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GALL RECORDER’S REPORT
SOMERSHAM WOOD: KELSALE-CUM-CARLTON’S LOST WOODLAND JERRY BOWDREY At around 3,620 acres, Kelsale-cum-Carlton is one of the largest Suffolk parishes. It is situated to the north-east of the town of Saxmundham and is bisected by the A12. The Parish’s Biodiversity Group is currently engaged in identifying local habitats and species to inform the production of a local biodiversity action plan. Woodland is a scarce habitat in the Parish, comprising mostly secondary woodland or plantations and with only two likely ancient woodland survivors identified, amounting to only around 1% of the total land area. Browsing through chapter one of Battye & Cullen (2017) my attention was drawn to Plate 2, part of a map dated 1616, showing detail of Kelsale Park. Intriguingly, on the margin, part of a woodland was marked. On contacting Suffolk Flora Preservation Trust (SFPT) to seek further information, I was put in touch with one of SFPT’s guardians, John Rainer (JR). JR kindly provided an image of the wood shown on a map of 1616 (Fig. 1); [for figure 1 and subsequent images, all required acknowledgements are listed in Appendix 1.]
Figure 1. Somersham Wood (arrowed) part of the map of 1616 captioned ‘Description of the late disparked Park at Kelsale’. (Map rotated so compass rose is pointing nearly North) Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 58 (2022)