Barnsley Biodiversity Action Plan. Post-15 BAP. Updated to 2023

 Biodiversity

 Action

 Plan

Map of Barnsley showing historic parklands View of parkland with veteran trees at Wentworth Castle

Local Wildlife Sites with parkland habitat

22 Stainborough Park

48 Bretton Park


Other LWSs contain veteran trees, eg: Rockley Woods, Hoyland Bank Wood.

Other parkland habitat sites that should be considered for LWS status include Cannon Hall parkland and Wortley Hall parkland.


Additional old parkland sites and areas of grazed wood pasture elsewhere may also be considered,

Parkland and Wood Pasture Sites

Surviving historic parkland in Barnsley is mainly in a corridor to the west of the M1 from Bretton to Wortley and Wharncliffe.


Barnsley Council’s Local Plan identifies a corridor of historic parklands from Bretton to Wortley and Wharncliffe.


Barnsley’s historic parklands were developed in the 17th to early 19th centuries; with some replacing medieval deer parks.


The earliest known deer park was at Tankersley, with others at Wortley, Wharncliffe, Gunthwaite and Brierley established by the 15th and 16th centuries.

Other examples of historic parklands include

Haigh, Birthwaite, Noblethorpe, Burnt Wood, Middlewood, Worsbrough and Wharncliffe.

Parkland & Wood Pasture Sites

Veteran trees in wood pasture at Gosling Moor

A few areas of grazed wooded pasture remain outside the historic parklands

Historic England’s Register of  Historic Parks and Gardens includes grade 1 listed Stainborough Park and grade 2 listed Bretton, Cannon Hall, Wortley, and Locke Park.

Veteran hawthorns in front of Wentworth Castle, Stainborough

Map of historic parklands from South Yorkshire Historic Environment Characterisation produced by South Yorkshire Archaeology Service.

For more details: sytimescapes.org.uk.

These include Gosling Moor near Wortley (pictured)

as well as an area in Green Moor, and one between Swindon and Hordron Lane.


Most veteran trees are found in surviving historic parklands and wood pasture.


However they can also be found in small numbers or as isolated individuals, near old tracks and farmsteads, in hedgerows and as relics of older landscapes, elsewhere.

Ancient Tree Inventory