Savernake Forest is on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately 4,500 acres (18 km2; 7.0 sq mi).
It is privately owned by the Earl of Cardigan and his family, and is administered by trustees. Since 1939 the running of the forest has been undertaken by the Forestry Commission on a 999-year lease. The private status of Savernake - Britain's only privately owned forest - is maintained by shutting the forest to the public one day per year.
Savernake's landform is one of rolling downland dissected by both dry and wet valleys. The valleys within the forest, of which there are four, are all dry valleys, and the presence of Cretaceous deposits of Clay-with-Flints creates the damp heavy soils suited to dense cover of oak and beech. There are patches of poor drainage and wet soil.
Read more about Savernake Forest: A Short History of The Forest and Its Wardens, Inside The Forest, Forest Features, Notes, Nearby Places
Famous quotes containing the word forest:
““I am as brown as brown can be,
And my eyes as black as sloe;
I am as brisk as brisk can be,
And wild as forest doe.”
—Unknown. The Brown Girl (l. 1–4)