Ham Street Woods

Ham Street Woods
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Area of Search	Kent
Grid reference	grid reference TR009343
Interest	Biological
Area	172.2 hectares (425.5 acres)
Notification	1951
Location map	English Nature or map

Ham Street Woods is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) near Hamstreet and Ruckinge, six miles (10 km) from Ashford in Kent, England. The woodland is said to be more than 400 years old.

The site is on the escarpment of the old Saxon shoreline^[1] and the Saxon Shore Way passes through the woods. The boundary of the site was amended to include the Ham Street Woods National Nature Reserve(one of the first in the country^[2] and a former part of the site (Burnt Oak Wood) is now included in the nearby Orlestone Forest (SSSI).

Most of the site has been coppiced and in parts the coppicing is still cut. Plants such as bluebell, primrose (Primula vulgaris) and wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa) flourish, and plants of open areas such as goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea) and Heath Cudweed (Gnaphalium sylvaticum) colonise.^[3]

References

Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in Kent, South East England

Alex Farm Pastures Alkham, Lydden And Swingfield Woods Allington Quarry Aylesford Pit Baker's Hole Bourne Alder Carr Brookland Wood Charing Beech Hangers Chattenden Woods Chequer's Wood And Old Park Cheyne Court Church Woods, Blean Cobham Woods Combwell Wood Cowden Meadow Cowden Pound Pastures Dalham Farm Darenth Wood Dover To Kingsdown Cliffs Down Bank Dryhill Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay East Blean Woods Ellenden Wood Farningham Wood Folkestone To Etchinghill Escarpment Folkestone Warren Gibbin's Brook Great Crabbles Wood Great Shuttlesfield Down Greatness Brickworks Halling To Trottiscliffe Escarpment Ham Street Woods Hart Hill Hatch Park High Rocks Hoad's Wood Holborough To Burham Marshes Hollingbourne Downs Hothfield Common Houlder And Monarch Hill Pits, Upper Halling Hubbard's Hill Ileden And Oxenden Woods Knole Park Larkey Valley Wood Lenham Quarry Lullingstone Park Lydden And Temple Ewell Downs Lympne Escarpment Lynsore Bottom Magpie Bottom Marden Meadows Medway Estuary And Marshes North Lade Northward Hill Oaken Wood Oldbury And Seal Chart One Tree Hill And Bitchet Common Orlestone Forest Otford To Shoreham Downs Otterpool Quarry Park Wood, Chilham Park Gate Down Parsonage Wood Pembury Cutting And Pit Peter's Pit Polebrook Farm Preston Marshes Purple Hill Queendown Warren River Beult Robins Wood Romney Warren Rusthall Common Sandwich Bay To Hacklinge Marshes Scord's Wood And Brockhoult Mount Scotney Castle Seabrook Stream Sevenoaks Gravel Pits Sheppey Cliffs And Foreshore Shorne And Ashenbank Woods Sissinghurst Park Wood South Thames Estuary And Marshes Southborough Pit Spot Lane Quarry Stodmarsh Sturry Pit Swanscombe Skull Site Tankerton Slopes Thanet Coast The Swale Tower Hill To Cockham Wood Trottiscliffe Meadows Walland Marsh Wansunt Pit Wateringbury West Blean And Thornden Woods Westerham Mines Westerham Wood Wouldham To Detling Escarpment Wye And Crundale Downs Yockletts Bank

List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest by Area of Search