Sweet chestnut coppice with standard beech, oak and chestnut. There is the occasional yew mostly small young specimens. The chestnut is fully grown but within these there are young small beech, these would greatly benefit from more light and space. It would be worth marking and counting those which are surviving.

A herd of deer wander through the whole area, their resting places at night can be seen where the ground is scraped clear of vegetation. Some trees are used as favourite antler rubbing sites, fortunately they seem to use the same trees and there is minimal damage. Flax Wood is part of Denge Wood, which is full of the most interesting flora and fauna including lots of orchids and twyblades and the nationally rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly. You'll find lots of bluebells in season.

The whole of Denge Wood and the neighbouring woods are designated as a Local Wildlife Site, click here for maps and citation.

Access to the ridestop entrance on the southern boundary of Flax Wood is over ¾ mile along a private forest track, A-B on the plan, although a fair distance it is a very pleasant walk. There is a full right of way in perpetuity, from the public highway in Garlinge Green (by gate A). The track leaves the public highway at gate A then for about 900 metres it passes through woodland down to the valley bottom, here there is a sharp right turn and for 250 metres the track passes though chestnut up the slope of the valley side, round to the right by the Forestry Commission's woodland and comes out into an opening. Here the track turns left and for about 230 metres winds through mature woodland until reaching Flax Wood on the righthand side. The access is good for a normal family car for most of the year, although a 4X4 would be preferable in the winter. There is another right of way along the sunken track which continues out through the Woodland Trust's woods and joins the main track - see plans. This has not been used for some time and is wet and muddy in winter.

There is a full right of way in perpetuity, along the forest track from the public highway in Garlinge Green (by gate A). There is an additional, right of way through the Woodland Trust's wood to the east, but we have not in the past used this.

As with all these woods there is a covenant, please see the link to this.

As is the case for all our woodlands, the purchaser will be asked to enter into a covenant which serves to protect the peace and quiet of the woodland.

Garlinge village name derivation is obscure but may be Old English from Geon-ling (gren-hlinc), meaning green lynch, (green hill or green bank) evolving through Grenling, Grelinge or Gerlinge, Grellnch, Garlyng and Garlings to its present form.

Around Canterbury, much of the land is covered by very extensive areas of woodland. Looking in a south-west direction down from high on Chartham Downs, you can see spread out below the huge forest areas including Denge, Pennypot, Eggringe, Capel and several other smaller woodlands - in total some eight square kilometres of semi-natural ancient woodland.