4. Chase Wood

 
Chase Wood Bluebells by Stephen Falk

The Wildwood! This ancient woodland is recorded back to medieval times and has been managed and replanted with sessile oak trees over the centuries; most are over 100 years old.  It is edged by a boundary of holly and coppiced hazel hedging to prevent theft and once held boar, deer, and later sheep, within. Today the woodland is managed for game.

This medieval “woodbank” with a ditch below the level of the raised road, is one of the best examples in Warwickshire. If you are lucky enough to pass in April and May, carpets of bluebells greet you. Even earlier in the year, there’s wood anemone, the frothy white blackthorn blossom (and in autumn, sloes and bullace) at the road edges.

Onward Directions

When you reach the end of the woodland at the Crossroads, walk 50 metres ahead to catch a glimpse of Warrior Lodge Farm on the right.