It’s October as I sit and write this. I just spent a muddy afternoon cycling around Savernake Forest. I dragged the family along for what they regarded as ‘torture’. Quite frankly, by the time we were 2.5 hours in, the moaning and whining was like torture to me!
Savernake Forest is the last privately owned forest in the whole of England, and it sits just below Marlborough in the north of Wiltshire. It’s now used for commercial sustainable wood but it’s largely left in peace. A beautiful, traditional, deciduous English woodland.
Why did I go to Savernake now, when we have had so much heavy rain? Well, why indeed! I have been waiting for several months for my bike to be fixed and let’s just say, things don’t always happen in a timely manner around these parts. Friends of mine call it the ‘Wiltshire Malaise’! Still, things do get done in the end and so, before all the trees lose their leaves, I was determined to get up to this magnificent forest. I wanted to visit some of the ancient old beauties standing proudly, dotted throughout the woodland. There are many ‘named’ trees, all oaks, and some are many hundreds of years old.
A Bit About the Forest
The age of Savernake is unknown but since it was mentioned in a Saxon document (named Safernoc) in 934AD, it is at least 1100 years old.
Following the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror handed the wardenship of the forest to one of his faithful knights and it has stayed in that family for 31 generations.
The forest has connections to Henry VIII. He visited in 1536 to hunt deer and it turns out that’s where he met his third unfortunate wife, Jane Seymour.
In World War Two, the forest was used to house ammunition as the trees provided good cover. The family seat, Tottenham House, became the operational headquarters for American troops.
These days, Tottenham House is owned by a billionaire (groan – they shouldn’t even exist) and the forest has been leased to the Forestry Commission to produce sustainable timber. A big chunk of the forest is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The Green Plaqued Oaks of Savernake
I thought there were ten, maybe twelve, trees with fun names like Old Paunchy and King of Limbs. The aim of my family cycling trip in the woods was to visit these old Father Oak trees to take photos for this blog and to nip to a couple of ‘ghostly’ locations, of course!
Only when we stood in the car park, bikes unloaded from the van with the rain beginning to clear (thankfully because I was the only one with a coat), did I examine the map I had picked up from a local bookshop. It dawned on me, there were way more trees than I realised! The forest didn’t look too big from the map and I assumed it would all be nice, flat Forestry England tracks.
To be fair, most of it was good, easy-to-access tracks, but we’ve had a good amount of rain and the clay soil was already pretty claggy. Off the main routes it was starting to get very soggy.
Here’s the map. It hasn’t lasted too well so I’ll have to get the cellotape out. You can see how many locations there are. Absolutely loads! Not to mention pools, monuments, burial mounds and even Boadicea’s Grave.
And here’s a full list of all of the green-plaqued oak giants:
Biking Around Savernake Forest
I lowered my expectations of visiting every tree in one day and we decided to start with the most local ones, staying in the west quarter of the forest.
There were quite a few people about initially but once we got off the beaten track the forest was peaceful. The signs that autumn was really taking hold were there. Leaves changing colour and beginning to fall, ground plants and ferns turning brown, returning to the earth as the temperatures drop and rain steadily falls. It always brings me joy to be deep in the embrace of nature and, apart from kids moaning and us parents delivering a diatribe of instructional comments aimed at limiting disastrous accidents, there were moments of quiet relaxation as we peddled along.
I haven’t mentioned that I had, unwisely, decided to attend my Saturday morning fitness class before embarking on this epic bike ride. I know that, by 10.30am most Saturday mornings, my body is ruined because of the class I go to. It’s not for the faint-hearted and is attended by a gang of pretty fit individuals, plus me! But I chose to ignore the fact that I might be good for nothing and decided that I would be perfectly fine cycling around a forest for hours. Needless to say, my legs were on fire just ten minutes in!
My daughter, A, who is not a keen cyclist, was not enjoying the trip. She fell off her bike into a heap not long into the start and had wet feet. But then, she had insisted she would not wear wellies or walking boots. G, my teen son, had decided on white trainers and light grey tracksuit bottoms and within fifteen minutes, they were filthy.
