Savernake Forest

Savernake Forest lies on a chalk plateau in Wiltshire between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn. Its 18 square kilometres sit mostly within the parish of Savernake and have been held by the same family for thirty-one generations. The Marquess of Ailesbury and his son the Earl of Cardigan own the land, while Forestry England manages the timber on a 999-year lease. Rolling downland and four dry valleys shape the terrain, covered by dense oak and beech where the soil stays damp. Patches of poor drainage create wetter spots across the forest floor. The forest’s history reaches back to AD 934 when it first appeared as ‘Safernoc’ in royal records. After the Norman Conquest it became a royal hunting ground stretching 390 square kilometres, managed by the Esturmy family for centuries. In Tudor times Sir John Seymour entertained Henry VIII here, and the king later married his host’s daughter Jane, who became queen. By the 18th century the estate employed Lancelot Capability Brown to plant beech avenues, including the Grand Avenue, which at 6.3 kilometres remains Britain’s longest straight tree-lined path. Visitors walk through broad-leaved woods and farmland clearings such as Little Frith and Chisbury Wood. Coppices of hazel grow from old stumps while tall standards rise straight and tall where space allows. Beech and oak line forest trails, guiding the eye towards carefully placed viewpoints. The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty surrounds the plateau, offering a quiet landscape of meadows, scrub and heath united into one whole.