OVERSLEY WOOD

It is well worth exploring this pocket of ancient woodland, swathed across a gently rolling south Warwickshire hillside. Throughout the seasons there is always something to catch the eye, from the profusion of bluebells in late spring to the feast of seasonal colours and amazing toadstools in autumn. In early summer the forest road is ringed with orchids, while winter displays the sculptural forms of trees and glimpses of deer.

Overlooking the valleys of the Rivers Arrow and Alne, the wood is to be found about one mile south of the centre of the historic Roman market town of Alcester.

Discover a hidden haven of native English wildlife and stroll amongst the plants and trees under a scenic canopy of some 230 acres of natural beauty. The lime, holly, wild cherry, oak and ash are all indigenous and would have been present here when most of England was covered in forest! Oversley Wood is fantastically rich with many unusual flowers and insects, and is home to a varied mammal and bird population.  

LINKS

History

Oversley Wood once formed the southern end of the old Forest of Arden, an area of north and west Warwickshire that remained heavily wooded long after the Romans arrived. The name Oversley is likely to be Saxon in origin, meaning Ofe’s settlement in a clearing of woodland, a ‘|ey’. The present wood formed the southern half of what was known as Oversley Park, later to be known as the Old Park. Oversley Wood was part of an estate belonging to the Abbot of Bordesley, but was let to the Boteler family, the owners of the main Oversley manor which they held directly from the crown. It was local Norman lord, Ralph le Boteler; founder of Alcester Abbey (a Benedictine monastery) who worked the land and paid his feudal dues to the Abbot for his tenancy of the wood. Ralph and family lived at the long gone Boteler’s Castle and in 1140 he described his Oversley estate as having fields, copses, vineyards, forests, parks, fishponds and meadows. Court records of 1320 refer to a ’park’. Landowners, as a sign of their high social status, created parks for hunting deer. These were surrounded by deer leaps; constructions that allowed deer to jump into but not out of the park. Archaeological evidence suggests that Oversley Park included the present day Oversley Wood and stretched almost down to Stratford Road at Durlip Hill; Durlip being a corruption of Deer Leap.

PLEASE NOTE - OVERSLEY WOOD IS MANAGED BY THE FORESTRY COMMISSION, PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT ACCESS.

There is no direct access from the A46, use the track starting in Trench Lane