Sulham Woods is a 74 hectares (182.9 acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 (SSSI) in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 near the villages of Purley-on-Thames

Purley-on-Thames

Purley on Thames or simply Purley, is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It forms part of the Reading urban area, but remains outside the borough, in West Berkshire. The village is situated about north-west of Reading, and east of Pangbourne...

, Tilehurst

Tilehurst

Tilehurst is a suburb of the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It is also, with different boundaries as described below, a civil parish in West Berkshire district.-History:...

, Sulham

Sulham

Sulham is a village in the English county of Berkshire. The larger village of Tidmarsh is adjacent to Sulham on the west side. The two villages share the combined parish council of Tidmarsh with Sulham...

, and Tidmarsh

Tidmarsh

Tidmarsh is a village in the English county of Berkshire, on the A340 road between Pangbourne and Theale. It lies just north of the M4 motorway. It is south of Pangbourne, west of Reading and west of London....

.

Previously known as Pang Valley

River Pang

The River Pang is a small chalk stream river in the west of the English county of Berkshire, and a tributary of the River Thames. It runs for approximately from its source near the village of Compton to its confluence with the Thames in the village of Pangbourne.The river, and its water voles, are...

 SSSI, most of the southern part of the site is the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in England....

's Moor Copse Nature Reserve

Moor Copse Nature Reserve

Moor Copse Nature Reserve, in the civil parish of Tidmarsh with Sulham in the English county of Berkshire, is a recently expanded nature reserve by the River Pang, owned by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust....

. The whole site lies within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...

.

The SSSI consists of five areas.

Location	Unit area (Ha)	Main habitat
51.4704°N 1.0828°W	15.24	Acid grassland Grassland Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...  - lowland Lowland In physical geography, a lowland is any broad expanse of land with a general low level. The term is thus applied to the landward portion of the upward slope from oceanic depths to continental highlands, to a region of depression in the interior of a mountainous region, to a plain of denudation, or...
51.4659°N 1.0786°W	15.48	Broadleaved, mixed Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Mixed forests are a temperate and humid biome. The typical structure of these forests includes four layers. The uppermost layer is the canopy composed of tall mature trees ranging from 33 to 66 m high. Below the canopy is the three-layered, shade-tolerant understory that is roughly 9 to...  and yew Taxus baccata Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...  woodland Woodland Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...  - lowland
51.4605°N 1.0844°W	27.57	Broadleaved, mixed and yew woodland - lowland
51.4551°N 1.0803°W	7.70	Broadleaved, mixed and yew woodland - lowland
51.4659°N 1.0831°W	9.76	Neutral grassland - lowland

The site is in a broad valley of unusually varied alluvial loams

Alluvium

Alluvium is loose, unconsolidated soil or sediments, eroded, deposited, and reshaped by water in some form in a non-marine setting. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand and gravel...

, gravel

Gravel

Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...

 terraces and peat

Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...

deposits, resulting from flooding in late glacial times

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

 by an enlarged River Kennet

River Kennet

The Kennet is a river in the south of England, and a tributary of the River Thames. The lower reaches of the river are navigable to river craft and are known as the Kennet Navigation, which, together with the Avon Navigation, the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Thames, links the cities of Bristol...

. The variety in soils and topography results in a mosaic of damp copses and seasonally flooded meadow

Meadow

A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...

 communities, maintained here by a long history of coppicing

Coppicing

Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level...

 and sympathetic grassland husbandry. The woodland on the site supports a rich invertebrate fauna including over 300 species of moth.

Activities

The woodland area serves as an excellent location for dog-walkers

Dog walking

Dog walking is both a pastime and a profession involving the act of a person walking with a dog, typically from the dog's residence and then returning. This constitutes part of the daily exercise regime needed to keep a dog healthy...

, hikers

Hiking

Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...

, and those looking for solitude. One area of the woods, the gravel pit

Gravel pit

Gravel pit is the term for an open cast working for extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may fill naturally with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used either as nature reserves, or as amenity areas...

s, are used as ramps and steep dirt-tracks by mountain bikers

Mountain biking

Mountain biking is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, using specially adapted mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain.Mountain biking can...

. This area is known as "death-drop".