Autumn-Winter 2012 - The British Naturalists` Association

Transcription

CONTENTS
Autumn & Winter 2012
Vol. 33 No. 5
ISSN No.00II-023X
Letters to the Editor
2
Natural History Observations
2
Founded by E. Kay Robinson in 1905
Editor Michael Demidecki
Layout and typesetting Bryan Sherwood
Printing Quantum Print Services Ltd.
Tel: 01536 408392
Swansea’s Green Mantle
4
Old Moor Nature Reserve
8
Different Deer, Different Behaviour
9
Botanising on the Wenlock Edge!
12
Country-Side is published by British
Naturalists' Association © 2012
Registered Charity Number 296551
A Company limited by guarantee.
Registered no: 2119195
Wild Service Trees
15
Bread and Cheese
19
A Casual Look at Spiders
21
Nonsuch: its History and
Natural History
23
Book Reviews
28
British Naturalists' Association
Contact details:
Post: BM 8129, London WC1N 3XX, UK
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 0844 8921817
Website: www.bna-naturalists.org
Hon. President Professor David Bellamy
Hon. Chairman Roger Tabor
Hon. Vice Presidents Professor Alastair Fitter
David Hosking, Tony Soper, Simon King,
Joanna Lumley, Julian Pettifer
Professor John Cloudsley-Thompson, Lord
Skelmersdale, Commander Michael Saunders
Watson, Dr June Chatfield, Roger Tabor
Editor's contact details:
Post: BM 8129, BNA, The editor,
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Centre Panel Pictures
Top: Bee beetle at Kenfig. (p.4)
Photo: T. Thomas
Middle: Père David deer. (p.9)
Photo: D. Duggan
Bottom: Wild service tree flowers.
(p.15)
Photo: R. Andrews
Front Cover: Red deer (Cervus elaphus).
Photo: D. Duggan
Back Cover: Stream at Margam Country
Park.
Photo: J. Chatfield
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Notes for Contributors
The editor of Country-Side is always glad to receive articles, photographs or drawings for inclusion in the magazine. Contributors are reminded
that: (1) manuscripts must be submitted in electronic form, by disk or e-mail together with hard copy, with accompanying photographs and/or
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website; (4) an abstract not exceeding 50 words should accompany each article; (5) the current issue of Country-Side will give an ideal format.
Please note that Copy for future issues of Country-Side should be sent to the Editor. Each contribution is accepted on the understanding that it is original and unpublished
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purporting to be fact are true and that any recipes or formulae or instruction contained therein are not injurious to the user. While every care is taken with submitted material,
neither the publishers, nor the printers nor the British Naturalists' Association (BNA) can be responsible for loss or damage, however caused. The opinions expressed in editorial
material do not necessarily represent the views of the BNA and the opinions expressed by the contributors are not necessarily those of either the Editor, Features Editor or
BNA. All advertisements are accepted on the understanding that any description of goods, services or accommodation is accurate and true.
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Copy may be e-mailed to [email protected]
Deadline for next edition: 15 March 2013
Observations
Editorial
This edition of Country-Side shows how well BNA is promoting the enjoyment of wildlife. There are
reports by Dr. June Chatfield on two BNA events in 2012: the day in Nonsuch Park, Surrey and the
successful field week in south Wales. During the field week BNA visited Margam Country Park and in
this edition there is an article by Steven George about the deer including the rare Pere David deer to be
found there. With this year’s Olympics in mind Dr. Tim Gardiner has written about his wildflower
marathon on the Wenlock Edge, in Shropshire. There are articles about wild service trees, particularly
those in Epping Forest, and about hawthorns and their hybrids, particularly in Hertfordshire. Also
featured are spiders and the RSPB’s Old Moor Reserve which the newly formed South Yorkshire
branch of BNA will be using as a base. I hope you will find much to interest you in this edition.
Michael Demidecki
Sir,
There are many products on the market
now for naturalists with DVDs and CDs
for identification of birds with their
songs and calls, colour photograph
books of butterflies and dragonflies and
where to find them, nets and ID charts
to catch and study them through to the
very clever pop up hides and apps for
your phone, and where would we be
without our optical equipment, a
camera to capture the unidentifiable and
even a digital microscope to plug into
our lap top computer? However, I find
that there is still room for good field
craft and an understanding of the
subject that is hoped to be studied. To
this end I set up my moth trap,
whenever possible, next to a river. The
spectacle can then be enjoyed of
watching bats feeding on the midges,
and seeing moths and caddis flies
coming to the mercury vapour light
whilst at the same time listening to the
echo-locating clicks on the bat detector.
The following morning it can then be
fun emptying the moth trap. I have
A feast of sea gooseberries
June Chatfield
Original plans for the last afternoon of
the BNA field event in south Wales (see
page 4) were to conclude with a visit to
Rest Bay on the outskirts of Porthcawl
now, after a holiday in June to the
Cairngorms, included a new technique
in my field craft. This came about, as
most new ideas, by a change in the
situation. The area that looked good for
some bat detecting was at the Old
Bridge at Grantown on Spey, so, too
public an area to set up a moth trap and
with the promise of some good evening
light at this time of year it seemed a
great place to bird watch. the evening
was set and my wife Pauline stood on
the bridge with her bat detector set on
55khz for soprano pipistrelle
(Pipistrellus pygmaeus) but ready to
tune down to 45kHz for the common
pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus)
while I stood at the foot of the bridge on
the bank of the Spey with my bat
detector tuned for Daubenton’s bats
(Myotis daubentonii). As we waited for
the light to fade the birds along the river
included sand martins (Riparia riparia)
and swifts (Apus apus), common
sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos),
oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus),
common tern (Sterna hirundo), dipper
(Cinclus cinclus) and a pair of grey
wagtails (Motacilla cinerea) feeding
three young. The first of the bats we
picked up was a soprano pipistrelle at
just after 10.45 pm flying low over the
river and up to a hole on the side of the
bridge but we were distracted totally by
a large salmon (Salmo salar) leaping
out of the water and then thrashing
about at the side of a rock as it was
dragged ashore by an otter (Lutra lutra).
The otter gorged on this meal for some
twenty minutes before returning to the
river and swimming off. It was only
then that I realised two things, first, that
the local midges had discovered me and
I was slowly becoming the first part of
the food chain, and second that the bat
detector was clicking franticly in my
hand. The bats were using me as they
used the moth trap as a concentrated
area of their food, feeding to within a
metre of my head. This technique has a
down side in the form of angry red
wheals on my neck and face and the
need to purchase one more piece of
equipment – a midge net that covers my
head.
where the Carboniferous Limestone
outcrops to give a rocky upper shore,
but this fell prey to the rain that set in at
lunch time as well as the need to return
to the Discovery Centre for data
crunching to provide species lists for
the South East Wales Biological
Records Centre. A fine morning on
departure day provided the opportunity
to explore Rest Bay and gain an hour or
so of sea air before the return journey.
One of the delights of natural history
is the unexpected surprise find and at
Rest Bay it was sea gooseberries or
2 Country-Side Autumn & Winter 2012
Steven Rutherford MBNA
www.bna-naturalists.org
Observations
comb-jellies (Pleurobrachia pileus),
first one transparent jelly the size and
shape of a gooseberry left by the tide on
the sand below the rocks and then over
30 of them where the waves were
lapping the mid-shore sand. I recognised
these from zoology courses in my
student days (not so exciting when
pickled in alcohol in a lab
demonstration) but beautiful and
glistening in the sun in the field where
one could see the vertical stripes of
combs made of fused cilia that the
animal uses to move about. Although
most of their bulk is made of jelly and
they are pelagic, comb-jellies are
separated from the true jellyfish
(Phylum Cnidaria) as they have the
special fused cilia or combs and do not
possess stinging cells so you can safely
pick them up. They belong to the
Phylum Ctenophora. Comb-jellies also
have a balance organ or built -in spirit
level and the combs stacked in each of
the eight rows beat in a synchronised
way in life. The long trailing tentacles
with sticky cells with which they catch
their animal prey from the plankton had
either been retracted into their pits or
broken off in these beached specimens
A Frenzied Murderer
Witnessed
Graham Long
A mothing evening arranged by the
New Forest Study Group in May, with
three light traps set up along the ride at
Ladycross, just east of Brockenhurst,
largely failed in its intended purpose
but was not without entomological
interest. There was a variety of beetles
to be seen, not least Carabus species
that were present in greater numbers
than would have been expected.
Carabus beetles are impressive. Large,
black and in the case of the violet
ground beetle (Carabus violaceus),
adorned with a scintillating band around
the edge of the elytra that seems to
change colour when viewed from
different angles.
It was these that particularly caught
our attention as the night drew on.
With streamlined bodies that seem as
though designed for underwater
operations but operate equally well
through tangled foliage, legs that have
Olympian power, and jaws that could
that did not show any movement. This
gooseberry-shaped species
Pleurobrachia pileus is featured in that
classic field guide Collins Pocket Guide
to the Seashore (Barrett and Yonge,
1962) which describes them being
stranded on shores in late spring, late
summer and early autumn in
considerable numbers.
They
normally live on the open sea with the
floating plankton on which they feed
voraciously, including the fry of many
commercial fish and those working
from boats have wonderful sightings of
them alive graphically described by
Alistair Hardy in The Open Sea its
Natural History in the Collins New
Naturalist series, another natural history
classic (Hardy, 1956).
The comb plates down each meridian
beat rhythmically one after the other
and so propel the animal forwards; if,
as they beat, they catch the light, they
refract it like little prisms, so that wave
after wave of vibrating rainbow colours
sweep in lines along the crystal-clear
sides of the animal as it advances.
For those out at night on fishing
boats Hardy describes their
luminescence:
have been a prototype for the scrapyard
crusher, these ground beetles are
formidable creatures. The great
entomologist Fabre wrote, “the Carabus
is the glory of our collections, but only
for the sake of his appearance. He is a
frenzied murderer; and that is all.”
On this night, they were tracking
slugs. There was no shortage of prey,
in fact slugs were everywhere. It was
almost impossible to move without
stepping on them but they were on the
tree trunks and in the branches too.
Despite their name, the beetles were
hunting them up the trees. The species
Lehmannia marginata (Müller,1774) is
commonly found up trees and was
present in considerable numbers but the
beetles were uninterested in them.
They seemed to have one Arion species
in their sights. These they seized by the
midriff, and then carried them several
feet further up the trunk until finding a
convenient crevasse in the bark in
which to wedge them before tearing
them apart. When the beetle had
finished, there was very little left that
would indicate what kind of slug it had
Sea gooseberry (Pleurobrachia pileus) at Rest
Bay, Porthcawl showing lines of combs
Photo: J. Chatfield
It is the comb-jellies – the Ctenophora –
which give us some of the most
spectacular displays of brilliant flashing
light in our waters..... A plankton
sample containing these animals can
nearly always be relied upon to give a
good show - but we must remember
that they do not perform at all until they
have been in the dark for almost twenty
minutes.
Their anatomical structure and
function is described in another text
Animals without Backbones Volume 1
(Buchsbaum, 1951 as a Pelican
paperback). My friends Carol and
Gordon James from Cardiff, who joined
us at Kenfig during the BNA field
event, have told me since that they have
seen them before in Pembrokeshire.
References:
Carabus violaceus with slug prey
Photo: G. Long
been or even that it had been a slug at
all.
All of which raises some interesting
questions. How often does an
individual beetle need to feed? Do they
always consume the whole slug? Is the
tree hunting technique general or
particular to this area? Are other slug
species taken elsewhere? Is there a link
between the larger than expected
population of Carabus violaceus here
and the explosion in the number of
slugs this year?
Autumn & Winter 2012 Country-Side 3
The BNA Field Event was held from
29th May to 1st June 2012 based at the
Discovery Centre in Margam Country
Park near Port Talbot in south Wales.
For most of us it was a journey into
spring and early summer as the
vegetation was seasonally more
advanced than in other cooler parts of
the country thanks to the Gulf Stream
that impacts on to the Atlantic coast of
Britain. Swansea Bay’s Green Mantle:
Wildlife on an Industrial Coast is the
title of a book by Dr Mary E Gillham
published in 1982 that gave a good
introductory background to the week
with two chapters on Margam and seven
on Kenfig. During the week we
recorded a number of species of
flowering plants, ferns, mosses and
liverworts, lichens, mammals, birds,
insects and molluscs and, having
Michael Spearing, a volunteer recorder
from South East Wales Biological
Records Centre in the group our
discoveries are being added to their
database. However, much remains to be
found on further field work at other
times of the year in an area that
certainly repays a future visit.
Geology and landscape
This is an area of diverse geology that
has given a rich variety and mosaic of
landscape, vegetation, land-use in
Common Tiger Beetle on a path near Cwm Philip,
Margam Park
Photo: L. York
Glamorgan cow at Margam Park with the white stripe over the spine
Photo: J. Glasgow
agriculture, forestry and industry: the
plants and animals often reflect the
geology in their local distribution. The
species lists for Margam Country Park
and Kenfig dunes were quite different.
