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From nearby hills it is apparent that Newbury stands in well wooded and hedged countryside. Woods chequer and cloak much of the landscape and many are recorded as woodland since 1600, and a few will have been continually wooded from pre history.
Local prehistoric forest was probably mainly ash, beech, lime, hornbeam, elm and hazel with the River Kennet and its tributaries flanked with alder and willow. Higher ground around Newbury is frequently gravelly and in historic times typically supported oak, beech and birch with later introduction of sweet chestnut and Scots pine as forestry crops. Deeper soils in the valleys grow good oak and ash, with additional planting of Norway spruce and larch since World War II.
Remnants of ancient woodland abound. For instance one of only two natural stands of the indigenous small-leafed lime in Berkshire survives in woodland west of Newbury. Not far away are ancient pollarded oak and ash hundreds of years old, of a wood pasture system set in neglected medieval deer parkland.
Although not noted as a "forestry area" historically, the rural economy depends on woodland produce. Much of the local economy was dependent on woodland produce. Local estates provided much timber used locally with some of the best oak in England grown on areas of London Clay near East
Woodhay.
Dutch elm disease, storms in January 1990 and the pressure on land for building in and around the town have caused the demise of many of the larger, older specimens. However many remain and form notable landmarks:
100 ft Corsican pine along part of the Andover Road in Wash Common,
a Large Oriental plane outside the Christian Science Reading Room in Newtown Road,
an impressive avenue of Lombardy poplars on Stroud Green,
Lime avenues in Victoria Park.
Trinity
(formerly Shaw House) School and Newtown Road Cemetery have large Cedars.
Perhaps the largest tree in the centre of Newbury is the horse chestnut in Kennet Road
which exceeds 200 years, and is probably Newbury's oldest living inhabitant.
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