Finding Shakespeare’s Ghost Woods

Whether it be Hamlet’s father, Richard III’s victims, or Banquo and his gory locks, everyone knows Shakespeare’s connection with ghosts. Far far fewer are aware of the connection between Shakespeare and the Ghost Woods. Yet, as our team began to research the sites of ancient woodland smothered beneath conifer plantations, we found that one of these Ghost Woods also echoes with William Shakespeare’s own footsteps.

Ghost Woods are ancient woodlands which have been lost beneath neat, suffocating timber plantations. Once thriving ecosystems, these Ghost Woods should be home to some of our most beloved yet endangered species, many of which are referenced in our cultural history. Instead they have been turned into dark and silent tree farms empty of the travellers, lovers and magic we associate with Shakespeare’s woodland plays.

One such a Shakespeare play is As You Like It. Inspired by Thomas Lodge’s prose romance, Shakespeare chose to transpose its French location in the Forest of Ardennes to the similar sounding and familiar location of the once great Forest of Arden. This forest stood close to Shakespeare’s childhood home, beginning on the north side of the River Avon and stretching up through Warwickshire as far north as Tamworth in Staffordshire. It also encompassed the childhood home of Shakespeare’s mother Mary (whose maiden name was Arden) and would have been a place that Shakespeare knew well: a place he once played in and perhaps a place he sometimes escaped to. 

Now little remains of this vast forest but the ghosts, making their presence felt in a few isolated spots where veteran trees still remain and ancient woodland indicator species break through the soil in bluebell patches and banks of wood anemone. A place that was once an inspiration to Shakespeare has been lost

Losing Arden

For many writers at the time of Shakespeare, the forest was a place of pure escapism, where Robin Hood and his men make merry and where people fall in love. Whilst Shakespeare injects his plays with a similar romance, he also acknowledges that the woodlands are not just desert places in which to play out our fantasies. He knew that local people relied on forests for food, shelter and warmth. It is a way of life evidenced by the 2,000 year old coppiced small leaved limes still standing in Oversley Wood, a last remaining fragment of the Arden.

The decline of the Arden could already be seen in Shakespeare’s lifetime. Through clearance and enclosure, trees were felled and people became dislocated from the land which sustained them. These changes in rural life caused hardship and suffering, hinted at by Shakespeare in his plays. Shakespeare demonstrated that the forest was not just the wilderness of romantic literature, but harboured a community of ordinary people making their way in the world. He centres such people in the heart of the forest by swapping out some of the classic mythological names for his characters with simple English names like Peter, Nick, Audrey and, of course, William.

Fast forward to 2025 and we find that ordinary people’s access to wild woodland, and indeed nature in general, is at an all time low in England. In fact, a 2023 report found that there are 7.8 million English households without nature near to home. Arden itself is unrecognisable; there would certainly be no opportunity for an exiled Duke to survive within the tiny fragments that remain. Forestry England’s Oversley Wood is one such a fragment and makes up just 93 hectares. It has been credited as the setting for As You Like It, and in places still hints at its ancient past but over a third of this woodland has been given over to plantation. Beneath the conifers, shrouded by a veil of darkness, the flora, fauna and fungi of Shakespeare’s day no longer hold court. It is a landscape inhospitable not only to humans but also to so many of our native woodland species. 

Before we give way to the melancholy, it is worth remembering that the ghosts of Shakespeare’s ancient woodland remain, waiting silently within the soil for a chance to once again perform their part in a thriving and self-sustaining ecosystem. Forestry England has committed to make changes to restore ancient woodland on their plantation sites and we are delighted by this, but progress towards their targets creeps at a snail’s pace. The land remembers its wilder past, the seedbank is ready to regrow if given the opportunity. But these ghosts of the ancient forest cannot survive another 60 year timber plantation cycle. The time to act is now.

The wisdom of the woods

In Shakespeare’s Arden the rules of the court are suspended giving way to the higher laws of nature. It is in their freedom from social norms and through their experience of nature connection that his characters begin to rediscover themselves as well as beginning to recognise what is of true value.

If Shakespeare, through his writing, is urging humanity to find “tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything” (As You Like It Act II Scene 1) then what do the forests have to teach us today? What might we discover about ourselves if diverted from the expectations of modern life? What lesson does the natural world whisper to us if we stop to listen? 

Our ancient woodlands developed alongside our native wildlife and yet only 2.6% of it remains in England, supporting complex ecosystems and unique species of plant, invertebrate, lichen and fungi. The complexity of these relationships means that they are classed as irreplaceable habitats. 

We are faced with a decision over whether we recognise the intrinsic value of our woodlands or whether we carry on with business as usual. An attitude based on business and progress has historically led to a displacement of people from the land, a loss of nature connection and a loss of landscape on a huge scale. We now also risk exiling endangered wildlife to survive only in the pages of old and dusty books.

If, as Shakespeare writes, ’All the world’s a stage‘ then a lot of the scenery is missing’  It’s time we thought seriously about the role that we play.