The area of the country park is on Coal
Measures of Carboniferous age formed
around 300 millions of years ago as
sediments in wet swampy woodlands of
tree ferns, tree horsetails and tree clubmosses before our flowering and seedforming trees took over as the dominant
vegetation of plant succession. Their
remains gave us the coal that supported
the economies of south Wales in the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
with coal and iron mining on the high
ground to the north of and docking and
export of coal from ports on the coastal
plain. Before the coming of industry,
Glamorgan was a beautiful county of
deciduous woodlands on high ground
with hill farms and sheep as depicted in
engravings of the area from the
eighteenth century. There is a “gritty”
side to the modern Glamorgan but as
Mary Gillham has demonstrated in her
book (above) wild life persisted around
the industry and moved in to derelict
sites when coal mining and metal
industries closed down. I remember the
Margam hillside in the 1960s and 1970s
with air pollution and evidence from
dead trees and lack of lichens, but this
visit has shown an improvement since
then.
The highest ground forming the
northern skyline of Margam Country
Park is of Upper Coal Measures,
particularly the Pennant Sandstone that
gives an acidic moorland soil, reaching
344 metres at Mynydd Margam. The
more gentle lower land of Margam deer
park is formed of the older Lower Coal
Measures, a varied stratigraphy that
includes much fine-grained shale with
poor drainage, evidenced by rushes in
the grass sward. This suits the Margam
herd of Pere David’s Deer that came
originally from wet land in Asia and
Early Marsh Orchid at Kenfig
Photo: J. Chatfield
have split hooves and wide feet
adapting then to walking on soft mud.
Further east the geology of the Welsh
coalfield is more complete with eastwest bands of Millstone Grit and Old
Red Sandstone forming high ground
north of Cardiff. The oldest of the
Carboniferous strata is the
Carboniferous Limestone that outcrops
in the area of Porthcawl and forms the
southern rim of the hills behind Cardiff
where it has been mined as Magnesian
Limestone and also some coastal
outcrops at Barry Island. The first
Severn Bridge up the Bristol Channel
beyond Newport utilised bedrock of
Carboniferous Limestone for its
foundation. Carboniferous Limestone
formed in a clean tropical sea some
distance from a coastline that would
have brought mud. Outside the area we
visited but forming the distinct
landscape feature of the Vale of
Glamorgan from Barry to St Donats, an
area of vertical cliffs of alternating
limestone and shale is composed of a
much younger Liassic Limestone of
Jurassic age (about 200 million years
ago) that is also used as local building
stone, weathering from yellow to grey:
the two limestones are distinguished by
their fossils. Septate corals with
radiating partitions are present in the
Carboniferous Limestone, but not in the
Liassic Limestone that instead yields
ammonites and fossil oysters called
Devil’s Toe-nails. Llantwit Major beach
and Nash Point are good places to
observe the Liassic Limestone in the
cliffs of south Wales and here there are
frequent rock falls. The heavy clay soil
eroded from the shales between Liassic
Limestone strata supports a rich
agriculture of cereal growing and dairy
farming with some sheep in the
prosperous Vale of Glamorgan.
Good overviews of the landscape
were had from the top of the Iron Age
hill fort at Margam Country Park and
from the pulpit rock both taking in the
flat industrial coastal plain of Port
Talbot, the undeveloped sand dunes of
Kenfig (that spread both east and west)
and the more level ground on Lower
Coal Measures of the Margam deer
park. Also visible on the first clearer
day was the coast of north Somerset and
Devon across the Bristol Channel where
the same series of rocks outcrop with
Liassic Limestone on the Somerset coast
near Watchet, Carboniferous Limestone
of the Mendips and the islands of
Steepholm and Flat Holm in the Bristol
Channel and the Old Red Sandstones of
Devonian age forming the Quantocks
and north Devon cliff coastline leading
up to the high ground of Exmoor.
The flat coastal plain from Port
Talbot to Kenfig has its bedrock covered
by blown sand that built up during
Medieval times. The original site of
Kenfig town was abandoned as
unsustainable in the late seventeenth
century due to sand storms. This story is
told in the display panels by the Kenfig
Nature Reserve Visitor Centre. The
history of land use at Margam is
similarly displayed in the reception area
of the Discovery Centre where day
visitors can also use the Three Deers
Cafe. Geology as exposed along the
coastline of Glamorgan from colourful
Triassic marl cliffs of Penarth in the east
near Cardiff, along the Vale of
Glamorgan and Gower to the west of
Swansea offers much scope for field
visits and is introduced in a book
Walking the Rocks: six walks discovery
scenery and geology along the
Glamorgan coast (Howe, Owen and
Sharpe, 2004). The British Geological
Survey maps Sheets 262, 247 and 248
cover the Margam area and can be
accessed online. These show the
complexity of the situation between
Margam and Bridgend. There are good
displays on local geology at the National
Museum Wales in Cardiff and the
curatorial staff a source of further help
and information.
Vegetation at Margam Country Park
The human influence has shaped
Margam from prehistoric times (the Iron
Age hill fort), through the Middle Ages
as the base of an abbey up to the
dissolution in 1536 and then as the site
of a country house and deer park based
on wealth from local industry. The
gardens have long been a feature of
Margam with the eighteenth century
orangery (open and restored) that predates the newer Margam House in
Victorian gothic of 1830 with
surrounding walled gardens, terraces
and ornamental plantings of
rhododendrons. Although the latter as
the invasive Rhododendron ponticum is
a conservation problem ousting native
vegetation, those at Margam are fairly
well contained and there is no doubt to
the delight the purple and pink flowers
give to visitors in early summer, all
things in moderation. Within the
country park is acid and heathy
grassland, wetland by streams, pools
and lakes, older deciduous woods as at
Graig Fawr near the ruined chapel from
the old Glamorgan landscape and
coniferous forestry plantations outside
the park on the high ground of the
Upper Coal measures. Trees on the hill
fort show the pruning effect of
prevailing winds off the sea. When I
first knew this area in the 1960s there
was considerable air pollution from
industry and the hillside above the A48
showing dead trunks of trees killed by
the fumes but today it is not such a
ravaged scene. The herds of deer graze
the grassland of the lower ground with
more typical heathy vegetation on the
high ground above Cwm Phillip. The
Cwm Philip trail was an interesting
habitat with swampy ground, willows
and several species of Sphagnum moss.
Remnants of a former woodland herb
flora with bluebells was seen along the
Cwm Philip valley. Around the
Discovery Centre is a collection of rare
breeds including the Glamorgan cattle
returned to the county in 1979 as the
Margam breeding herd. A good
background on many aspects of
Margam is given in Margam Country
Park An illustrated guide obtainable
from the Visitor Centre and entrance
kiosk.
Insects
Beetles can be seen crawling across
paths and these are often ground
beetles. Whilst walking up the stony
path from Cwm Philip to the pulpit rock
area the group had some excellent views
of the common tiger beetle (Cicindela
campestris), a fast runner but
occasionally they stopped enabling us to
observe the green wing-cases with
yellow spots before becoming airborne.
These are typical of sandy heathland
and are carnivorous. On the sheltered
path up Joan Kemp spotted a brown
silver-lines moth. During the
reconnaissance visit in April I came
across an oil beetle (Meloe
proscarabaeus) on the grassy path near
Autumn and Winter 2012 Country-Side 5
Sea-holly with flower bud at apex and spiny
grey-green leaves
Photo: J. Kay Robinson
the pulpit rock: this is a black flightless
beetle with only short wing cases and
by the chapel with the BNA a lesser
bloody-nose beetle another ground
beetle (Carabus nemoralis) was found
under a pile of logs near New Lake. The
fringe vegetation around the lake
proved good insect habitats yielding the
dock leaf beetle (Gastrophysa viridula)
on dock leaves both as bronzy adults
but also their distinctive orange eggs.
Beating in the foliage yielded the red
and black 7-spot ladybird (Coccinella
7-punctata) and the smaller yellow and
black 14-spot ladybird (Propylea 14punctata). Craneflies have their larvae
in wet soil and Ken Merrifield collected
two species Tipula oleracea and the
large cranefly (T. maxima) with
patterned wings. Further on in the walk
other beetles were found including the
very common soldier beetle
(Rhagonycha fulva) that typically sits
on umbel flowers waiting for other
insects to come and take nectar, and it
then takes them, being a carnivore. It is
red with black tips to its long narrow
wing- cases.
Spiders
Tom Thomas collected spiders both
during the daytime and at night,
however it was early in the season and a
number of them were too immature to
identify.
Among the species he collected at
Margam were: Lycosidae (Wolf
spiders), Pardosa prativaga;
Tetragnathidae (Orb-web builders),
Tetragnatha montana, Meta mengei;
Araneidae (Orb-web builders) Araneus
diadematus, Araniella spp., and from
the buildings after dark Larinioides
sclopetarius, Nuctenea umbratica;
Linyphiidae (Hammock web spiders)
Microlinyphia pusilla.
Birds and bats
The bird list made by Lewis York for
Margam Park was: blackbird, blackcap,
buzzard, Canada geese, carrion crow,
chaffinch, chiffchaff, coot, dunnock,
garden warbler, goldcrest, goldfinch,
grasshopper warbler, grey heron, house
martin, house sparrow, jackdaw,
mallard, mute swan, nightjar, pied
wagtail, robin, skylark, song thrush,
stock dove, swallow, swift, tree creeper,
tufted duck and willow warbler. The
lake around the Discovery Centre
provided good supplies of aerial insects
that attracted swallows, house martins
and swifts.
Bats were seen at dusk and the bat
detector enabled identification to
pipistrelle and noctule bats.
Kenfig Local Nature Reserve
This consists of a splendid expanse of
sand dunes, dune slacks and pool with
trackways to the sandy beach.
Fragments of seashells within the sand
provide calcium that accounts for some
of the difference in flora and fauna
compared with the acid land of Margam
Park and a specialised dune flora that is
at its best in late spring when most of
the plants are in flower. The original
town of Kenfig is now under the sands.
It was sited on an important east-west
routeway with an economy based on
trade and industry ranking third in size
as a south Wales town behind Cardiff
and Swansea and then situated just
inland from the coastal dune fringe. The
Glamorgan coast on the Bristol Channel
is remarkable for having the highest
tidal range in the world along with
prevailing on-shore westerly winds that
transports dry sand from the beaches
fringing Swansea Bay to the sand dunes
that once extended from Swansea to
Merthyr Mawr south of Bridgend.
Kenfig is the most intact section of
dunes unaffected by industry. The
whole area of our field event was
known as Morgan or Margam. Life in
the town of Kenfig was disturbed by
various skirmishes between people but a
greater enemy – moving sand – sealed
its fate from a combination of natural
and human-induced causes. The natural
1,700 year cycle of conjunction of sun
and moon both pulling together through
gravity resulted in abnormally high
tides and flooding peaking in 1433.
Furthermore human over-exploitation of
the dunes through commoners’ grazing
animals together with the effect of
rabbits from the warren led to blow-outs
and redistribution of blown sand inland
once bare ground was no longer held
together by plant roots and the grazing
animals would further inhibit any plant
re-colonisation. New common grazing
land was established on higher ground
of Kenfig Down (now a golf course) but
by the latter part of the reign of
Elizabeth I, encroaching sand led to the
abandonment of the original town. The
Borough of Kenfig technically
continued to exist until it was abolished
by Act of Parliament in 1886, along
with other “rotten” and “decayed
boroughs”.
Over the years drainage from the
land was inhibited by the sand dunes
and Kenfig Pool was twice the size that
it is today. The Talbot family who held
Margam Park were also involved with
Kenfig where they introduced fish to the
pool and planted the surrounding
willows. In 1971 there was a Court case
to decide a dispute between the people
of Kenfig and the owners of Margam
Park over ownership of the sand dunes
and it was decided in favour of the
commoners. This provided the stimulus
for seeking Local Nature Reserve status
for the Kenfig dunes, a fortunate move
in view of the impact of industry on the
rest of the coastal strip of the bay.
Today there is a Visitor Centre by the
car park, interpretation panels on the
history and natural history, while on
boards inside are lists of recent
sightings of birds and notable plants like
the orchids. The history of Kenfig is
given in a booklet Welcome to Kenfig
by Barrie Griffiths published by The
Kenfig Society (2002) and available at
the Visitor Centre.
