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Cages Wood Project

Towards the end of 2019 Whepstead Wildlife Group undertook a major, long term project, to help to restore a small ancient woodland which had been degraded by deer. With the help of grants from Suffolk County Council, The Woodland Trust and St Edmundsbury District Council the wood has now been fully fenced and we are now starting to manage the woodland.

Cages Wood is a designated County Wildlife Site consisting of a broadleaved ancient semi-natural woodland of just under 3 hectares. The wood shows signs of being coppiced but probably not for over 70 years. The lower understorey has been largely lost due to very heavy deer grazing pressure, leaving virtually no shrub layer or signs of natural regeneration. The woodland floor is bare in places and is overstood by old ash and field maple coppice and oak standards, the latter being most prevalent in the northern half of the wood. Some of the ash stools are over 2 metres in diameter. Ash die back is evident and some of the ancient ash coppice stools are starting to collapse. The wood also contains some notable Wild crab trees, Midland hawthorn and a small group of Wild cherry on the eastern edge. In addition to common woodland flowers such as Bluebell, Herb bennet and Dogs mercury, there are also records for Oxlip, Goldilocks buttercup and Pendulous sedge. Work to exclude deer from the whole wood began late autumn 2019 using Heras fencing.

Photography by group members, with particular thanks to Dave Rushton for his on-going photographic work in Cages Wood.