A loop around Alice Holt Forest

There’s been a forest at Alice Holt since about 5000 bc. Iron Age people were using the local clay, water and fuel to make pottery here in the 1st century bc and those potteries expanded into a major industry in the years following the Roman invasion.

Many of the trees had already been felled to fuel the pottery kilns by the time the Romans left, early in the 5th century. The Saxons continued the felling, this time to create fields for their crops, but by the Middle Ages Alice Holt had become a royal hunting forest governed by a strict legal code. In later centuries more timber was extracted for construction and shipbuilding, so that by 1655 Charles II ordered the woods to be replanted. The forest’s heartbeat is measured in decades and the trees grew quietly for more than 100 years until the Napoleonic Wars once again created a demand for shipbuilding timber.

Replanting a forest

The modern history of Alice Holt really began after the Enclosure Act of 1812, when 1,600 acres (648ha) were enclosed and once again replanted with oak. By the time those trees came to maturity Britain was in the thick of World War I and the coal mines and trenches were swallowing up vast quantities of timber for pit props and revetments. Timber was a scarce commodity in postwar Britain and the government set up the Forestry Commission to help boost the supply of home-grown timber.

The new agency took over responsibility for Alice Holt in 1924 and set about planting quick-growing conifers to meet the demand. Following World War II, the Forestry Commission began developing a research station around Alice Holt Lodge to the west of the A325 and additional laboratories were built in the late 1970s. Today, the Commission’s scientists are working on topical issues like environmental change, as well as exploring potential sources of biomass energy. But, as you’ll see from the picnic areas and play structures along this route, recreation facilities have also become a key part of the forest.

Walk through the car park from the visitor centre and turn left at the purple waymarker post (Lodge Pond Trail – LPT) opposite the large central fingerpost and signboard. Keep ahead past the turning on your left and descend to a forest track.

Turn left along LPT for 45yds (41m), then turn right down the steps, cross a brook and climb the steps on the other side. Follow the winding trail past a bench seat and down the steps to cross a stream. Bear left beyond the steps on the other side, climbing steadily on the undulating route before the path levels out to a crossways by a bench.

Keep ahead (purple arrow), pass a seat and then a clearing on the left and keep ahead. Climb steadily to a purple waymarker post (LPT) indicating a narrow woodland path off to your left.

Turn left here, and left at the T-junction (on LPT). Continue to a five-way junction by a bench and keep ahead across the broad forest track, waymarked towards Lodge Pond. Keep ahead at the next junction and turn left to walk parallel with the edge of the pond. Bear left past picnic tables, then turn right through a small parking area to a T-junction at the top of the clearing.

Turn right (on LPT) onto the forest track and continue for 500yds (457m) to a waymarked junction. Turn left, following the purple arrow, and keep ahead at the crossways that you passed earlier (Point 3), then take the right-hand turning (following the purple arrow) onto a path that leads down to a large wooden owl play structure.

Turn left at the wooden owl, now following the yellow arrow (Habitat Trail) and pass the picnic table and another play structure, then turn right at the crossways (yellow arrow). Cross a stream, pass the Giants play area, and keep left (purple arrow), then climb almost to the crest of the hill.

Turn right (purple arrow), pass another play area, bear left and across a track, then turn right past more play equipment to reach the forest centre. Turn right past the café and walk back to the car park.