Kenfig Pool and willow fringe
Swampy willow carr (grey willow)
surrounded the pool and trunks of the
trees were well colonised by epiphytes –
lichens, mosses and liverworts worthy
of more detailed investigation on
another occasion. Damp ground with
some standing water by the paths and
the pool margins supported a wetland
flora including ragged robin, gipsywort,
water mint, hemlock water-dropwort,
greater willowherb, hemp agrimony,
common fleabane, southern marsh
Bee Beetle on umbel flower at Kenfig
Photo: T. Thomas
orchid, early marsh orchid, yellow flag,
spike-rush and hard rush together with
the trees of grey willow and aspen. On
the sandy path from the Visitor Centre
was a patch of a special dune stork’sbill, a separate sub-species of the
common stork’s-bill.
It was around the pool that two
interesting insect records were made,
the tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)
recently arrived into Britain from the
Continent and the bee beetle (Trichius
fasciatus) that at first sight looks like a
bumblebee with a fluffy thorax but
closer observation reveals two hard
wing cases covering the abdomen
making it a beetle.
Dunes and slacks
This habitat had a rich and specialised
flora with most species in flower in late
May. While some species were
abundant and widespread throughout
the dunes, others were more localised.
Dune specialists found were sand sedge,
sand cat’s-tail, while on the fore-dunes
at the top of the beach were sea-holly,
sea sandwort, sea bindweed, sea stock
(an uncommon plant) and damp dune
slacks were characterised by meadow
thistle, southern and early marsh orchids
and dune or dwarf willow. also present
were plants of calcareous grassland like
kidney vetch, ladies bedstraw and
quaking grass while reflecting the low
nutrient status of the soil were the
parasitic common broomrape that has
no green tissue and latches on to roots
of vetches or daisy family and the half
parasite yellow-rattle on grass roots. It
was curious to see marsh pennywort in
a damp seepage area, a plant normally
associated with acid soils. The plant
highlight of the dunes was the
decreasing green-veined orchid that was
once not uncommon in damp grassland
but is now rarely seen and for some
members of the party was a first
sighting. This was listed on the notice
board at the Visitor Centre and I am
grateful to the staff member for
directing us to the very limited area
where it occurred. Some dune plants
had adapted to the dry habitat by being
succulent and storing water in the case
of sea sandwort and stonecrops, while
many had underground runners or
rooted from nodes enabling them to
survive drought and being buried by
sand. Leaves of marram grass on dunes
nearest the sea are flat when the air is
damp but roll up into a cylinder when
the air is dry with the glossy water-tight
cuticle on the outside and stomata or
breathing pores in pits protected inside.
Shrubs on dunes, as part of the stage of
plant succession, included burnet rose,
that is distinguished by a black hip later
in the season. This had a curious orange
fungus gall Phragmidium rosaepimpinellifolia related to bramble
brands.
The lime-rich soil of the dunes
supported a snail fauna of the common
garden snail (Cornu aspersum) that
needs loose soil, the colourful pink or
yellow brown-lipped snail (Cepaea
nemoralis) that might be spirally
banded, the pointed snail (Cochlicella
acuta) a coastal species, the banded
snail (Cernuella virgata) also needing
loose soil, the wrinkled snail
(Candidula intersecta) and the sandhill
snail (Theba pisana). The latter is a
species of coastal areas and dunes that
has spread along the north coast of
Cornwall in recent years and in south
Wales was known from Tenby in Dyfed
and appears to be expanding in
Glamorgan.
Yellow crab spider (Misamena vatia)
at Kenfig
Photo: T. Thomas
Spiders
At Kenfig, Tom Thomas recorded the
following spiders: Dictynidae, Dictyna
arundinacea; Thomisidae, Misumena
vatia; Philodromidae (active crab
spiders), Philodromus cespitum;
Lycosidae (Wolf spiders), Pardosa
monticola; Pisauridae, Pisaura
mirabilis (carrying her egg-sac);
Agelenidae, Agelena labyrinthica;
Theridiidae, Theridion bimaculatum;
Tetragnathidae (Orb-web builders),
Tetragnatha extensa, Meta mengei;
Araneidae (Orb-web builders), Araneus
diadematus, Zygiella x-notata;
Linyphiidae (Hammock web spiders),
Dismodicus bifrons, Maso sundevalli,
Kaestneria pullata.
Birds
Lewis York paid particular attention to
birds, recording blackbird, blackcap,
blue tit, Cetti’s warbler, chaffinch,
chiffchaff, common whitethroat, coot,
grey heron, long-tailed tit, magpie,
mallard, muscovy duck, reed bunting,
robin, sedge warbler, swift, willow
warbler, wood pigeon and wren. The
reeds and willows around Kenfig Pool
were good for warblers.
References
Gillham, M. 1982. Swansea Bay’s Green Mantle:
Wildlife on an Industrial Coast. Cowbridge: D
Brown and Sons Ltd.
Griffiths, B. 2002. Welcome to Kenfig.
Monograph No.20. Kenfig: The Kenfig Society
Sea Sandwort with fleshy leaves growing on the
top shore shingle and sand at Kenfig
Photo: J. Kay Robinson.
Howe, S., Owen, G., Sharpe, T. 2004. Walking
the Rocks six walks discovering scenery &
geology along the Glamorgan coast. Cardiff:
Geologists’ Association – South Wales Group.
Old Moor Nature Reserve
The BNA Branch in South Yorkshire
now has a home at the RSPB’s nature
reserve Old Moor in the Dearne Valley.
The reserve is about ninety eight
hectares. It has been very well recorded
for birdlife since the 1950s by the
Barnsley Bird Study Group after
mining subsidence filled with water and
it became a small nature reserve called
Wath Ings. After closure of the local
pits in the 1980s, this area was enlarged
by Barnsley Council with most of the
design work carried out by the
Wildfowl Advisory Service in
consultation with the RSPB, Yorkshire
Wildlife Trust and local groups. Old
Moor became an RSPB nature reserve
on 1st April 2003.
The Old Moor reserve was
originally a farm set in a low wide
valley with the river Dearne running
through the north and the smaller Knoll
Beck flowing to the south. When
entering the reserve one can see that the
buildings are set around a square
courtyard. There is the main farm house
and a smaller house built later for the
extended family. To the east of the
courtyard were the stables, on the west
the old cowshed and the area where the
pigs were kept. The horse paddock
had little or no management over the
years leaving the wonderful legacy of
adder’s-tongue (Ophioglossum
vulgatum). The management of this
field now consists of topping once a
year in late autumn and leaving the
cuttings for seed dispersal for four days
before gathering and bailing, the field is
then grazed by Jacobs’s sheep through
the winter.
Talking to some members of the
Gascoigne family, who owned the farm
for generations, I learned that the
farmland had low value as it was so wet
and prone to flooding so there was very
little improvement to the grass. The
result has had a positive impact on the
reserve we see today. That includes the
bee orchids (Ophrys apifera),
discovered in 2008, bringing that group
of species to five. The wild flower
Bee orchid (Ophrys apifera)
Photo: S Rutherford
meadow is being maintained by the
RSPB, giving a wonderful rolling
display of colour from early spring
through till late summer. Two flowers
worth mentioning here are yellow-rattle
(Rhinanthus minor) and common birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus).
Yellow-rattle is semi-parasitic on some
grasses; this helps other plants by
reducing competition from the
dominant grasses leaving open areas for
lower growing plants such as the
trefoils to thrive. The birds-foot trefoil
is an important food plant for
butterflies and bees such as the dingy
skipper butterfly (Erynnis tages) and
the tree bumblebee (Bombus
hypnorum), both found on the reserve.
Another invertebrate group studied on a
regular basis is the Odonata (the
dragonflies and damselflies) with
banded demoiselle (Calopteryx
splendens) around the rivers and blacktailed skimmers (Orthetrum
cancellatum) on the reed beds being
two dragons of summer.
As this is an RSPB reserve it is well
covered for avian sightings and has a
very impressive list with breeding
willow tit (Parus montanus), tree
sparrow (Passer montanus), avocet
(Recurvirostra avosetta) and bittern
(Botaurus stellaris). Autumn migration
brings in large numbers of lapwing
(Vanellus vanellus) to add to the
breeding population and between four
and eight thousand golden plover
(Pluvialis apricaria). All of this
potential prey is followed by Peregrine
falcons (Falco peregrinus) from the
upland areas. Through the winter large
Dingy skipper butterfly (Erynnis tages)
Photo: S Rutherford
numbers of yellowhammer (Emberiza
citrinella), reed bunting (Emberiza
schoeniclus), linnet (Carduelis
cannabina), and bullfinch (Pyrrhula
pyrrhula) feed in the sacrificial crops
planted.
Mammals are well represented with
red fox (Vulpes vulpes) being the top
predator on the site with stoat (Mustela
ermine) and weasel (M. nivalis) also
being present. An electric fence
powered by a car battery has been
erected around the main breeding areas
of wet grasslands and reed beds used by
ground nesting birds such as little
ringed plover (Charadrius dubius) and
redshank (Tringa totanus) to give
protection from red fox predation.
Brown hare (Lepus capensis) and rabbit
(Oryctolagus cuniculus) are seen
regularly on the wildflower meadow
while on the paths and maintained
grassy areas beside the paths evidence
of hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in
the form of droppings, and moles
(Talpa europaea) by the hills of
displaced soil can be found. There are
three species of shrew, including water
shrew (Neomys fodiens), three species
of vole: bank vole (Clethrinomys
glareolus), field vole (Microtus
agrestis) and water vole (Arvicola
terrestris), along with wood mouse
(Apodemus sylvaticus) and house mouse
(Mus musculus). The water vole
population is being monitored by the
use of food rafts. Common (Pipistrellus
pipistrellus) and soprano Pipistrelle
(P.pygmaeus), Daubenton’s (Myotis
daubentonii) and Noctule bats (Nyctalus
noctula) are also found here.
at Margam Country Park
Père David deer in the rut: the stag with antlers covered in vegetation shows off to his hinds
Photo: David Duggan
Following the most famous date in
history, 1066, England became
increasingly under Norman rule,
especially in the South east. Wales
proved more difficult to subdue due to
its inhospitable terrain and the
Guerrilla tactics of the warlike
inhabitants.
In 1142 the Normans made
successful campaigns into the Welsh
border area and established three
earldoms. From these bases, more
advances were made into Wales. The
Doomsday book of 1085 refers to an
agreement between William the
Conqueror and Rhys ap Tewdar, King
of Deheubarth, that Rhys should
continue his authority over his
Kingdom and other parts of South
Wales especially Morgan (Glamorgan)
and Brycheiniog, all of which lay
outside Norman rule.
Following the death of Rhys, the
Normans advanced into most of South
Wales for the same reasons as the
Romans before them; good arable land,
access to the sea via rivers and a milder
climate than further North.
In 1147, Robert, Earl of Gloucester,
granted a foundation charter for
Margam Abbey to be built which
included all fishing rights between the
river Afan and Kenfig. On 28th
November 1147, twelve Monks and one
Abbot arrived at Margam, and chose
the existing site. The site was also
chosen because it suited the Cistercian
way of life; the raising of cattle and
sheep and growing of grain.
Due to clearances of the Welsh by
the Church, granges or large farms were
established and lay brothers were
needed in huge numbers to help the
Monks run the Abbey and grange. Most,
if not all the lay brothers were illiterate
and treated as second class citizens or
lowly surfs. Since they greatly
outnumbered the Monks a rebellion took
place in 1206 and they forced the
Monks to improve their working
conditions. The Black Death of 1348
decimated the population of Europe and
altered the balance of power within the
Abbey by virtue of the fact that labour
was in extremely short supply. The
leasing of land by Welshmen in order to
raise revenue , which had previously
been forbidden set a precedent,
Outbreaks of sheep scab and rebellions
such as occurred in 1400 to 1415 led by
Owain Glyndwr exacerbated the
Abbey’s problems and hastened its
declining financial situation.
During the latter half of the 15th
Century, long term leases were granted
to laymen, many of whom struggled for
control and power to increase their
wealth. Religion and altruism
succumbed to avarice and greed.
The 16th Century saw a rapid decline
in the Abbey’s Monk population
recorded as low as eight whereas
previous numbers were as high as one
Red deer in the rut with fallow deer nearby
Photo: David Duggan
hundred in former decades. Also, the
availability of lay brothers was
practically nil. At least thirty were
required to keep the Abbey and grange
working. Slowly but surely, the Monks
of Margam became superfluous and
unnecessary. This decline in fortune
paved the way for one of the greatest
and perhaps best known event in
history, a takeover by Henry VIII, the
Dissolution of the Monasteries.
In 1534 Henry proclaimed himself
Head of the Church in England and
Wales. This gave independence from
the Pope and Rome and enabled him to
seize all monasteries and land. In 1536
he had passed a law which stated that
any Abbey with an income of less than
£200 per year would be seized.
