Hesley and Tankersley Woods have a rich industrial heritage and once contained factories and railways during the war when it was heavily bombed. They now contains a wealth of detail with many bell pits, bomb craters and myriad of paths created by local people spread across mixed vegetation comprising natural oak woodland with bluebells through reclaimed spoil heaps with maturing shrubs and young trees.

The area has been worked for coal and iron, which has left complex slopes covered by the scars of hand-hewn "bell-pits" and other earth-works from the 19th century and before. These days the area is used by dog-walkers, cyclists and trail-bikers, leaving a large number of paths. In the most active biking areas the path network is very complex. The mapping of these paths is good, but small new paths can be created quickly.

There are brambles in parts of the area, but most are at ankle-length, are pretty runnable and have no bramble screen. There are some areas of thicker brambles in the far south of the map.