Grid ref: SK 254 793

Padley Gorge is one of the finest remaining examples of the oak/birch woodland once characteristic of the edges and valley sides of the Dark Peak. The woodland mainly consists of sessile oak and birch with alder along the stream side and holly and rowan scattered throughout the remainder of the wood. The oaks are only 5 - 12 metres in height, a result of being rooted in thin soils. Most are over 100 years old and have several trunks with coppice stools, an indicator that they were previously managed by coppicing.

The dominance of oak in the woodland is a very unnatural situation brought about largely by the type of management which took place in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The Sheffield iron industry demanded oak charcoal as it burned steadily at a high temperature. Coppicing the oak for charcoal was carried out until approximately 1870. The planting of Scots pine, European larch, and beech trees by the Duke of Rutland's estate, took place from the mid-nineteenth century onwards.

Grazing animals in the wood during the 20th century prevented significant natural regeneration, with the result that very few young trees were present. In the 1950s an experimental enclosure was set up to study the effects of excluding sheep. The growth of the seedling oak and birch, and a luxuriant bilberry dominated shrub layer, was so prolific that the National Trust took the decision to progressively exclude stock from the whole woodland. This was finally achieved by fencing around the woodland in 1985/86. However since then some important lichens growing on the rocks have started to be shaded out by this increased plant growth, to the point where they are starting to die out. Therefore, it may become imperative to open up the canopy in the next few years.