Ancient Woodland Boundaries for England, Including Small Woodlands and Wood Pasture

Updated spatial boundaries for ancient woodland sites across England, excluding the Isles of Scilly. Natural England's inventory identifies sites using historic maps, aerial photography, and ground surveys, recording area in hectares and woodland type. The 2024 revision addresses gaps in prior data and for the first time includes small woodlands between 0.25 and 2 hectares.

Use Cases

• Mapping historical woodland cover based on the updated spatial boundaries.
• Analyzing the distribution of Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland (ASNW) versus Plantation on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS).
• Assessing the inclusion of small woodlands (0.25-2ha) and wood pasture categories for conservation planning.
• Validating land-use change models using the revised inventory that addresses previous gaps.

Strengths

• Includes a revised inventory that addresses problems and gaps from a previous iteration.
• For the first time, represents small ancient woodlands between 0.25 and 2 hectares.
• Distinguishes between Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland, Plantation on Ancient Woodland Sites, and Ancient Wood Pasture categories.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the England-only coverage.

Provenance

Source

Natural England

Collection Method

Identified by studying historic maps, wood names, shape, internal boundaries, location, ground survey, and aerial photography. Boundaries were digitized from paper maps at 1:50,000 scale.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-29 12:01:23.416206; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England (excluding the Isles of Scilly)