Westfield Wood

Part of an internationally important yew woodland, with steep chalky slopes occupied by a dense stand of yew overtopped in places by mature ash and beech.

Location

Lower Warren Road,
Boxley

Maidstone

Kent

ME14 3BE

Know before you go

Size

5 hectares

Parking information

Park on the Old Chatham Road below the garage.

Walking trails

A path circumnavigates the wood. This is steep and uneven in places with some diversions around fallen root plates etc.

Access

Not Wheelchair accessible. There are steps, a kissing gate, ruts and narrow paths. The paths are unsurfaced, uneven, irregular, muddy and slippery when wet.

Dogs

Dogs permitted

When to visit

Opening times

Open at all times

Best time to visit

April to July, September to November

About the reserve

Many of the really mature beech trees were affected by the 1987 storm. Either felled in their entirety or large limbs snapped off. This has created a mosaic of enormous standing dead wood or areas of young ash and sycamore growth with lots of exposed roots and tangles of lying limbs.

The darkness of the Yew create very still, quiet pools of coolness and shelter. The mature beech by contrast, with their dappled shade are often warm and teeming with life. Small mammals and fungi at their base, insects scurrying up and down their bark, birds hopping and twittering in the branches.