The Woodland Survey of Great Britain is a unique data set, consisting of a detailed range of ecological
measurements at a national scale, covering a time span of 30 years. A set of 103 woods spread across
Britain were first surveyed in 1971, which were again surveyed in 2000–2003 (for convenience referred to
subsequently as the “2001 survey”). Standardised methods of describing the trees, shrubs, ground flora, soils
and general habitats present were used for both sets of surveys. The sample of 1648 plots spread through 103
woodland sites located across Britain makes it probably the most extensive quantitative ecological woodland
survey undertaken in Britain; it is also notable for the range of sites that have been revisited after such a long
interval. The data set provides a unique opportunity to explore the effects of a range of potential drivers of woodland
change that operated between 1971 and 2001. The data set is available in four discrete parts, which have
been assigned the following DOIs: doi:10.5285/4d93f9ac-68e3-49cf-8a41-4d02a7ead81a (Kirby et al., 2013b),
doi:10.5285/d6409d40-58fe-4fa7-b7c8-71a105b965b4 (Kirby et al., 2013d), doi:10.5285/fb1e474d-456b-42a9-
9a10-a02c35af10d2 (Kirby et al., 2013c), doi:10.5285/2d023ce9-6dbe-4b4f-a0cd-34768e1455ae (Kirby et al.,
2013a)