Bassleton Wood

Bassleton Woods is a six-hectare pocket of ancient deciduous woodland sandwiched between the Bassleton Court housing estate of Thornaby and the River Tees. The Holmes area of the nature reserve comprises 6.8-hectares of low-lying ex-agricultural land in a meander known to Thornaby residents as Horseshoe Bend. Bassleton Woods and the Holmes form part of a much larger area of special countryside that is open to the public. The Council's Countryside service has planted adjacent fields with approximately 14,000 trees in order to link Bassleton Woods to the nearby Thornaby Woods, which is also open to the public.