Oaken Wood
| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
 | |
Location of Oaken Wood. | |
| Area of search | Kent |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | TQ 701 548[1] |
| Interest | Geological |
| Area | 18.7 hectares (46 acres)[1] |
| Notification date | 1985[1] |
| Location map | Magic Map |
Oaken Wood is a 18.7-hectare (46-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Maidstone in Kent.[1][2] It is a Geological Conservation Review site.[3]
Known locally as "Barming Wood" due to the village of Barming being the closest settlement to Oaken Woods,[4] it is an ancient woodland with orchids, dormice, tawny owls, nightingales and many species of bat (alongside various other species).[5]
This site provides the best example of a very unusual topography, with cracking and tilting of underlying weaker strata during the Pleistocene by periglacial processes producing crests and troughs in the surface rocks.[6]
A public footpath crosses the site.
In 2013, plans to uproot parts or all of Oaken Wood for a ragstone quarry were met with controversy due to its environmental importance (with various different species residing there) and its possibility in setting a legal precedent for up to 300 other ancient woodlands in the UK.[7]
The most current threat Oaken Wood faces is the proposed expansion of Hermitage Quarry (Gallagher Aggregates Ltd). Along with the 32 hectares lost by a previous expansion in 2013, “The loss of ancient woodland … could be greater than the losses from HS2 and the Lower Thames Crossing combined". (The Woodland Trust). [8]
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Designated Sites View: Oaken Wood". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ↑ "Map of Oaken Wood". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ↑ "Oaken Wood (Quaternary of South-East England)". Geological Conservation Review. Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Archived from the original on 12 January 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
- ↑ "Barming Woods/Oaken Wood". BusinessYab. 2020-04-24. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
- ↑ Turner, Camilla (2015-03-27). "Ancient woods face gravest threat for decades, Woodland Trust warns". the telegraph. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
- ↑ "Oaken Wood citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ↑ Boffey, Daniel (2013-09-22). "Oaken Wood in Kent to be uprooted as quarry plan gets go ahead". the guardian. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
- ↑ "Save Oaken Wood". Friends of Oaken Wood. 2026-07-17. Retrieved 2026-07-18.
