Puzzlewoods

We’ve been on an adventure this morning to Puzzle Woods in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. An area completely new to me although we have been quite nearby.

The girls were impressed with the Severn Bridge and the fact we briefly entered a corner of Wales at Chepstow where I have been several times and down the Wye Valley which runs mire or less parallel. The roads in this area run between Wakes and England roughly following the line of Offas Dyke. Jude amused me when I said we were back in England, she responded by saying she thought you had to take a plane to get there!

It took us about an hour and when we arrived, we went straight to a small play area with a fun willow maze and musical percussion installations to play. We passed through the animals area with goats, fancy chicken/bantam breeds and ponies. 
Finally we entered the woods. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like them. Fantastical, if that’s a word, natural creations of old trees and rocks. The whole area was used for the production of iron ore from the Iron Age well before Roman Times and the woods are a result of both geology and the aftermath of that industry. The girls were in awe, finding them both magical and scary in equal measure, undoubtably some of the trees and rocks looked like creatures. (See the spiky rootball of the fallen tree above Eda’s head). They are pointing quite spontaneously I didn’t set this picture up.

They have, not surprisingly, been used for film locations for Secret Garden and Star Wars among others I believe. 
Not very easy under foot and signs said not suitable for pushchairs.  I imagine it could be a bit slippy in wet conditions but it was well worth the visit.

There’s no map you just wander around as you wish sometimes coming to dead ends. I was reading the information boards about the production of iron ore to check I wasn’t seeing the same ones. One fact was that the majority of the nails used in construction in Roman building were produced here. The names of nearby Coleford and Cinderford are derived from the iron ore industry and the red soil is an indicator of the presence of iron.

We came out and had our picnic near the ponies before getting the girls an ice cream and making our return journey looking out for Wales and the bridge!

A spot or two of rain on the way back but non here. Grace has taken the girls to meet Eda’s friend at the skate board park in Alice Park taking their scooters. I’ve been let off  so I’m doing my blip watching a bit of Le Tour and I have 2 pairs of holey kneed leggings to sew from yesterday. I hope they don’t come back with more. 
Grace has a rehearsal tonight so I’m in charge. I’ll start to prep tea in a little while but I’m glad of the rest!

Lots of ‘trip trap’ bridges to cross - extra

Website here