A brief history of Geneva Wood

A small woodland site where you can explore and look for deer.

Geneva Wood Local Nature Reserve is a woodland LNR. It is situated at the southern end of town just north of the A66 over approximately 11 Ha. Access to the woods can be gained from Neasham Road 

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The ‘North Wood’ is primarily coniferous and was planted apocryphally because Prince Charles passing through Darlington on the Royal Train many years ago had remarked that there weren’t many trees visible!

The ‘South Wood’ is very different. It is much wilder and mainly made up of native deciduous trees. The two parts being connected by a narrow strip of trees wedged between the main railway line and fields.

The wood site has a very interesting history and more information about this can be found elsewhere on the website. In brief it was originally owned by British Rail and used as a reclamation yard for rails, sleepers etc from the northern area. Steam trains and a steam crane worked on the site and there were roadways, buildings and many sets of railway track.

One incident which is fascinating is a great fire which burned under the site for many months with spouts of flame erupting from the earth every now and then. Eventually the fire was quenched by the Fire Brigade but residents at the time suggest it took over a year to accomplish this.

The site was eventually covered in a deep layer of railway ash by the authorities and the north woodland planted. The southern woodland is more natural and was the site of army activity in WW2 perhaps used as storage for explosives etc.

In 2002 a group of interested people got together and working closely with the Countryside Department of DBC the woodland became a Local Nature Reserve.

Flora and fauna surveys were conducted shortly after it became a LNR and it was found that the sparse soil and railway ash underfoot were reminiscent of the volcanic soil structure to be found in Lanzarote!

It was found to be a good habitat for fungi but less so for animals and over the years we have tried to ameliorate this with bird and bat boxes etc. Nevertheless some of the wildlife seen have included deer, badger, fox and of course grey squirrel. Some interesting birds have been seen in the wood apart from the ever present wood pigeon.

Perhaps the strangest being a Hoopoe which must have been blown well off course.

The Friends group though small is very active and has being going for 24 years.