Wentwood

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Wentwood
Elevation	309 m (1,014 ft)
Location	Newport / Monmouthshire, Wales
Prominence	240 m
OS grid reference	ST411942
Listing	Marilyn, council top (Newport)

Wentwood is a forested area of hills, rising to 309 metres (1,014 feet), in Monmouthshire, a few miles north east of Newport. It is the largest ancient woodland in Wales and the ninth largest in the UK.

The current wooded area is a remnant of a much larger ancient forest which once extended between the rivers Usk and Wye and which divided the old kingdom of Gwent into two - Gwent Uwchcoed and Iscoed, that is, above and below the wood. The area contains bronze age burial mounds, a stone circle, and a megalithic alignment on Grey Hill.

In the middle ages, the woods belonged to the lordship of Chepstow and provided hunting preserves, and timber, fuel and pasturage for the tenants of nearby manors. The edges of the wood were nibbled away in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by farmers, but the heart of the forest remained preserved for charcoal production, a necessity for the iron industry.

The first conifers were planted at Wentwood by 1880, and most of the native trees were felled during World War I to provide timber for the trenches. When the area was replanted by the Forestry Commission in the 1950s and 1960s, the original broadleaved trees were largely replaced with non-native conifers, damaging the woodland habitat. More recently, broadleaved trees have been allowed to grow back.

Wentwood and its surrounding areas are popular with walkers and cyclists, and the Wentwood Reservoir, opened in 1904, is a centre for trout fishing. The area is also home to thousands of wildlife species. These include 75 species of bird, including rare turtle doves, nightjars and spotted flycatchers; dormice; otters; pipistrelle bats; and ancient woodland plants, such as wild daffodil, wood sorrel, and yellow pimpernel.

In 2006, the Woodland Trust completed the purchase of some 352 hectares (nearly 900 acres) of Wentwood after a high-profile campaign, and plans a programme of conservation and restoration.