AUGUST 2024  ·  GROUNDED

Lower Woods, Wickwar

Lower Woods, Wickwar, South Gloucestershire

Lower Woods is nearly 300 hectares of ancient woodland in South Gloucestershire, managed by Avon Wildlife Trust. I went in on a weekday in late July. By mid-walk I was in vegetation over my head — the path still technically there, but the grass and nettles and tall stems well above shoulder height. The canopy was dense enough that the light came down in pieces rather than light.

Overgrown forest path disappearing between tall timber trunks
Path visible for ten metres, then gone
— Into the wood

The wood doesn't perform. There are no clearings arranged for photographs. The paths are overgrown not as a policy but as a fact. One image: an overgrown forest path disappearing between tall timber trunks, the path visible for about ten metres before it closes over. Another: lichen-covered tree stumps emerging from tall grass and wildflowers, the stumps lower than the vegetation around them.

The sounds are more information than the visuals, in a wood like this.

Lower Woods — August 2024

Tall trees rising above waist-high grass on a woodland path
Waist-high by mid-walk, over-head by the end
— The path closes over

Moss-covered tree branches with fresh green foliage in dappled light. A single tree trunk rising through a dense green canopy. Weathered fallen log covered in ivy-green vegetation. Delicate white flower clusters on tall stems in a woodland clearing. Red rowan berries hanging from stems with reddish foliage already turning.

Moss-covered tree branches with fresh green foliage in dappled light
Light in pieces through the canopy
Lichen-covered tree stumps emerging from tall grass and wildflowers
Stumps lower than the vegetation around them
— What the wood does

The sounds are more information than the visuals, in a wood like this. I heard a loud movement off to my left — sudden, something large. Then the loudest deer scream I have ever heard. Not a bark. A full scream. It moved away and went silent.

Delicate white flower clusters on tall stems in woodland clearing
One clearing, briefly still
— After the scream

The camera kept working. The light shifted through the canopy while the wood went back to doing what it does, which is nothing in particular.

Red rowan berries hanging from stems with reddish autumn foliage
Rowan already turning in late July
Full series — Lower Woods, Wickwar 10 photographs

Moss-covered tree branches with fresh green foliage in dappled light

Tall trees rising above waist-high grass on a woodland path

Overgrown forest path disappearing between tall timber trunks

Weathered fallen log covered in ivy-green vegetation

Single tree trunk rising through dense green woodland canopy

Delicate white flower clusters on tall stems in woodland clearing

Forest path with dappled sunlight filtering through tall canopy

Lichen-covered tree stumps emerging from tall grass and wildflowers

Weathered tree trunks standing in tall grass beneath dense canopy

Red rowan berries hanging from stems with reddish autumn foliage

Grounded Lower Woods, Wickwar
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