Margam’s income at that time was only
£181. On 20th June 1536 Henry’s men
took over the Abbey. One Abbot and
nine Monks were paid their wages and
dismissed. On 24th August 1536 Henry
VIII owned Margam Abbey. The
intention was to raise money by the sale
of the property and land, hence a buyer
was sought and eventually found in the
person of Sir Rice Mansel. The Mansel
family purchased the estate in four
stages, 1st stage, 1540 Abbey Church for
payment of £938.6.8d, 2nd stage 1543,
Granges purchased for £642, 3rd stage
1546 £678.4.6d for Granges, 4th stage
1557 £223.15.3d paid to Queen Mary.
A total of £2,482.13.1d raised on credit
paid in stages. Sir Rice Mansel was
given permission by the Crown to create
a park of 100 acres. Eventually the
Abbey building was altered to become a
huge mansion house. This and other
Church properties seized and sold by
Henry VIII formed the basis of many
estates which became deer parks
throughout the country. It is not known
for certain exactly when fallow deer
(Dama dama) were brought into Britain,
or by whom, but it is believed to have
been either by the Romans or the
Normans, both of whom would have
prized them for their grace and beauty
and above all, their meat. Herds were
bred and confined in such newly created
private estates along with the much
larger, indigenous red deer (Cervus
elaphus). Large estates often served as
hunting venues for the rich and
powerful and Margam, although small
by comparison to the Royal parks, was
no exception. Hunting was even
performed by Footmen chasing stags or
bucks to the amusement of privileged
onlookers in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Eventually fallow and red deer grew in
numbers.
The fallow herd consists of seventy
bucks, one hundred and twenty does and
eighty fawns. The males or bucks have
palmate antlers and can measure 90 cms
at the shoulder. Does are 70 cms at the
shoulder and do not have antlers but use
their front hooves as formidable
weapons if threatened or in defense of
their young. They have the greatest
colour range of all deer, ranging from
black through shades of brown with
white spots to all white. Bucks cast their
antlers in April and grow a larger set
ready for the rut in October when they
can be heard groaning. Fawns, which
weigh approximately 4.5 kg, are born in
early to mid June and hidden in bracken
or rhododendron until old enough to
accompany its mother.
The red deer herd consists of eleven
stags, thirty-nine hinds and seventeen
calves. The stags have antlers and can
measure 107-137 cms at the shoulder,
hinds do not have antlers and measure
107-122 cms. The stags, like fallow
bucks shed antlers in April but rut in
September although the start of the rut
often seems to be triggered by the
temperature. A sharp frost seems to kick
start the red deer rut and acts as a
catalyst for explosive action, a fact that
my colleagues and I noticed on many
occasions. The red coat of summer
changes to grey in winter with stags
developing a shaggy brown mane during
the rut. Calves are born in late May or
June, and are concealed in undergrowth
the same as fallow fawns. When two red
stags of similar size challenge each
other, they perform a parallel walk to
assess each other’s fitness and weight.
One will walk away or they turn and
fight. During the rutting season, both red
stags and fallow bucks of sufficient age
and size which allows them to mate
become exhausted and lose much of
their body weight. This is due to the
exertions of mating, chasing off younger
rivals, engaging in fighting and not
having peace to graze or ruminate.
Patrolling the boundaries of a rutting
stand and being ever vigilant to prevent
young males sneaking in to his harem
takes a heavy toll on his health.
Sometimes, especially in an extremely
harsh winter it can prove fatal. This can
even happen in a parkland situation
where fodder is provided although it is
much more common in wild areas both
in Britain and abroad where conditions
are more severe. The whole herd can
become disrupted and peace is not
restored until the testosterone fuelled
males eventually return to their normal
behaviour of laying in groups of “all
boys together”.
Another species of deer were
introduced into Margam in the 1980’s
and 1990’s, the rare and relatively
unknown Père David deer (Elaphurus
davidianus) which originate from
marshlands in north east China. These
deer which the Chinese call Milu or
“ssu-ou-hsiang”, the four unlikes,
refers to having the tail of an ass, the
hooves of a cow, the neck of a camel
and the antlers of a stag. The three
herds can often be seen in close
proximity or in small groups of the
same sex, same species depending on
the time of the year although the Père
David deer tend not to mix so readily
with the other species. This is due to
several factors, the most obvious being
that Père David rut in May through to
August. During these summer months,
fallow and red deer are enjoying the
summer sun (perhaps not this summer),
with females nursing young and males
lazing about in small gatherings.
Another reason for their distance is the
fact that they are often seen to graze in
shallow lakes waist deep in water with
their heads completely submerged.
At present there are eight stags,
twenty-six hinds and seven calves in
the park. Adults stand approximately
1.16 meters and a can weigh up to 200
kg. Their colour in summer is reddish
buff with a dark dorsal stripe, in winter
it turns to dark grey. The antler cycle of
these deer differs in timing from the red
or fallow. The calves are born in April
to May and the male’s pedicles develop
during the first year. This is followed
by the first antlers which develop in
late summer of the next year. Unlike
red and fallow, these simple spikes are
not free of velvet for the summer rut
but are usually cleaned of velvet during
August and September and are carried
well into late winter. In older stags,
casting begins from October and is
followed by regrowth of the antlers.
These are fully formed and cleaned of
velvet in May and June. The older
animals are usually the first to clean.
The average birth weight of calves is
9.5 kg, average gestation period is 280
days. Twins are quite common.
Maturity is reached at fourteen months
and lifespan is about twenty-three
years. The backward pointing tines of
the stag’s antlers are often covered with
vegetation during the rut to give an
impression of greater bulk to intimidate
any rivals that may challenge.
These deer were considered to be
extinct in the wild due to floods and
other natural causes. Discovered in
1865 by Père (Father) David a French
missionary in the Imperial Hunting
Park outside Peking. After some
persuasion, a few were imported to
Europe before the remaining wild
specimens were killed by starving
peasants in the Boxer Rebellion of
1900. The 11th Duke of Bedford bought
animals in some of these zoos and built
up his herd at Woburn from which the
Whipsnade stock originated. Two pairs
were sent to Peking Zoo in 1973.
Another shipment of thirty-eight deer
from Woburn to the Nanyuang Royal
Hunting Garden near Beijing took
place in 1985. The following year,
another thirty-nine deer went to the Da
Feng Forest Farm in China from
Whipsnade, Marwell, Glasgow,
Chester, Knowsley and Longleat. This
has to be one of the most successful
conservation projects since the end of
the Second World War. The small
herd at Margam serves as a genetic pool
should disease strike in any of the other
locations where these deer are to be
found. Their future seems very secure.
Culling is carried out in early
morning and is performed humanely by
trained marksmen who form part of the
estate’s workforce. Appropriate caliber
high powered rifles, equipped with
telescopic sights are used at the correct
time of year. The animal’s anatomy is
taken into account to ensure a clean and
instant kill. A spotter always
accompanies the shooter to watch for
other animals that may stray into the line
of fire, and also joggers, walkers and
cyclists who ignore locked gates and
warning signs which are hung on every
entrance. Radio contact is also used to
convey information about any would be
trespasser that had not yet strayed into
the danger zone. Sometimes the cull has
to be abandoned due to a sunny morning
and too much human activity, this is one
of the drawbacks of a deer park being
shared in close proximity to a village or
town.
The animals selected for culling
consist of older animals which are
starting to lose condition due to worn
teeth, bad confirmation of antlers and
late, weak fawns or calves that will not
survive the winter. Even in a Country
Park environment where food is
provided, some inevitably succumb to
cold and more importantly, wet weather
which lasts for many weeks without
respite. Nature can be very cruel in its
indifferent attitude.
Unlike many deer species, Père David deer are very fond of water
Photo: David Duggan
Fallow deer tend to be the most
nervous of the three species and often
seem to take comfort from the fact that
red deer graze close by. The reds, being
taller, see danger before the shorter
fallow and hence serve as an early
warning system. If the reds who are
laying down get up quickly then the
fallow follow suit and seem to watch the
reds as much as they look for the source
of their concern. Deer at the outer edge
of the group who are nearest to the
danger move towards the centre but the
ones at the far side look behind and to
the direction away from the danger.
They seem to suspect an ambush which
may come from another direction with
the obvious danger being used as a
decoy. Père David deer are the most
tolerant and allow people or dogs to get
much closer, unless their calves are very
young They reluctantly move to cover,
perhaps due to the fact that their natural
environment is swampy open ground .
In winter when food such as sugar
beet, potatoes or swedes are delivered
by tractor and trailer the three species
show a remarkable different method of
approach. The fallow deer gallop from
the hill or meadow and jump around in
frantic expectation whereas the reds
canter to the food supply and settle to
eat very quickly. Père David deer
simply stroll to the site with an
extremely relaxed attitude. The food is
laid out in a long line to ensure that all
animals can feed and are not excluded
by larger stags or bucks with threatening
antlers. The pecking order quickly
becomes evident and movement almost
stops as food is .devoured
The three herds of Margam
complement each other and provide a
fascinating opportunity to see how the
different species sometimes interact,
completely ignore, tolerate and even
violently disrupt each other’s
instinctive behaviour.
Steven George was a Countryside
Ranger for twenty-five years and
the Visitor Services Manager at
Margam Country Park for seven
years. His interests are history,
wildlife conservation, metal
detecting and trees. He is an
arboriculturalist, horticulturalist
and amateur historian.
The Much Wenlock Olympian Games
As few could fail to be aware, 2012 is the year of the London Olympics. Far fewer would know that the inspiration for the
modern Olympic movement originated from Much Wenlock in Shropshire. William Penny Brookes was a respected local doctor
and co-founder of the Wenlock and Severn Junction Railway. His most famous achievement was organising the first of a series
of Olympian Games in 1850 in Much Wenlock. These games are regarded as the precursor to the modern Olympics we now
enjoy. Sports included in the early games were athletics, cricket, football and quoits. A ‘fun’ event such as a wheelbarrow race
or an old women’s dash for a pound of tea was often included! The achievement of Dr Brookes is proudly displayed on local
road signs and the site of the games is still a recreation ground and playing field. The games continue to this day and are
organised by the Wenlock Olympian Society.
Wenlock Edge
As well as being noted for the
Olympian Games, Much Wenlock is
close to the escarpment of Wenlock
Edge which is one of the most famous
geological sites in the world. The scarp
is over 400 million years old, when it
formed as part of a coral reef in subtropical seas south of the equator.
Wenlock Edge is composed of Silurian
limestone which runs for approximately
30 kilometres from Craven Arms to
Much Wenlock. The Edge is a rich
source of fossils and the limestone has
been used for centuries to build roads.
The scarp is continuously wooded, with
large semi-natural woods such as
Blakeway Coppice and Edge Wood.
Despite the tree cover there are scraps
of open, flower-rich grassland, and
exposed rock in old quarries along the
scarp. Scrub has invaded these open
habitats and can be found in many of
the old quarries. Unfortunately some of
the broad-leaved woodlands have been
replanted with conifers, which have
reduced their value in places. Despite
this, there are magnificent views across
to The Wrekin near Telford and to The
Long Mynd from the highest parts of
the scarp (approximately 250 metres
above sea level). Wenlock Edge has to
be one of the best haunts for a botanist
in Shropshire as the under-lying
limestone geology is conducive to the
presence of species-rich woodland and
grassland.
The 2012 Olympic wildflower
marathon
I had a day to spare in the area on 15th
May after an enjoyable walking holiday
with friends in Snowdonia. Not wanting
to spend the day solely stuck on the M6
motorway, I decided to set myself the
challenge of finding and identifying as
many different native vascular plant
species as possible, the target was to
reach 100 species by the end of the
afternoon. Not knowing whether this
was obtainable in little under half a day
given my rusty botanical identification
skills (mainly due to too much officework!), it appeared that I had set myself
a challenge in keeping with the
Olympian spirit of nearby Much
Wenlock. I would record the time it
took me to reach the 100 species
milestone (roughly 4-5% of Britain’s
native vascular plant flora), if indeed I
could, before the time came to hit the
road back to Essex. I decided that I
would only record wildflowers, grasses,
sedges and trees, and avoid the more
time consuming bryophytes, for which
my botanical identification skills are
definitely lacking, and for which I now
have no excuse due to Dr June
Chatfield’s excellent BNA guide. In
some cases, identification to species
level was not attempted due to a lack of
time and recorder expertise, the
aggregates were only counted as one
species (e.g. Bramble agg.). Each plant
species was rated according to its
perceived frequency on the walk using
the AFOR abundance scale. Each
species was given one of the following
codes: A = abundant, F = frequent, O =
occasional, and R = rare. This gave a
subjective abundance rating for each
plant species and the values are used in
the following text in brackets after the
first mention of a species name. The full
Blakeway Hollow, Shropshire
Photo: M. Demidecki
list of species recorded (including
scientific names) and a map of the route
walked is available from the author and
is also lodged with the BNA.
The marathon gets underway
I set out at approximately 1 pm from the
National Trust car park nearest to Much
Wenlock (grid reference SO 613996),
and traversed several kilometres of the
local footpaths, taking in green lanes,
woodland and grassland habitats and a
long section of the Shropshire Way
running along the top of the escarpment.
