Reydon Wood bluebell path

Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s 41 acre Reydon Wood nature reserve is a typical Suffolk ancient woodland with features characteristic of medieval coppice wood, including many large coppice stools, some hundreds of years old. Centuries of coppicing – the traditional way of harvesting wood – have allowed sunlight to regularly flood the woodland floor resulting in a unique ground flora.

The spectacular show of bluebells and other spring flowers attract visitors to the wood at a time of year when it is wet underfoot and in places the woodland paths soon become a muddy quagmire. The slippery conditions are difficult for older visitors and those with limited mobility to negotiate and are not good for the wood as the ground flora is eroded as visitors create alternative routes around the mud.

The project will install an all weather path with a hoggin surface on the stretches of woodland trail which are most susceptible to waterlogging and to the resultant trampling of the ground flora – 300m in total.