Description:

Ham Street Woods NNR sits on the old escarpment of the old Saxon shoreline - now 10 km from the sea. The woods are part of Orlestone Forest, a fragmented area of woodland that is the remnant of a continuous oak forest that once covered the Weald.
The dominant trees are pedunculate and sessile oaks, downy and silver birches, and hornbeam. Bluebells, honeysuckle and wood anemone are found amongst the ground flora together with gorse, ling and tormentil in more acidic areas. Damper areas are home to ash, hazel, hawthorn and alder. Here the ground flora includes dog's mercury, greater butterfly and early purple orchid.

Many breeding birds can be seen on the reserve, most characteristic of woodlands. These include treecreeper, spotted flycatcher and redpoll, with nightingale, hawfinch and sparrowhawk.

The woods support a large number of rare invertebrates, most notably species living on dead-wood and butterflies such as the Duke of Burgundy fritillary.

The site is also of archaeological interest and contains many well preserved earthworks including a medieval ditch and bank system and the remains of a staggered medieval dam.

Signs and leaflets are available for visitor information and there are two waymarked trails (2.5 km and 5 km) through the reserve.  Visit the wbelink for more information and look under NNRs.