The King's Wood at Wyre

A gorgeous leafy walk around Kingswood and Buttonoak in Wyre Forest.

Distance 5 miles (8km)

Minimum time 2hrs 30min

Ascent/gradient 575ft (175m)

Level of difficulty Medium

Paths Woodland and field paths, 2 stiles (plus 4 on Walk 14)

Landscape Mostly broadleaved woodland, with some conifers

Suggested map aqua3 OS Explorer 218 Wyre Forest & Kidderminster

Start/finish SO 743784

Dog friendliness On lead in Longdon Orchard and on path to Kingswood

Parking Forestry Commission car park at Earnwood Copse, on south side of B4194, west of Buttonoak

Public toilets None on route

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Directions
Background
Information

1 Walk through a gate on to a forest road and immediately turn right on a footpath (no signpost or waymarker) into Earnwood Copse. Keep straight on at all junctions, eventually joining a sunken path not far from the edge of the forest. If you shortly pass under an overhanging yew tree you will know that you're on the right path (not that you're likely to go wrong, but forestry operations can sometimes bring about slight changes to the path network).

2 The path descends to meet what looks like a firebreak but is actually the route of the Elan Valley pipeline, bringing Welsh water to Birmingham. Turn right here and cross a footbridge on the edge of the forest, to the right of the pipeline. Walk up a bank into arable fields and then follow a waymarked field-edge footpath uphill. When you reach the top, go through a hedge gap and turn left towards the hamlet of Kingswood.

3 Soon after passing a sensitively restored timber-framed cottage (Manor Holding), you come to a T-junction at the edge of the forest. Go a few paces to the left towards Kingswood Farm and then you'll see a track that swings right to enter the forest. Keep straight on at all junctions, walking through Brand Wood.

4 You'll soon reach Dowles Brook. Don't cross, but turn left on a bridleway that runs beside it. Follow the bridleway for 1¼ miles (2km), with Wimperhill Wood on your left.

5 Turn left on another bridleway, which first passes through a marshy area, then climbs through scrub and young woodland. It's waymarked and easily followed. After crossing a forest road, go straight on, but turn right at the next waymarked junction before swinging left to resume your original heading. After crossing a stream, the bridleway turns right as it climbs above the rim of a steep valley.

6 Turn sharp left (still on the bridleway) through a gap between two fenced areas, where birch and other natives are regenerating fast following clear felling of the conifers that grew here. You're approaching Longdon Orchard now, a conservation area where your dog must be under strict control. At the next junction go left, into conifers, then soon turn right.

7 Turn right when you meet the Elan Valley pipeline again, then very soon left, still on the bridleway. Follow it up to the edge of the forest near Buttonoak, then turn left to return to Earnwood Copse.

Wyre Forest is shared between Shropshire and Worcestershire, with Dowles Brook forming the county boundary. It was once a royal hunting forest, but the place name Kingswood is the only obvious reminder of that today. In the days of the Norman kings, the forest stretched from Worcester to Bridgnorth. It's considerably smaller today, and partially afforested with alien conifers, but it remains one of the largest and finest semi-natural woodlands in the country.

Despite the conifers, there is still lots of broadleaved woodland, including species such as beech, silver birch, rowan, holly and hazel. But English oak is overwhelmingly dominant. There are two types of English oak - common (also known as pedunculate) and sessile (sometimes called durmast). Common oak usually dominates in the Midlands, but not in Wyre Forest, where the sessile oak is king. The underlying coal measures mean that much of the forest soil is acidic, the preferred habitat of the sessile oak.

English oak supports more wildlife than any other British tree, including an impressive 284 insect species. For centuries local people were also dependent on oak, which provided timber for houses, ships, pit props, fencing and a multitude of other uses. Small timber was used by broom makers and basket weavers, and also served as firewood. Oak twigs were bound together in bundles and used to make tracks suitable for horse-drawn carts, while oak bark, rich in tannin, was used for curing leather in the local tanneries. The forest is dotted with hamlets, such as Buttonoak, which grew out of woodland clearings known as assarts, where squatters settled illegally to make a living as basket weavers, broom makers or charcoal burners. The latter were known locally as wood colliers.

Walk here in autumn and you will see squirrels and jays everywhere, busily burying acorns for the winter. Some will be retrieved in due course, but those forgotten will germinate in spring to launch a new generation of oak trees. Unless, that is, the saplings are eaten by deer. Fallow deer are very common in Wyre and I have never walked in the forest without seeing several. Go quietly, with your dog on a lead, and you should see some too.

Where to eat and drink

The Button Oak is on the main road at Buttonoak. It's a friendly place, well used to welcoming walkers, including children. Dogs are welcome too, but not in the bar when food is being served. There's a pleasant beer garden outside.

While you're there

Bewdley is in Worcestershire and it's well worth a visit. Once a busy Severn port, it now caters for tourists instead of boat builders and bow-hauliers (the men who pulled the boats upstream before somebody invented towing horses). Bewdley's waterfront is said to be the finest in the Midlands, and anybody who appreciates 17th- and 18th-century architecture will love this little town.