Setting the early pace, the count of
species rose quickly as so many plants
were new. I ticked off many familiar
wildflowers quickly, pressing on along
a muddy track. Those plants easily
added to the list were Bush Vetch (O),
Cleavers (A), Cow Parsley (F), Garlic
Mustard (A), Greater Stitchwort (F),
Ground Ivy (O), Hogweed (F), Lesser
Celandine (O) and Nettle (A) to name
but a few. This early burst of species
gave me confidence that the total would
be easily reached, but perhaps I had
gone out too quickly as many marathon
runners know to their peril!
Sleepy hollow or hybrid zone?
What struck me was the incredible
diversity of wildflowers along
Blakeway Hollow, an aptly named
sunken green lane which is a bridleway
and part of the Shropshire Way. The
hedgerow bottom was rich in Bluebells
(A), Cowslips (F), and Ramsons (or
Wild Garlic as some call it including the
author). The smell of Wild Garlic (A)
was hard to ignore along the lane and
was a welcome herald of spring. I have
to admit to never having seen so many
Cowslips across such a wide area, their
sheer abundance leading to a warm
glow inside for a frequently frustrated
office-bound botanist. The highlight of
Blakeway Hollow was undoubtedly 18
flowering spikes of the vividly-coloured
Early Purple Orchid (R). The flowering
spikes of this majestic wildflower
provided a rich contrast to the
background of Bluebells and Cowslips,
and the more sombre Dog’s Mercury
(F), also in flower. One particular threat
to the spring Bluebell haze in our
woodlands comes from hybridisation
with the Spanish Bluebell (thankfully
not seen on the day). The hybrids are
quite distinct to our native Bluebell and
have wider leaves and the flowers do
not all nod to one side. It really would
be a shame if future naturalists couldn’t
enjoy a genuine display of native
Bluebells and a Natural History
Museum Survey is underway to
ascertain the distribution of both
Bluebells in the UK. Despite the
absence of the Spanish Bluebell, I did
come across a couple of False Oxlips
(R), which are a hybrid between
Cowslips and Primroses (O). False
Oxlips usually occur in close proximity
to both parent species and Wenlock
Edge was no exception.
I noted the frequent occurrence of
Goldilocks (F), an often overlooked
plant species of green lanes in my
native East Anglia. There appeared to
be no problem with scrub encroachment
on the grassy verges adjoining the
muddy central track of the green lane,
allowing flower-rich grassland to
Flower rich turf with cowslips (Primula veris)
Photo: T. Gardiner
persist. Blakeway Hollow is part of a
long distance bridleway so receives
some pressure from horse riders and
walkers. The wet depressions caused by
poaching of the soil by horses’ hooves
and the erosion of plant cover by
walkers’ feet are ideal habitat for Bugle
(O) and Creeping Buttercup (F) on
Wenlock Edge. Light recreational usage
of footpaths and bridleways can be
beneficial for the flora, creating bare
ground and sparsely vegetated habitats
for plants tolerant of trampling such as
Greater Plantain (O).
Woodland wonderland
A heavy thunderstorm did little to
dampen my spirits or prevent progress
from the green lane into the wooded
slopes of Wenlock Edge. Here new joys
presented themselves, including patches
of Woodruff (F) and Yellow Archangel
(F). Traditional woodland management
was in evidence, with coppicing
thankfully undertaken by the National
Trust to ensure the continued flowering
Yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon)
Photo: T. Gardiner
of many of the ancient plants.
Wood Anemones (F) and Wood
Sorrel (F) were noted, as were Wood
Spurge (O) and Yellow Pimpernel (O).
The species count was rising slowly; the
rich ancient woodland flora was really
in its element. I worried at the outset of
the expedition that some species might
not be easily detectable due to late
flowering in the cold and wet spring,
but this concern was soon allayed.
Indeed, of the 100 plant species
recorded, 43 were flowering which was
a considerable aid to identification in
the field. The slopes of this part of the
scarp were heavily wooded (with Ash
abundant) and views across the
surrounding countryside were rarely
afforded. I started to notice a drop in the
number of plant species I was
recording, with it taking longer to
discover a new one. Some species of
plant which were not flowering yet
required a more thorough search of the
herbage to find, including Foxglove (R)
and Wavy Bitter-cress (R).
Bugle (Ajuga reptans)
Photo: T. Gardiner
Pastures new
The walk took me out of the woods
across grazed pastures where a new
suite of species were recorded including
Bulbous Buttercup (O) and Ribwort
Plantain (O). However, some of these
pastures seemed quite ‘improved’ in
nature with little botanical diversity.
Agricultural improvement of these
pastures probably by chemical fertiliser
application or reseeding may have had a
hand in the development of the
impoverished flora of some of these
grasslands. More flower-rich grassland
was found near the car park, a diverse
plant community was noted with
numerous Cowslips, Lady’s Bedstraw
(O) and Ox-eye Daisy (R), while a
blood-red Poppy (R) flowered on a
disturbed roadside verge. Grassland is
now scarce on Wenlock Edge and
restricted to rock outcrops and in areas
previously quarried. By now the count
was at roughly 50 species, only half
way to the target in two hours of
walking. Therefore, I needed to visit
areas of quarrying to discover the new
species I required to reach the 100
target.
Closing in on the quarry
I decided to drive a short distance to the
National Trust’s Presthope car park and
begin a more extensive walk along the
edge of the quarries. Here I thought that
the richest botanical rewards would be
gained due to the combination of
disturbance of the ground by
excavations and regenerating scrub
communities. The path also had
woodland fringing it to the north; the
steep slopes of the scarp were covered
in trees. I noted 18 tree and shrub
species on this part of the walk,
including Ash (A), Field Maple (F) and
Sessile Oak (O). The highlight was
undoubtedly a solitary Small-leaved
Lime (R), a tree I rarely come across in
my native East Anglia. A diverse shrub
flora was composed of Dogwood (O),
Dog Rose (F), Hazel (O), Holly (F) and
Spindle (F). Much regenerating
Blackthorn (F) and Hawthorn (F) scrub
was observed on the quarry slopes.
Wild Strawberry (O) was often found
along the path edges with species
typical of waste ground such as Colt’sfoot (O) and Lesser Burdock (F).
Patches of grassland with lime-loving
species (calcicolous) such as Quaking
Grass (identified by last year’s flower
heads) (O), Salad Burnet (O) and
Upright Brome (O) were found,
although scrub encroachment was
clearly a threat to this habitat.
Limping across the finishing line
By now I was only a couple of species
short of the target, but was finding no
new plants. I diverted from the main
path to have a look around the disused
Knowle Quarry. Fortunately, a poorly
drained patch of ground had Goat
Willow (R) and Great Willowherb (R)
which completed the total of 100
species in 3 hours and 52 minutes, a
respectable time for a marathon runner.
The breakdown of the 100 plants was 76
herbaceous species, 18 trees, 5 grasses
and 1 sedge (the delightful Pendulous
Sedge F). I had covered approximately 9
km (5 miles) in this time to achieve the
total, and believe that it would be
difficult to find such a large number of
species in a short time (roughly 25
species an hour) in other more degraded
wildflower habitats such as intensively
managed arable farmland. Having said
this, the continuous woodland of the
escarpment does lead to a paucity of
open habitats such as grassland. This
may explain why out of the 100 species
rated using the AFOR scale of
abundance, 24 were classed as rare and
44 as occasional. Many of these species
were those of open grassland habitats
which are scarce on Wenlock Edge. The
maintenance of the remaining
grasslands by grazing and scrub
clearance is essential to conserve their
diverse plant communities. The
grasslands of the old quarries are
particularly threatened by scrub
encroachment which may lead to a
decline in the species richness of the
overall flora of Wenlock Edge if
unmanaged succession is not tackled in
the coming decades. Having said this, a
visit in early summer will still reveal
Bee and Pyramidal Orchids as well as
other lime-loving species such as
Greater Knapweed and Yellow-wort
reflecting the current value of the
remaining grassland.
The limestone scarp of Wenlock
Edge was awash with colour in some
areas, the flora of the woodlands being
particularly special. However, this
botanical richness may be largely
dependent on traditional woodland
management practices such as
coppicing. Blakeway Coppice has a
magnificent flora including many
species indicative of ancient woodland
(defined as land continuously wooded
for over 400 years) when they occur
together. These ancient woodland
indicators include Wood Anemone,
Woodruff, Wood Spurge and Yellow
Archangel, which have persisted
through the centuries due to coppicing
allowing light to reach the woodland
floor as trees were cut down to their
stumps on a regular basis (trees often
cut to stump level every few years
depending on the species coppiced).
Fortunately, Wenlock Edge is
protected by a Site of Special Scientific
Interest (SSSI) designation which
should prevent the worst ravages of
building development and
mismanagement that have befallen the
countryside in general. The Shropshire
Hills Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty (AONB) also covers Wenlock
Edge and it is not difficult to see why.
Several spectacular views are afforded
from high points on the scarp across to
The Wrekin and beyond to the Welsh
Hills. The main aims of the AONB are
to conserve and enhance the natural
beauty, and to promote sustainable
development. Therefore, it must be
hoped that the unique value of Wenlock
Edge will be preserved for centuries to
come.
In conclusion, the plant finding
resembled more of a marathon than a
sprint, and throws down a challenge to
budding BNA botanists to try and find
100 plant species in their area in a
quicker time! You have to cover a lot
of ground but it is fun stretching your
botanical identification skills to their
limits. It might be interesting to
undertake the survey when the
Olympics are next staged in the UK to
see how the flora of Wenlock Edge has
fared in the 21st century.
Dr Tim Gardiner FBNA has worked
as a biodiversity officer at the
Environment Agency since 2009. He
has been included in the 2011 Who’s
Who in Science and Technology for
his significant contributions to the
study of the conservation of insects
and plants in the UK.
Wild Service Trees
Introduction
We have been aware of the wild
service tree (WST) for over thirty years,
but it is only since acquiring a handheld Global Positioning System (GPS)
receiver in 1998 that we have been
recording their locations within our
Branch area, which extends beyond
Epping Forest itself.
By chance we later met a member of
the ‘Friends of Epping Forest’ undertaking a similar task. He had used the
article by Ernest G. Lloyd (1977) as his
starting point. Subsequently our
computer records have been merged in
order to pinpoint as many trees as
possible.
Taxonomy
The species is uncommon and is
reportedly not found naturally north of
Cumbria (Roper, 1993). It is of the
genus Sorbus; family, Rosaceae. It is
related to the familiar rowan (mountain
ash) Sorbus aucuparia and to the
whitebeams – Swedish Sorbus
intermedia, common Sorbus aria and
broad-leaved Sorbus latifolia. There are
other members of the genus including a
number of cultivars. A particular one is
the bastard mountain ash, Sorbus xthuringiaca (a cross between rowan
and whitebeam) (Johnson & More,
2004). We know of local specimens of
this in Hainault Country Park
(TQ474932) and one planted on an
embankment in Roding Valley
Meadows reserve (Grid Reference
TQ430942). You may be wondering if
there is a non-wild or ‘tame’ service –
well there is of sorts – the true service
tree Sorbus domestica (aka whitty pear).
This is extremely rare in Britain and
experts differ on whether or not it is
native The oldest known specimens,
about fourteen, are in Glamorgan
(Hampton & Kay, 1995), some thirty
others occur in Worcestershire and
Gloucestershire, planted from 1870
onwards (Anon, 2012).
Figure 1
Wild service tree with alternate buds , at Fern Hill, Epping Forest
Photo: R. Andrews
Appearance
In spring the WST has very bright
green, compact buds, resembling peas
(Figure 1) and saplings can easily be
mistaken for sycamore. Note that the
buds and twigs on sycamore are
opposite but the WST’s alternate.
The bark of young trees can
resemble cherry, but it ages into very
dark brown, with criss-crossed fissures
making scaly plates. (Figure 2). This
could be the origin of the common name
‘chequers’ for this tree.
The leaves (Figure 3) are palmate,
similar to a field maple although of no
relationship. The bottom lobes are more
deeply cut than the upper lobes. In
autumn the leaves turn spectacular
colours: pink, deep red, yellow, or gold.
(Figure 4). This is an ideal time to
search for WST as they stand out
against other forest trees.
The blossom too is showy, in
creamy-white bunches (Figure 5) and
often concentrated on the crown of
mature trees.
The fruit (Figure 6) is in drooping
bunches similar to hawthorn but slightly
larger, 1-1.5 cm. These are hard and
green at first but by October they soften,
turn brown and are usually speckled.
The young WST has a conical shape,
but can grow to over 25 metres with a
dome-like crown on twisted branches. A
Figure 2
Criss-crossed fissured bark on tree at Larks Wood
Photo: R. Andrews
very common habit is a bend at bole
level before the trunk reaches vertical.
