Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2015 | Page 92

COUNTRY LIFE

Explore our newest nature reserve:

Martin’s Wood
H

ampshire & Isle of Wight
Wildlife Trust’s newest nature
reserve is home to an exciting
and varied population of bees and
wasps and is the perfect place to visit
on a warm summer’s day. Tucked away
behind the Pointer Inn in the village of
Newchurch, lies Martin’s Wood.
Planted with 8,500 native broadleaved
trees and peppered with Scots pines,
the reserve connects two much older
woodlands. Thanks to the remarkable
generosity of the Boswell family, the
wood was gifted to the Trust in March by
Norah Boswell on behalf of the family
and in memory of her husband, Martin.
It was Martin that did so much to
transform the sandy fields here into the
beautiful woodland that you see today.
Just 15 years ago it was an agriculturally
improved field full of sweetcorn, which
Martin farmed in much the same way as

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By Richard Grogan, Head
of Conservation for South
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
the rest of his land. The Boswells’ farm
covers a large area in the central eastern
Wight from the downs to the valley of the
River Yar. The sweetcorn field lay between
the ancient woodland of Lynch Copse at
Newchurch and Hill Heath and it was this
location that inspired Martin to plant a
new wood.
Helped with a grant from the Forestry
Commission, planting of the new
woodland began in 2001. The areas
left unplanted have good examples of
parched acid grassland with a number of
lichen species in the sparse sward. The 20
acre (8.5ha) site sits about two kilometres
west of our nature reserve at Sandown
Meadows, and is a perfect addition to

the Wildlife Trust’s Eastern Yar Living
Landscape Area.
Not only is the site ideal for
reconnecting habitats across the area
but we soon discovered that the reserve
has a special secret. A survey by local
entomologist Adam Wright revealed that
Martin’s Wood is home to 112 species
of bees and wasps. This astonishing
figure amounts to a third of all species
identified on the Island to date, including
four species never recorded in the county
before. So as well as the nationally rare
woodland mammals you might expect
at an Isle of Wight woodland, such as red
squirrels and dormice, you may be able to
spot two nationally rare and 23 nationally
scarce bees and wasps when you visit.
Given the precarious nature of their
existence, we are delighted to have this
new and welcome opportunity to protect
the bees and wasps of Martin’s Wood.