I was, I will admit, quite pleased we had to keep stopping for photos, enabling me to have a little rest but it became pretty clear after tree number two, we weren’t going to be getting far in just one day. I didn’t realise quite how big Savernake was. In dry weather I suspect we would have made better progress. However, we did manage to visit quite a few of the gnarly old oaks, still clinging on in the ancient forest of Savernake.
The Mighty Oaks We Visited Today
Bumble Oak
Near to the car park, this one is really easy to find.
White Road Oak
Really impressive and possibly not as old as the others but a beautiful tree nonetheless.
Young Pauncy
I loved Young Pauncy. He has what N described as an almighty burr, the growth you can see on the right-hand side. These are very sought after by woodworkers apparently and worth a lot of money!
Cathedral Oak
This oak has quite the girth! Here I am trying to demonstrate with outstretched hands just how wide this tree is. It’s still alive. I’ve no idea how old it is.
Old Paunchy
Still going strong.
Pointing Oak
Named appropriately I think!
Surveyed Oak
Not the nicest name for this old guy.
Replacement King Oak
After the original King Oak fell to the ground, a pile of logs, a replacement was planted. Young by the other trees standards but growing strong.
Dead Beach Tree Magnificence
I came across these fallen beach trees. They were rather spectacular in a dead tree kind of way. One had fallen onto the other and was sort of propped up in the air. A massive dead tree monument and I have no doubt an excellent home for little critters, fungi and moss!
I took this little video of it.
We peddled on into the centre of the woods to pick up the central point of the eight walks. I had to gently bribe A with chocolate chunks and a promise to stop for lunch when we got there. The idea was, after gobbling down some sandwiches, we’d next visit Thornhill Pond, the site of a haunting I wanted to investigate.
However, after visiting all these trees and stopping off to eat our munch sitting on a fallen tree trunk, both kids were getting a bit tired. A had taken a second tumble into a huge patch of ferns (we couldn’t even see her at first) and was really quite smothered in mud. We decided to abandon the pond and head back to the van. It was still quite a way away.
The return journey involved a few hills and this did nothing for moral. Let’s just say family tensions were running high and I felt responsible for yet another unsuccessful family day out.
Everyone was relieved to get back in the van and I made a mental note that I would have to clean it out the following day. As we drove home I suggested to N that we ‘go back on foot to find some more trees and take the dogs.’ He simply replied, ‘Let’s get over this trip first, shall we?’
We’ll Be Back!
Whether or not the family will return with me is yet to be seen, but N said (later in the day after a couple of beers) he would be up for another visit on foot sometime. I suggested it might be nice to go in the spring, when any memories of our ‘difficult’ day may have faded!
So, stayed tuned folks! Let’s head back to Savernake in a few months to see the forest bloom into life. I think it will be spectacular. I know we haven’t mentioned anything paranormal today but next time we’ll be off to the haunted locations of Savernake and I promise, there will be lots of ghosts!
Don’t forget; I’m always on the lookout for spooky and weird stories from Wiltshire and beyond. If you have a tale you would like to share I’d love to hear from you. Contact me via Twitter (or X as we are supposed to call it now) or here.
I’m also now to be found on Bluesky. Hurrah! If you enjoy my weird tales from Wiltshire and beyond and can spare a few pennies, please head over to Ko-fi and buy me a cuppa. Every bit is used to help bring you more stories. I sure would appreciate it.
abbey all hallows day All Saints Day apparition astral projection avebury black cats bowerchalke British folklore calne castle crop circles cryptid dartmoor devizes devon essex Fae fairies folklore ghost ghosts Grovely Woods guising halloween haunted house haunted houses haunted pub haunted pubs hauntings history history of wiltshire monks paranormal salisbury stone circle stone circles stonehenge swindon tisbury UFOs Wales warminster wiltshire witches