The bend may be due to the fact that a
tree has begun its life as a sucker from a
parent tree. However we have found
that there is no consistency on whether
the sapling leans away or towards its
parent (Lloyd, 1978).
Epping Forest
As most of our searches have been
within Epping Forest itself, we shall
start there.
The Forest is owned and managed
by the City of London, Open Spaces
Wild Service Trees
Committee. We have recorded
approximately 120 locations, within the
boundaries of the Forest. This number
includes close groups of varying sized
trees; and individual specimens - from
substantial sized ones right down to
lone saplings of ½ metre in height.
The most northerly Epping Forest
record we have is near the Debden
campsite in Birch Wood TQ425995
whereas the most southerly is to the east
of A104 and south of the North Circular
Road (A406) near Waterworks Corner,
Walthamstow in an area known as
Gilberts Slade (TQ394900).
The WST is noted by many
authorities (e.g. Roper,1993), as a
definite sign of ancient woodland but
there is also evidence that some have
been planted on earth banks marking 1)
old lanes – e.g. Clapgate Lane,
(TL389027) Blind Lane, Lippits Hill
(TQ392974) Squirrels Lane, Lords
Bushes (TQ414934) (Hanson, 1983): or
2) boundaries between farmland and the
ancient royal hunting forest e.g. Hatch
Grove, Chingford (TQ395933 ), Birch
Wood, Theydon Bois (TQ425995), The
Sale, Highams Park (TQ393917)
(Hanson, 1992).
Figure 3
Palmate leaves at BNA White House reserve
Photo: R. Andrews
Figure 4
Autumn leaves at Lords Bushes, Epping Forest
Photo: R. Andrews
Figure 5
The flowers often
concentrated on the crown of mature trees,
This tree prefers the heavier clay
soils, but not boggy locations. In
Epping Forest this can be on London
Clay or on the Claygate Beds which
outcrop below the summits of the hills
(Lloyd, 1977). Examples occur near
Loughton Camp and Blackweir Hill
where large WSTs grow at a similar
contour on the slopes – at about 200
metres. Also at Fern Hills, specimens
occur just below the crests. The largest
is triple-trunked in the wood at
TQ393972.
A number, like many of the other
tree species in Epping Forest, have
historically been pollarded as part of the
process of gathering wood for fuel and
construction by those with ‘lopping
rights’ – these ceased in 1878 as a result
of the Epping Forest Act. The
pollarding (Figure 7) process allowed
the tree to re-grow above grazing height
of deer and cattle. It is unlikely that the
commoners were concerned with which
tree species they were cutting! More
recently the Forest conservators have
re-introduced pollarding but we have
not observed any WSTs being involved.
The WST is reported to primarily
reproduce by producing suckers from
the root system and has been quoted as
up to 45 m (150 feet) away from the
parent tree (Lloyd, 1977). This author
also describes this as a cause of many of
the examples having a sloping trunk
(Figure 7) although his suggestion is
at Larks Wood
Photo: R. Andrews
that far from sloping away from the
parent it surprisingly does the opposite.
In some specimens the lean persists and
can result in the tree falling in its prime.
Since we have been recording four of
our large trees have fallen.
However suckering cannot be the
only method of reproduction as we and
others have located instances of
isolated specimens, where the
surrounding woodland is devoid of
parent trees (Ward, 1980). Indeed our
own observations of these small WSTs
suggest that they are growing below
and up to 2 metres from large trees of
other species where the probability is
that birds or squirrels have dropped
Figure 6
Fruit similar to hawthorn but slightly larger, at
Larks Wood
Photo: R. Andrews
Wild Service Trees
Figure 7
A pollarded and sloping trunk near A104
Robin Hood Roundabout, Epping Forest
Photo: R. Andrews
seeds from higher branches, often
alongside an open area or path. The low
incidence of germination is probably
related to temperature. Ideally the seed
needs a very cold winter followed by a
very warm summer to germinate
(Roper, 1993), not always achieved.
Perhaps our current climatic changes
will favour the WST.
A concern we have on the
future of the WST within Epping Forest
is the protection of the next generation.
To this end we have submitted our GPS
derived grid references to the Forest
Ecologist. Furthermore we have
discretely marked up small specimens
with the hope that any management
work will be sympathetic. We believe
that in a few instances this has already
paid off and the wood gangs have
carefully cleared around the WSTs.
Beyond Epping Forest
Although Epping Forest has been our
primary interest it is not exclusively so!
Near to our home in Chingford,
East London are two remnants of
woods surrounded by houses built
in the 1930s. These are Ainslie and
Larks Woods with entrances at
TQ379922 and TQ383928
respectively, they are now owned
by the London Borough of
Waltham Forest. Both contain
many specimens of WST – indeed
we estimate there are more WSTs
in these small woods than in the
whole of Epping Forest. A walk
uphill from the Larks wood
entrance passes an impressive
quartet of WSTs in their prime
(Figure 8). Continue to the hilltop
and there is a bush sized WST
which produces prolific fruit. Both
woods are on London Clay. We are
members of a voluntary
conservation group for these woods
- ‘Friends of Ainslie and Larks
Woods’ (FOAL) who,
independently of ourselves, chose
the WST leaf as their logo.
A single large specimen occurs at
Hillyfields, Enfield (TQ324984)
probably planted when part of a
private landscaped garden – now a
public park.
Another large one is within
Wormley Wood, Hertfordshire –
now Woodland Trust at TL323578.
This probably marks an ancient
trackway, as does the nearby ‘Coal
Post’.
In Hainault Forest close to the
Camelot car park, a mature WST
grows alongside a surfaced path
(TQ480943).
A number grow within Claybury
Park, Woodford Bridge,
administered by the London
Borough of Redbridge. This was
for many years ‘out of bounds’ to
the public as it was part of the
Claybury Mental Hospital. The
WST is now even featured as Point
4 on a nature walk within the park.
It is a large specimen that leans at
ca.45 degrees.
(TQ434910).
An old boundary WST grows in
Apes Grove, Abridge. It has
survived severe storm damage
(TQ475969).
A small private wood beside the
West Essex golf course,
Sewardstonebury has boundary
bank WSTs suckering strongly into
the middle of the wood
(TQ395964). A new ornamental
plantation on the golf course
proper, includes some WSTs,
alongside a public footpath.
In preparing this article we have
been in contact with the owners of
Great Groves, a private wood near
Brickendon, Herts where a good
number of mature WSTs grow. It is
hoped to arrange a visit for BNA
members – keep a look out within
‘British Naturalist’.
Propagation
Attempts to raise plants from collected
seed is described on the Great Groves
website in detail (Dixon, 2012). The
method used was to collect fruit,
remove the fleshy coating and then
artificially chill the seed before potting
on. In spite of promising early
germination long term survival after
planting in these woods was poor. We
have also tried to do this without
success.
However we have managed to
propagate some from suckers removed
from the local Larks Wood during
conservation work for FOAL. Indeed
one such has been planted within the
BNA Epping Forest Branch private
reserve at the White House
(TQ396916). It is in memory of past
members and is now some 3m in height.
More recently we found a self-set
example within the reserve, probably by
seed from a large WST just outside the
reserve boundary. We have also given a
sapling to be included in the Tree Trail
at Springfield Park, Stoke Newington
and are awaiting a true service sapling,
promised to us by them, to be set in our
‘Sorbus glade’ in the BNA Whitehouse
reserve.
Uses
Finally you may ask what use is the
WST?
Scientifically it is used today as an
important indicator of ancient woodland
along with an assemblage of plants in
the ground layer, but it does have a long
history of cultural uses.
WST has a very hard wood which
could have been used for cogs and
mallets etc. Today there is not much
Wild Service Trees
Hanson M. 1992. Epping Forest through the eye
of a naturalist. Essex Field Club, Essex
Naturalist. 11
Mabey R. 1996 Flora Britannica. London:
Chatto & Windus. [Concentrates on cultural
aspects, gives recipes]
Roper P. 1993. - The distribution of the Wild
Service Tree, Watsonia 19: 2 [Summarises two
national surveys by the Botanical Society of the
British Isles and the Biological Records Centre,
Monks Wood, 1914 and 1974.]
Ward B. 1980. Trees in Epping Forest London:
Corporation of London [For the] Epping Forest
Centenary Trust.
Further Reading:
Figure 8
Four separate trunks at Larks Wood
Photo: R. Andrews
evidence of its wood being used for
construction or for fuel.
Nowadays its fruit is also unused
although this has not always been the
case. The Romans made a drink from
the berries, called cevevisia (usually
translated as ‘beer’) from which the
name Service may have been derived.
Richard Mabey thinks not(Mabey,
1996), favouring the Old English syfre.
The specific name, torminalis relates to
colic, indicating a medicinal use. In
Victorian times the fruit was used as
children’s sweets. Some of our local
branch members have recently tried
them - with mixed opinions! They are
best after frost and the taste has been
described as similar to apricots though
with a gritty texture. When the fruit has
dried out it shrivels to a chequered
pattern, which could have been an
alternative derivation of the name
‘chequers’ rather than the bark (as
suggested above). Another use was as a
flavouring for beer instead of hops
(Mabey, 1996). It is suggested that some
pubs had WST in their gardens for this
purpose - in days when most brewed
their own beer.
This may also account for the many
instances of ‘Chequers’ as a pub name –
although many now bear the draughts
board as a sign. Although we are
members of the Campaign for Real Ale
(CAMRA) and welcome the resurgence
of many new micro-breweries we have
not, to date, noted any using this fruit
as an ingredient.
Hart C., Raymond C. 1973. British Trees in
Colour. London: Michael Joseph.. [WST is on
front of dust cover!]
Mitchell A. 1974. Field guide to trees of Britain
and Northern Europe. London: Collins.
Rich, T., Houston, L., Robertson A., Proctor
M. 2010. Whitebeams, Rowans and Service Trees
of Britain and Ireland. BSBI Handbook No.14,
London: Botanical Society of the British Isles.
References:
Anon. 2012. The Service Tree Species Action
Websites:
[Last accessed September 2012]
Plan. http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/
cms/pdf/S19%20True%20Service%20Tree%20A
Claybury Woods - http://tinyurl.com/d5d984l
ction%20Plan.pdf [Last accessed September
2012]
Dixon J., Dixon M. 2012. www.greatgroves.
co.uk [Last accessed September 2012]
Friends of Ainslie and Larks Woods www.friendsofparkswf.org/ainslie_larks_woods
Friends of Epping Forest www.friendsofeppingforest.org.uk/
Johnson O., More D. 2004. Collins Tree Guide.
London: Collins
Lloyd EG. 1977. The wild service tree Sorbus
terminalis in Epping Forest London Naturalists’
Association. 56 p22-28
Lloyd EG. 1978. Trees and shrubs of Epping
Forest 1878-1978. Epping: Epping Forest
District Council Museum Service.
Hampton M., Kay QON. 1995. - S.domestica
new to Wales and the British Isles. Watsonia 20
Hanson M. 1983. Lords Bushes. Essex Field
Pat & Ron Andrews are members of
the British Naturalists’ Association
– Epping Forest Branch.
Are you aware of any wild service
trees in your area?
They are prepared to record such
and publish a list in future.
Contact:
e-mail:[email protected]
Telephone:- 020 8524 4239
Club, Essex Naturalist.7
Bread and Cheese
How many of us just walk past
hawthorn, our countryman’s ‘breadand-cheese’ of the country hedgerows,
without really giving it much of a
thought? Most hedges in the
countryside, particularly in the great
expanses of the Inclosure landscapes of
central England, are full of it. We
recognise that they are pretty when they
are in full bloom (even if we may not
like their rather rank scent!), and that
they are good for bird food in the late
autumn, when the visiting fieldfares and
redwings come in droves to strip them,
on their way through England from the
northern Continent. Maybe we are also
vaguely aware that there is more than
one species, but that’s about it.
However, maybe it’s time to be a bit
more aware of them, certainly if we
have any pretensions to recording our
wildlife? If anyone has obtained a copy
of the latest edition of Clive Stace’s
standard, one-volume New flora of the
British Isles, published in 2010, they
might care to just take a look at page
238, where the key to Crataegus lists no
less than 11 species and three hybrids!
So, it’s not just a question of “has it got
two styles in its flowers or one?” to tell
one from another.
Does it matter, we ask? Well,
probably – yes, but we don’t really
know! The point is that hawthorn is a
staple of our so-called ‘wild’ landscape.
It lies at the heart of the food web for
many bird species, as well as for a host
of native insects. However, in fact, for a
very long time, we have probably not
really been aware of exactly what these
shrubs are, with the result that planting
schemes have crept up on us unawares,
resulting in non-native species being
introduced into our landscape, probably
over a very long time, with unknown
effects on what may or may not actually
have been our native species.
