Kaliwood

Directions to KaliWood
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Kali’s+Wood/
Out of Halesworth on the Southwold Road, turn left into Holton village,
passed the school,
passed the round towered church,
up a Suffolk hill,
KALI WOOD – on the RIGHT side of the road, just before the speed unrestricted sign, take the WW2 track on the right (pubic footpath sign).  The wood entrance is half way down on left – green man on gate.

Kaliwood is a 5.5 acre Oak Nuttery on the outskirts of Holton, Halesworth.  Planted English Oak and Hazel with stands of of Ash, Silver Birch, Field Maple, Hornbeam, a few odd Beaches, and surprisingly few Sycamore. There is evidence that the woodland had been worked in the past with the hazel coppiced perhaps 20 plus years back. Most of the oaks would have been planted around 100 years ago. Some, along the road side, are older at about 150 years. There are well established stands of holly. Some elm, dead and alive. Some privet. The ground is carpeted with Dog Mercury with Spurge Laurel. The dense canopy of the trees has not allowed much light in. Bryony decorates the hedges in the autumn.

During the war, there was an airforce hospital adjacent to the wood, down what was known as ‘Pest Lane’, which would have serviced the airdrome where Bernard Matthews is now.  Within the wood there must have been  4 Nissan huts on the hard standing that remains, used for hospital bases. At the back there remains a brick single skinned toilet block.

Old maps show the ponds that are in the woods. The two ponds next door to each other could have been fish ponds. Old stands of coppiced hornbeam are today over stretched.

I bought the wood from Clarke and Simpson auction in 2014. In 2015 I felled 9 dead oak and had them planked. The wood rested, pegged, for a year, before work began to build an oak cabin. The story of the building of the oak cabin and more information about Kaliwood is here