About the reserve

Springtime with Summer Wine

As you gaze out over the Holme Valley from Upper Park Wood, you can imagine seeing Compo, Clegg, Foggy and friends up to their madcap antics in the beautiful, hilly landscape, with its moors, meadows and drystone walls.

The reserve is a young, planted wood surrounding a small area of ancient woodland. It was probably once part of a game park for deer and wild boar, belonging to the ancient Manor of Almondbury. Mostly made up of oak and holly, the wood is at its most enchanting in spring, when bluebells flood the floor of the hazel coppice and the woodland birds are in fine voice. 

Encounter a variety of habitats and enjoy views as you explore the network of paths. Look for the different wildlife that inhabits the woodland edge, the field and path margins, pond, wet areas, hedges, and drystone walls. A small pond, created by damming a stream, is an important refuge for insects and amphibians.

Boosting biodiversity

Until the early 1900s, seams of coal were worked along the valley, and you can see evidence of two coal pits by the steps up the side of the wood. 

Upper Park Wood took its name from a tiny remnant of ancient deciduous woodland. In winter, hazel is coppiced on rotation to allow sunlight to reach the woodland floor, for the benefit of wildflowers like bluebells, and foxgloves and insects like the comma butterfly. Newly coppiced areas need to be enclosed by deer fencing to prevent roe deer from browsing the regrowth. 

Look and listen for great spotted woodpeckers and tawny owls, and watch for barn owls over the surrounding grassland.