Work on my own Flora of
Hertfordshire between 1987 and 2009
gave an incentive for me to take a closer
look than I might otherwise have done,
and to get my colleagues to do likewise.
From earlier recording, we were very
aware that we had both so-called
common hawthorn Crataegus
monogyna, with its strongly dissected
leaves and single-styled flowers; and
also the so-called midland hawthorn
Crataegus laevigata, with its lessdissected leaves and two-styled flowers.
The former was reckoned to be
ubiquitous across the County, while the
latter was more limited to the ‘older
landscape’ south of the Chalk ridge, and
especially in the more wooded bits.
Older authors confused the issue by
referring to ‘Crataegus oxyacantha’ or
‘C. oxyacanthoides’, the former being
Linnaeus’ name for ‘hawthorn’ – but
which one we are uncertain! – while the
latter is an out-of-date synonym for
Crataegus laevigata. As work on the
Flora progressed, the more we became
aware that we also had the hybrid
between the two – Crataegus x media,
although books at the time called this
Crataegus x macrocarpa, which was
also an error! As it now turns out, much
of our older landscape is occupied by a
complex of back-crossed hybrids
between these two species, the common
hawthorn actually being quite
infrequent in well-wooded areas with
old hedgerows. Only in the so-called
‘planned landscape’ of northern
Hertfordshire, where the Parliamentary
Inclosures of the 18th and early 19th
centuries created miles of planted
hedgerows, is common hawthorn the
only species present, at least until
recently. This in itself suggests that in
fact the ancient ‘hawthorn’ of our part
of the world at least may well have been
Crataegus laevigata, which is still
characteristic of ancient semi-natural
woodland and very old hedgerows
(many of which are reckoned now to
date to the Bronze Age!).
This, though, is by no means the end
of the story. Peter Sell, formerly at
Cambridge Botanic Garden, has spent
much time examining planted shrubs in
hedgerows in Cambridgeshire and
elsewhere, and it was initially he who
drew to botanists’ attention the
awkward fact that we were rapidly
creating a miasma of all sorts of lookalike shrub communities based on
supposedly ‘native’ species, which in
fact were anything but.
Setting aside the various cockspurthorns, introduced from North America
and occasionally found in hedges etc. –
with their simple leaves and long thorns
(of which Stace includes no less than
six species, with another that might also
occur), we are now aware that our
gardeners, landscape planners and
‘conservation’ bodies have unwittingly
introduced at least three other species of
hawthorns into our landscapes under the
guise of either ‘ornament’ or (even
worse) ‘landscape enhancement’.
Experience in my own area suggests
that we are, indeed, overlooking these.
Not knowing about Peter Sell’s work in
Cambridge, I became aware of oddlooking hawthorns that were planted
near where I live. I took some
specimens – with broad, dissected
leaves and large stipules – that would
have keyed out to ordinary C.
monogyna, with single styles, but which
looked ‘different’! I thought I would
explore the Internet, to see what I could
come up with. After some hunting
through all the ‘images’ you get in this
bottomless pit, I came across what
appeared to be a very reputable,
botanical website, entirely in Polish,
with some very good pictures of leaves.
Here was my ‘hawthorn’! Its name?
Crataegus rhipidophylla (large-sepalled
hawthorn)! I had never heard of the
thing, and nor, then, did Stace or anyone
else seem to have either! Later, I
became aware that the same hawthorn
was actually all over the place,
especially in new hedges planted by
roads. In fact it began to dawn on me
that this explained another puzzle of
recent years – why some hawthorn
came out in flower so early, while other
ordinary hawthorn was still in bud. It
was nothing to do with which side of
the road it was on – the sunny side or
Bread and Cheese
Various-leaved hawthorn (Crataegus
heterophylla) at Northaw Great Wood,
Herts., 2011
Photo: T. James
Common hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), with
well-dissected leaves and single styled flowers,
Ashwell, Herts, 1982
Photo: T. James
Hybrid hawthorn (Crataegus x media), Bricket
Wood Common, Herts., 1983, showing mixed leaf
patterns, mostly like midland hawthorn, and
double or single styles
Photo: T. James
the shady one – it was because the
early-flowering one was C.
rhipidophylla, or something like it.
Another surprise came a couple of
years later, when I was with a flora
meeting, recording in the north London
area. We were at an old green at
Totteridge, near Barnet. The vegetation
is ancient, despite its locality, but scrub
had encroached over time. In this was a
fine hawthorn in full bloom that initially
looked like Crataegus laevigata – with
its fine, large flowers, and shiny,
darkish-green leaves. That was, until we
examined it more closely. Its flowers
had single styles! Its leaves were also
odd – some three-lobed, some dissected,
and some (a few here and there) narrow
and simple! They were also distinctly
hairy! I took a lump home. It was
obviously similar to the hybrid between
C. monogyna and C. laevigata, but was
not quite right. In any case there were
no double-styled flowers at all, which is
not the case with the hybrid usually. By
this time Stace’s 3rd edition had arrived
on my bookshelf. I checked it through
that, and realised we also have
Crataegus heterophylla (various-leaved
hawthorn) on our list! It has leaves of
variable shape, including simple ones,
rather oblong fruits, and few prickles.
Stace reckons it occurs rarely as an
escape, mostly planted. This one was
obviously an escape from a leafy north
London garden!
Further surprise came in 2011, when
our flora group was visiting a site wellknown to all of us – Northaw Great
Wood. So well-known, of course, that
the Herts Branch of BNA spent
hundreds of hours in the 1960s
producing a book on the wood,
involving me among others! Since then,
we have visited very regularly,
watching the management now being
overseen by my wife, as Council
Landscape Officer, gradually returning
it to some of its former glory. We went
at may blossom time, and were struck
by the fine show of hawthorns in the
familiar glades in several places – a
good year. Only when I went up to one,
thinking it looked to have big flowers,
did I realise that several (not all) of
these hawthorns – particularly the
biggest ones, were in fact Crataegus
heterophylla! This is in a very wellstudied place, and an SSSI, supposedly
historically wood-pasture. Were these
planted by 19th century ‘landscape
gardeners’, or are they self-established?
This remains a question to be answered.
The ‘final’ twists come with the
realisation that C. rhipidophylla and C.
monogyna also hybridise, with the
scientific name Crataegus x
subsphaerica (will we be able to
identify it, though?). In addition, and to
make things even worse, Crataegus
rhipidophylla hybridises with
Crataegus laevigata, and this really
does have the name Crataegus x
macrocarpa, which means that records
we made in the 1990s of the hybrid
between common and midland
hawthorns, using this name, could be
confused in the records with a different
plant altogether, not yet actually
confirmed from the County.
Stace’s recent revision also draws
attention to the oriental hawthorn
Crataegus orientalis, with very hairy
leaves, flowers with several styles, and
very narrowly dissected leaves. Its
berries are also usually deep orange in
colour. He says that this is also
frequently planted. I have yet to
formally record it – but then, I haven’t
checked out all the miles of planted
hedges in the open fields, although,
come to think of it, I do vaguely
remember seeing some very narrowly
dissected leaves on some of them. Must
go and check….! He also mentions that
“further species are being identified and
will become commoner”.
Oh well – who could ever think botany
was easy?!
Trevor J. James is Chairman of the
Hertfordshire Branch of BNA, and
formerly Chairman of the National
Federation for Biological
Recording, Advisor to the National
Biodiversity Network Trust and
author of Flora of Hertfordshire.
In the past few months of 2012 I have
been involved with some ‘Spider
Safaris’, introducing interested people
with a general introduction to spiders, a
group of fascinating and elegant
invertebrates. The point of the meetings
was to emphasise that quite a few
spiders are easily recognised and
identified without any extensive
knowledge being necessary, much in the
same way as having a general
acquaintance with butterflies, bumble
bees, social wasps, birds and other
natural history subjects. A major
advantage of looking for spiders is that
as they are not all seasonal many may
be found all year round unlike many
other invertebrates. Generally speaking
there are three periods of activity:
Spring as the days lengthen and
become warmer, suitable for the very
active spiders e.g. the hunters. Autumn
when the larger web builders mature
e.g. many of the orb-web spiders.Winter
when some of the smaller spiders,
generally within leaf litter, are sexually
active at lower temperatures.
Also, as a rough guide, spiders can
be placed in guilds according to how
they capture their prey:
Hunters
Their activities are related to the length
of the day and temperature and so are
readily seen in Spring and Summer.
Very active whilst hunting their prey,
are often easily seen running across
open woodland floors, on foliage and
walls. Examples of such spiders are
wolf-spiders (Lycosidae), the black and
white striped zebra spider (Salticidae)
and the very active and difficult to catch
crab spiders (Philodromidae). Certain
other families are also hunters
(Clubionidae and Gnaphosidae) but are
more sedentary, quite often hunting at
night.
Grabbers
These spiders haunt places where their
prey is likely to be, often occupying
flower heads, there to lay in wait, ready
Drassodes lapidosus, sometimes comes into houses
Photo:T. Thomas
to grab their prey Because of the long
and powerful first two pairs of legs
these spiders look like crabs, hence their
casual name of crab spiders.
Trappers
Members of this group catch their prey
by using silk in many and varied ways.
Spiders are almost unique in their
use of silk for trapping for food. These
traps are extremely varied ranging from
simple trip wires (Segestriidae); layers
of threads forming the familiar untidy
cobwebs (Agelenidae); ‘flying-webs’
consisting of a three dimensional
network of threads (Theridiidae), some
of which are sticky; a scaffold of
threads above a sheet forming a
hammock web (Linyphiidae). But of all
the webs the most beautiful is the orb or
wheel-web most readily seen in the
frosts of Autumn (Araneidae and
Tetragnathidae).
To make life easier a very
convenient and often rich source of
spiders is the house and garden. The
first place to look are buildings, inside
and out, Indoors provides a steady,
amiable and sheltered environment for
many creatures. Several species of
spiders are synanthropic, living with
man in and around their dwellings.
Undisturbed places, unused rooms, the
rear of refrigerators and cupboards give
a stable environment. The large daddylong-legs spider (Pholcus
phalangioides) takes advantage of such
conditions to build her rather scrappy
set of threads, hanging head down, at
ceiling level. At the right season the
female may be seen holding her bundle
of eggs with her jaws.
Two other spiders readily seen
indoors are the ‘mouse spider’
(Herpyllus blackwalli), called so
because of its grey and silky abdomen
and the ‘hairy spider in the bath’
(Tegenaria gigantea). The former hunts
at night on the walls and can be found
on garden fences. The latter spider is the
most likely to be seen as the monster
that runs fast across the floor in autumn.
Her grey-white cobweb may be best
seen in garden sheds and garages. In the
corners the sheet curves to a small
funnel where the spider waits. A spider
that sometimes comes indoors is the
large and tawny Drassodes lapidosus, a
close relative of H. blackwalli, a species
that lives under stones as well as
favouring compost bins.
Very common on window frames is
Zygiella x-notata, whose orb-web is
characteristic with a missing sector, like
a slice out of a cake. A signal thread in
the gap leads to the spider that remains
in contact with that thread, lying in wait
in her little tubular retreat of silk. She is
best seen when she comes out at night
to hang in the centre of her web. She
will take all sorts of prey, shield bugs,
harvestmen and P. phalangioides. In the
warmer months the little black and
white zebra spider (Salticus scenicus)
hunts over the walls but in colder times
can be seen indoors.
In the garden, apart from the active
hunters and webs, searching through
foliage will reveal one particular giveaway of spiders. Leaves naturally
unfold as they grow but some are
obviously constricted, edges pulled over
and fastened by silk. Unfolding the leaf,
gently pulling apart reveals spiders with
egg-sacs often under a cover of silk.
Several species, such as the sedentary
hunter, Clubiona reclusa, and the
flying-web builder, Enoplognatha
ovata, use this folding technique. The
latter spider has an egg-sac that is
purple, a distinct contrast to the
whiteness of C. reclusa. The heads of
dead plants may have grey-blue threads
containing dead remains of flies and
beetles as well as the white discs of eggsacs giving away the small Dictyna
uncinata. Some crab spiders weave their
egg-sacs into the heads of plants and
remain on guard.
A useful guide to some spiders is the
shape of their egg-sacs. The sedentary
hunter, Agroeca brunnea, constructs an
egg-sac shaped like an inverted wine
glass under overhangs of stones and
grass tussocks. On the other hand the
tiny Paidiscura pallens attaches her
horned ‘sputnik’ sac to the underside of
an oak leaf. Another tiny spider with
humps on her round and varicoloured
abdomen, Ero furcata, one of the pirate
spiders so-called because they predate
on other spiders, builds a pear shaped
sac covered in coppery coloured threads
suspended from a long thread.
However, the most distinctive of eggsacs and silk retreats is the nursery of
the large wolf spider, Pisaura mirabilis.
