The English Lowlands beech forests is a terrestrial ecoregion in the United Kingdom, as defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the European Environment Agency (EEA).

To the north, west and south-west lies the similar Celtic broadleaf forests ecoregion, which covers most of the rest of the British Isles.

[citation needed] Geologically, something of the distinction can be found in the dominance of the Southern England Chalk Formation in this ecoregion, and the Tees-Exe line, which divides the island of Great Britain into a sedimentary south-east, and a metamorphic and igneous north-west.

In summer, the forests are generally cool and dark, because the beech produces a dense canopy, and thus restricts the growth of other species of tree and wild flowers.

In the spring, however, thick carpets of bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) can be seen, flowering before the beech leafs out and shades the forest floor.

In places it is very heavily populated, with towns, suburbs and villages found nearly everywhere – although the plateau of Salisbury Plain remains largely wild.

This was used as a source of flour, ground from the triangular nutlets contained in the "mast", or fruit of the beech, after its tannins had been leached out by soaking.

In recent decades many miles of hedgerows have been grubbed up to enlarge fields to make it easier for farmers to use large agricultural machines.

Meanwhile the traditional more benign method of managing hedges by manual hedge-laying to maintain their vigour and ensure that they cannot be broached by farm animals has been almost completely discontinued due to labour costs and lack of skilled workers.

Most woodbanks are no longer managed and have grown up into mature multi-stemmed trees with interlocking roots, but do not provide an effective boundary.