Ancient Woods – Totty Spring, Seckar Wood, Newmillar Dam Woods and Haw Park Wood

On the 1st of May 2023, I headed out along Woolley Edge to find a place to paint, plein air, one of the Ancient Woodlands in the Wakefield District. In fact, I found a good place to paint 4. I took a 40cm x 20cm cradled wooden panel to paint on. I wanted to keep the 1×2 format I’d previously used for Boundary No Boundary.

Ancient Woodland is defined as an area that has been wooded continuously since 1600 AD. It is sub-divided into ancient semi-natural woodland and plantations on ancient woodland sites. Ancient Woodland is particularly valuable for its biodiversity because of its longevity and is identified in the Wakefield District Biodiversity Action Plan. Once lost Ancient Woodland cannot be recreated.

There are 21 areas of Ancient Woodland in the Wakefield District.

Unfortunately, the link to the website with this information doesn’t work anymore.

Natural England has developed an Ancient Woodland Inventory for England, which is available as a national database. However, only sites over 2 hectares are shown on this inventory. In Wakefield District, all known Ancient Woodlands have been designated for protection regardless of their site area.

Natural England’s inventory can be found here – https://naturalengland-defra.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/a14064ca50e242c4a92d020764a6d9df_0/explore?location=53.618685%2C-1.526953%2C12.72

And here is the painting.

Acrylic on panel – 40cm x 20cm

UPDATE – 9th December 2024

The link to the Wakefield Council website doesn’t work anymore and I believe the Natural England site has been updated.

These are the current ancient woods in the Wakefield District

1	Bank Wood	SE 26152 13858	To the right of the road to Emley Moor
2	Bentley Spring	SE 27081 13615	Denby Dale Road – just passed Bretton Roundabout
3	Sun Wood	SE 27225 15974	Coxley bank and Stoney Cliff Wood – Netherton
4	Bullcliff North Wood	SE 28344 15269	Between Denby Dale Road and Netherton
5	Kaye Spring	SE 29182 15386	Bullcliff Wood
6	Windhill Wood	SE 31356 11358	Near Woolley Grange, Darton
7	Jobson Wood	SE 31086 12616	Woolley Edge lane
8	Woolley Edge	SE 30966 14057
9	Gate Royd Wood	SE 29952 14235	Woolley Edge Services	Private
10	Totty Spring	SE 31731 14356	Gallows Lane, Woolley Edge
11	Kings/Bushcliff Wood	SE 32814 14329	Seckar Wood and Newmillerdam
12	Notton Park	SE 34069 11516	Notton Wood Nature reserve
13	Haw Park	SE 36401 15075	Winterset
14	Low Wood	SE 35588 20585	Kirkthorpe Lane
15	Priory Wood	SE 40212 18288	Nostell Priory	Private
16	Ackton Pasture Wood	SE 41557 23734	Normanton	Half private
17	(woods near Hoyle Mill Dam)	SE 43248 14602	Hemsworth	Private
18	(Hagg Wood)	SE 43580 14399	Pontefract Road, Hemsworth
19	Jenkin Wood	SE 29264 14536	South of Bullcliff wood	private
20	Dial Wood	SE 25761 15707	New Hall Prison	Notton Wood Nature Reserve
21		SE 49607 17308	Wentbridge