GRAFTON WOOD
WORCESTERSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST

www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk

OS Map:  SO 971558  (Landranger 150 Explorer 204)

Part of the ancient royal Forest of Feckenham, and the centre of the only colony of brown hairstreak butterfly in the Midlands. Jointly owned and managed with Butterly Conservation

 

Location and access:  

Grafton Wood is open at all times. It lies east of Worcester just north of the A422 between Flyford Flavell and Grafton Flyford.

A quarter of a mile from Kings Lodge the Wychavon Way runs from Flyford Flavell. It starts at the corner of Cockshot Lane and the A422 opposite the Red Hart public house. Follow the path straight across the fields.

Parking is also available in the small car park by the church in Grafton Flyford (follow the signposts to the 'Three Parishes Hall'.)From here follow the footpath through the farmyard to the north of the church continuing eastwards across the fields to the wood itself (around 1km).
The ground can be soft, wet and uneven in places, and especially so the rides in the wood.

Features:

                  Ancient coppice woodland with standards

             Brown Hairstreak Butterfly

                        Woodland birds

                  Superb spring flora

Grafton Wood has been jointly owned and managed with Butterly Conservation since 1997. Lying around 7 miles east of Worcester, near Grafton Flyford in the heart of ancient Royal Forest of Feckenham that covered much of this part of Worcestershire in the Middle Ages, this is one of the largest and most important woodlands in the east of the county. The boundaries of this ancient woodland have remained unchanged since at least 1700.

Since 1997 one of our main aims has been to conserve the nationally rare brown hairstreak butterfly. The only remaining colony in the Midlands is centred in the wood. These butterflies are on the wing in August and September and gather on the crown of a tall master tree, usually ash, to mate. Females lay single white eggs at the forks of young blackthorn shoots. The eggs remain on the blackthorn over winter and hatch in early May. The green slug-like caterpillar feeds on the blackthorn leaves and then descends to the ground and pupates. In July the butterflies emerge to feed on the honeydew secreted by aphids and on secretions produced by ash trees. Because of their small size (wing span 38-4Omm) and tree-top behaviour you are unlikely to see brown hairstreaks very often. The males rarely fly or descend from the tree tops. Females scud along scrub and hedges looking for egg laying sites in August and September.

There has been extensive ride-widening, coppicing and glade creation, to create the scrubby areas containing young blackthorn bushes as these play a vital part in the lifecycle of the brown hairstreak butterfly. Work with local farmers has also been an important part of this project as the surrounding hedgerows are also very important for the butterfly.

Grafton Wood is an ancient, semi-natural broad-leaved woodland. Until the 1950’s most of the wood was managed as coppice-with-standards providing materials for a once-thriving demand for coppice products, broom handles, pea and bean sticks, hedge-laying materials, clothes pegs, spars for thatching and firewood. The standard oaks provided timber for building. The canopy is dominated by ash and oak, most of the latter having been planted at the end of the 19th century, though much older trees persist along boundary banks. We have also found a circle of a small-leaved lime coppice stool which must have originally started as one lime tree at least a thousand years ago. In many parts there is a dense shrub layer of field maple, hawthorn and hazel. Only 2 compartments had been converted to conifers in the 1960s and these are being removed.

The wood is on a gentle west-facing slope, with heavy soil of the Lower Lias clays . These damp calcareous soils support a varied and distinctive flora that includes Herb-Paris, Adder's-tongue, Violet Helleborine, Spurge-laurel and Birds-nest Orchid.

The wood is also good for butterflies (26 species recorded) with past sightings of silver-washed fritillaries. The reserve is important for other woodland butterflies including the white admiral and notable moths include Drab Looper Rosy Footman, Devon Carpet, and Waved Black.

Many fungi have been recorded.

Birds include buzzard, goldcrest, treecreeper, lesser and greater spotted woodpeckers. Pastures and orchards around the wood are important for green woodpeckers.