Alice Holt is one of those names that crops up again and again in British forestry as one of the three research stations of Forest Research (the other two are in Scotland and Wales.) It appears in papers and reports because it’s both a place forest scientists are based and a working forest where long term experiments in silviculture and tree health can be done. I finally managed to visit the forest in Hampshire this summer and took some photos.
I parked in the Forestry England car park, as Alice Holt the forest is open to the public and has a nice visitor centre, cafe, playground, and marked trails to explore.
I walked along the trails and then used a public right of way to walk through the research station site itself. On the way I could see evidence of tree research: native trees suddenly give way to a grove of redwoods from North America for example.
When I bought Century Wood in 2008 I got a copy of John Jobling’s “Poplars for Wood Production and Amenity”, a Forestry Commission bulletin of 84 dense pages. John had worked at Alice Holt from 1950 to his untimely death in 1987, and he referenced experiments with poplar cultivars at the research station.
