Wernbrake Woodland - a social enterprise

Wernbrake Woodland Ltd is a social enterprise for a group of people in the Bristol and south east Monmouthshire areas and any place in between who want to learn how to manage a small woodland sustainably.

Wernbrake (meaning ‘marshy thicket’ or ‘thicket of alders’) is a woodland lying outside the village of Llanvair Discoed, about 7 miles west of Chepstow just off the A48 about 35 minutes drive from the centre of Bristol, across the old Severn toll bridge. Wernbrake is an old wood (present on 200-year old maps), but with mostly young trees. The part that we own is 14 acres of mostly birch and willow of around 12 years old, the result of natural regeneration following clear felling of a conifer plantation. There are about 100 hazel coppice stands, undergrown by wood anemones. In addition, there is an area of over-mature conifers and some older broadleaved trees including oak and ash. Wernbrake is in an ancient land - Caerwent to the South is an old Roman garrison town; Llanmelin iron-age fort to the East is probably the central stronghold of the Siluri, the pre-Roman occupiers; and Gray’s Hill, immediately to the North, has a stone circle and ancient standing stones. Like the village of Llanvair Discoed (St Mary’s under the wood), it lies below the great Wentwood (the Gwent wood), with deer at least making the connections between the two.