Puddletown Forest
Jan 1972
1:15,000
25'
1:15,000
25'
Black brown and blue
SY7392 - Dorset, SWOA, England
Survey by Ian Keith, Ron Wilton
Drawn Gary Court
SY7392 - Dorset, SWOA, England
Survey by Ian Keith, Ron Wilton
Drawn Gary Court
Puddletown was a favourite in the 1970s and hosted the 1974 British Relay Championships. The chainsaw has taken its toll and much of it was felled either side of 1980, although modern photographs suggest that it still has a lot of forest left.
Puddletown's main feature was the huge depressions, caused I think, by dissolving chalk under the pebbly surface rock. These of course were often used as control sites.
This map is from the first days of tweaking OS maps and is in the now rare scale of 1:20,000. The next edition in 1974 was 1:10,000 and something of a masterpiece.
I have not heard of Puddletown being used for orienteering in recent years.
Ah Puddletown - I remember it as a lovely forest in the'70's before the FC clear felled and replanted large areas of it. Originally a WIM map,(the original mappers, Ron Wilton & Ian Keith are now deceased) it passed to WEYOR, but after their demise has reverted to WIM.
ReplyDeleteThe FC have been removing tons of rhododendron recently and we think its becoming almost usable again. Maybe in a couple of year's time?