| Oaken Wood | |
| Aos: | Kent |
| Interest: | Geological |
| Area: | 18.7ha |
| Notifydate: | 1985 |
| Map: | Magic Map |
Oaken Wood is a 18.7abbr=offNaNabbr=off geological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Maidstone in Kent.[1] [2] It is a Geological Conservation Review site.[3]
Known locally as "Barming Wood" due to the village of Barming being the closest settlement to Oaken Woods,[4] it is an ancient woodland with orchids, dormice, tawny owls, nightingales and many species of bat (alongside various other species).[5]
This site provides the best example of a very unusual topography, with cracking and tilting of underlying weaker strata during the Pleistocene by periglacial processes producing crests and troughs in the surface rocks.[6]
A public footpath crosses the site.
In 2013, plans to uproot parts or all of Oaken Wood for a ragstone quarry were met with controversy due to its environmental importance (with various different species residing there) and its possibility in setting a legal precedent for up to 300 other ancient woodlands in the UK.[7]