peace and charm. It is accessible to visitors on foot, cycle and horseback and is a haven for a huge variety of wildlife including important rarities and nationally threatened species such as dormice, hobbies, nightjars and purple emperor butterflies. It is designated as a Site of Interest for Nature Conservation (SINC), close to the planned South Downs National Park (Into which many people hoped it could be incorporated) and adjacent to the Bentley Station Meadow, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

As this short history of Alice Holt Forest shows, the woodland is not just any woodland but a historic 'Ancient Woodland'. If you're thinking "..but how is a Forestry Commission pine plantation 'Ancient' woodland?"....well Ancient Woodlands is defined as

"... land continuously wooded since 1600AD..... that is able to support more threatened species than any other UK habitat. The unique species interactions that occur within ancient woodlands have developed over hundreds of years ..... These eco-systems cannot be re-created and with only just over 2% of the land area in Great Britain remaining preserving the remaining areas is vital." (Source: Woodland Trust)

.....was formed to fight a the threat some years ago that a "Center Parcs"-style holiday camp might be built in the Forest. The Group continues to be the most active and authoritative group monitoring planning proposals that affect the Forest. This website is independent from AHAG but we fully support their aims.

  Contact Chairman, Colin Hall at CHall3422@AOL.com

Other oganisations concerned with conserving ancient woodlands such as Alice Holt

The Woodland Trust is the UK's foremost charity devoted to the conservation of native and broadleaved woodland.

      >>Visit the Woodland Trust's website

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust is the County wildlife trust owning and managing many important sites and campaigning folr protection for important and threatened habitats such as Langstone Harbour.

      >>Visit HIOW Wildlife Trust's website

Other Useful Links

Official Forestry Commission Site (Main Home Page)

Official Forestry Commission Site (Alice Holt Section)

Bentley & Binsted's shared parish website

Frensham Parish website

Hampshire & IOW Butterfly Conservation

has a good website with in-depth feature on the Bentley Station Meadow nature reserve

Headley Village website

Headley Society

www.woolmerforest.org.uk

interesting site run by Woolmer Forest Heritage Society full of historical info about Alice Holt's "near neighbour" Royal Forest

Froyle Village website

Download site for Walks in Hampshire

Excellent site about the River Wey, it's history, wildlife, places of interest etc

Stubbs Farm , tranquil local accommodation

Dragon Lodge , self catering iaccommodation at the distinctive Dragon House, Frensham

Mike Young's New Site More brilliant photos from local wildlife photographer

Sharon Young's Website featuring the work of this local artist

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CONTACTING US 

By Email: info@aliceholt.org

We would be DELIGHTED to get more comments, opinions, feedback and so on about our website! We'll do our best to answer if you ask for as response, and to pass on your e-mails to other people where relevant. But please bear with us as we're normal people with jobs and families too!

IMPORTANT: If your communication is of a sensitive nature, please make plain if YOU WANT COMMENTS TO BE TREATED IN STRICT CONFIDENCE or if you WANT YOUR COMMENTS TO BE PUBLICISED ANONYMOUSLY. We will of course respect that.

Your e-mail address or other contact details will be ONLY be used by us to contact you about issues directly related to Alice Holt Forest.
If you prefer not to be contacted at all, please say so.

Contacting us by Post

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