She hangs her large spherical cream sac
inside a canopy of silk and stays with
Salticus scenicus, with a victim
Photo: T. Thomas
Zygiella x-notata eating a shield bug
Photo: T. Thomas
Enoplognatha ovata, with egg sac
Photo: T. Thomas
Pisaura mirabilis female with egg sac
Photo: T. Thomas
her young, hence her name of ‘nursery
web spider’.
A dense white mistiness in foliage
shows the presence of an Agelenid
cobweb, generally that of Tegenaria
gigantea or Tegenaria domestica. But
then many spiders show their presence
by their webs. The small sheet webs,
smaller versions of hammock webs, and
the orb webs are readily seen, especially
early in the morning as the dew has
settled or on frosty mornings.
To sum up: there is no need to directly
identify spiders for many may be
recognised from their activities, webs
and egg-sacs. Also spiders make good
photographic subjects.
Ero spp. with egg sac
Photo: T. Thomas
Nonsuch: its History and Natural History
Medieval village to Royal deer park, farm estate to amenity land
The Nonsuch open space is a rare piece
of countryside on the boundary
between London and Surrey. The name
in English implies its superiority as
“None Such” or in French “non-pareil”,
without equal and although originally
coined for Henry VIII’s palace in 1538
the name still applies to the natural
history and amenity value of the
surviving parkland today.
Nonsuch and the BNA
There was a short anonymous note on
Nonsuch Park in Country-Side of 1934
when negotiations were taking place for
the acquisition of the area by Local
Authorities as public open space
(Anon, 1934). The house and
surrounding land was no longer viable
for the family to maintain. This was a
time when massive suburban
development was taking place all
around the London fringes. The note
lists a number of animals found,
including hares that no longer live there
today as well as the virtues of the
country ambience of the place during
hay-making. A former Vice-President
of BNA, the naturalist Richard Fitter,
made brief reference to Nonsuch in his
New Naturalist book London’s Natural
History (Fitter 1949) and also provided
some recollections for a paper in The
London Naturalist that summarised
information on the flora and fauna of
Nonsuch (Chatfield, 1994). Also within
that paper and of more recent date were
incorporated botanical records made by
the late Miss Doris Hutchings when she
led field meetings of the London and
Kent branch of BNA to Nonsuch Park.
Our President Professor David Bellamy
spent most of his childhood at Cheam
and attended Sutton County School for
Boys whose playing fields back on to
Warren Farm where we viewed the
orchids (Bellamy, 2002). The writer
also developed her early interest in
natural history in the fields of Nonsuch
and is, together with David Bellamy, a
Patron of the local conservation group
Nonsuch Watch. Small items on
The old abandoned road by Warren Farm now arched over by self-sown trees
Photo: J Chatfield
Nonsuch appeared in the previous
‘News and Comment’ column of
Country-Side in the 1990s while
Frances Wright, Secretary of Nonsuch
Watch, contributed a feature article to
Country-Side in 1995 (Wright, 1995). It
was therefore appropriate to hold a
BNA meeting at Nonsuch with David
Bellamy visiting and recollecting on his
childhood patch.
The land before people
Much of the diversity of flora, fauna
and landscape in Nonsuch today is
determined by the local geology that is
exceptionally varied. The strata go back
over sixty-five million years ago to the
Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era
when chalk was laid down on the floor
of a tropical sea from the shells of
microscopic marine plankton called
coccolithophores and foraminifera.
Chalk, a soft limestone, outcrops at
Warren Farm which is the highest point
in Nonsuch and supports special
chalkland flowering plants here on the
dip slope of the North Downs. Other
geological deposits at Nonsuch are
younger ones from the Tertiary era with
Thanet Sand overlying the chalk in
places on both Warren Farm and
Nonsuch Park, lime-rich clays of the
Lambeth Group (Reading/Woolwich
Beds) principally on Cherry Orchard
Farm in the south west and somewhat
acid deposits of London Clay in the
high ground at the north end of the
park. The most recent geology map of
1998 (South London Sheet 270) also
shows Head Deposit, chalk lumps
resulting from permafrost melting and
being transported after the last Ice Age
down the dry valley through Warren
Farm to Nonsuch Park and also on the
site of Nonsuch school and the Cheam
gate car park leading to the main
drainage basin at the foot of the London
Clay in Nonsuch Park. There is also a
thin strip of more modern alluvium from
the time when a stream ran along that
valley across the park. The well-drained
ground of Thanet Sand provided the
settlement site for the Medieval village
that had a water supply or conduit where
drainage down into the chalk was
interrupted by the Bullhead flint zone at
the junction of Thanet Sand and
underlying chalk. More fertile land for
growing crops and pasturing animals
was found immediately alongside on the
Lambeth Group clay of Cherry Orchard
Farm as well as the more acid London
Clay to the north. The former village of
Cuddington was well sited.
Medieval village to Royal palace
and deer park
The area of land that we call Nonsuch is
situated between the present villages of
Cheam (in the London Borough of
Sutton and Cheam) and Ewell (Surrey
Borough of Epsom and Ewell) but once
formed the Manor and village of
Cuddington, the history of which has
been described in publications of the
Nonsuch and Ewell Antiquarian
Society. The report on the Nonsuch
excavations (1959-1960) features
remains of the church beneath the palace
with burials in the churchyard (Biddle,
2005). Patches of dog’s mercury
(Mercurialis perennis), an old woodland
plant, growing near Cherry Orchard
Farm might just be a relic from coppice
woodland of the Medieval village of
Cuddington.
All this was to change when
Henry VIII in 1537 resolved to set up a
new palace and deer park and his
attention was drawn to “a healthful
place called Cuddington” that was
conveniently situated for travelling
from Hampton Court and London. The
building of the palace was to celebrate
the birth of the long wanted son and
heir, Edward, to Henry’s third wife
Jane Seymour. The outcome was the
removal of the Lord of the Manor to a
new Manor of Ixworth in Suffolk
(acquired by the Crown as a result of
suppression of the monasteries) and
resettlement of the villagers followed
by demolition of the church and
dwellings of Cuddington. Building
stone from the suppressed and
demolished Priory at Merton was
brought to Nonsuch. The palace was
surrounded by the Little Park with
further hunting ground of the Great
Park that today is now the residential
area of Stoneleigh and Worcester Park.
The story of Henry VIII’s lost palace of
Nonsuch is told by John Dent in a well
researched book The Quest for Nonsuch
(1962) and later in a more popular
illustrated form by his daughter Lalage
Lister in Nonsuch: Pearl of the Realm
(1992) and both of these benefitted
from the excavation of the palace and
banqueting house in 1959 and 1960.
More recently the first volume of the
excavation report by Martin Biddle has
been published on the finds (Biddle,
2005). The writer took part in this and
reported on the shells. A few
illustrations existed of the palace, the
most well known being in the
Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge but
there were few contemporary written
accounts of it hence the aura of mystery
around the lost Nonsuch Palace.
The building of the palace started in
1538, but prior to this there had been
some useful surveys of the land that
included accounts of trees, some
destined for building materials, others
to remain as landscape features. The
overall layout and outer gatehouse
much resembled Hampton Court in
design but the inner Royal courtyard
was elaborately decorated with carved
slate and stucco (white work). Although
one of the initial attractions was the
deer park, Henry became less mobile
and visited Nonsuch remarkably little in
his ten years of ownership in spite of the
enthusiasm which he put into the
splendour of his new palace. After his
death, Edward became a boy king in
1547 (Edward VI). He took no interest
in Nonsuch and died at the age of 16 in
1553 when his older half sister Mary,
daughter of Catherine of Aragon
(Henry’s first wife), came to the throne
and she likewise had no interest in the
palace and she sold it in 1556 to Henry
Fitzalan, the 12th Earl of Arundel. Mary
also had a short reign and on her death
in 1558, her half sister Elizabeth,
daughter of Henry’s second wife Anne
Boleyn, came to the throne. Elizabeth
however, who shared her father’s
enthusiasm for hunting, liked Nonsuch
and visited it more than any of the
previous Royal owners. Arundel had
ulterior motives, hoping for the hand of
Elizabeth in marriage but she chose not
to marry and under pressure from the
expense of the upkeep of the palace, he
sold it to Elizabeth but stayed in
residence as Keeper. When Elizabeth
died after nearly 50 years on the throne,
the palace was passed to the Stuart King
James I whose wife and young son
Henry spent time at Nonsuch but the
Prince Henry predeceased his father and
in 1625 the throne went to Charles I and
the palace was taken over by his wife
Henrietta Maria until his execution in
1649. It was appropriated by Oliver
Cromwell’s Commonwealth. After
Cromwell died and Charles II returned
to England from exile the palace was
returned to his mother. It had suffered
neglect in that time and this was noted
by Samuel Pepys when he visited in
July 1663. Pepys returned in 1665 when
the Plague of London led to the
evacuation of the Exchequer to
Nonsuch. John Evelyn also visited
Nonsuch the following year. Lord
Berkeley as Keeper of Nonsuch to
Henrietta Maria was also having
difficulty with the upkeep of the palace
and when she died in 1669 Charles II
gave the palace to his ex-mistress
Barbara Villiers, Countess of
Castlemaine and Baroness Nonsuch, but
on going into debt from gambling she
sold it for the building materials in
1682. This has a curious irony as some
of the building stone used at Nonsuch
was already recycled from the
demolition of Merton Priory a few
miles to the north! At this time the deer
were removed and land sold. The story
of the palace together with a scale
model of it (unveiled in 2011) is in the
museum of the Friends of Nonsuch in
the service wing of the Mansion House
near the Cheam gate where publications
on the history of Nonsuch and the
palace can also be purchased.
(Details are on their website
http://www.friendsofnonsuch.org.uk.)
Country estate and farmland
It is during this period of two and a half
centuries that the framework of
Nonsuch as we know it today was set
out. Whilst some veteran trees from the
palace and perhaps pre-palace days
remained it was after removal of the
deer that the pattern of fields was laid
out as shown in the map of 1731 (Dent,
1962). With all but a few walls left of
the palace, the farm house was centred
where the Mansion House is now. The
service wing museum run by Friends of
Nonsuch is the oldest part of the
building with the present grand
Mansion House of 1802 alongside with
the old house used for a servants’ wing.
The Thompson family owned and
managed the Nonsuch estate during the
eighteenth century and undertook some
tree planting but in the early nineteenth
century it was bought by the Farmer
family who in 1802 enlarged the house
to the present Mansion House with an
attempt to recreate the facade of
Nonsuch Palace as well as designing a
fine garden and they were the last
private owners.
Amenity land in suburbia
The current Nonsuch open space is but
a remnant of the Little Park then
surrounded but a larger Great Park but
is today treasured by local residents and
visitors for its green ambience and
peace as well as for the wildlife
interest. At a size of over 400 acres
with a varied geology and topography it
supports a good range of species (over
1,000 were recorded in the 1993
survey) and is at the same time an
escape from the noise and traffic of the
surrounding built-up area. This need
was perceived by the Local Authorities
and in particular James Chuter-Ede.
Pyramidal orchid, fox-and-cubs, yellow-rattle and grass flowers at Warren Farm
Photo: J Chatfield
The background to this is given in the
August 2012 issue of Nonsuch Watch
Newsletter (Wright 2012). This year,
2012 marks the 75th anniversary of the
opening of Nonsuch Park, a poster for
which is on display in the Friends of
Nonsuch museum at the Mansion
House.
At the time that the Nonsuch Estate
was being sold Surrey County Council
acquired a strip of land between the
Avenue and Warren Farm for a new
road connecting Ewell and Cheam,
developers initially bought Cherry
Orchard Farm near the Ewell gate but
Epsom and Ewell commendably bought
it from them to preserve the peace of
Nonsuch Park while the Inner London
Education Authority purchased Warren
Farm as potential sports ground and
Surrey County Council bought part to
build Nonsuch County School for Girls
and to provide sports ground for Sutton
County School for Boys. The different
ownerships have led to varied
management on top of the diversity due
to geology discussed elsewhere
(Chatfield, 1994). Nonsuch school was
built in 1938 and at the same time work
started on a dual carriageway road but
this was halted by World War II and
never completed. The carriageways in
concrete are still there but arched over
by self-set trees, mostly sycamore, as
the BNA saw when walking to Warren
Farm in July 2012. In the mid-1950s I
remember the road being totally open
and sunny with uninterrupted views
over the cornfields of Warren Farm:
this land was never used as sports
ground but rented out to a farmer for
arable use while a public footpath ran
Carrion crow in the Mansion House garden.
This one has some white feathers
Photo: J Chatfield
along the central valley (now part of the
London Loop long distance walk).
Cherry Orchard Farm continued in
agricultural use as a pig farm while part
of it later became a nursery for the two
local Boroughs. The emergencies of war
led to the continuation of cereal growing
mostly on the clay lands of Nonsuch,
some hay-making and also vegetable
and fruit crops and the cereals continued
in Nonsuch Park until the early 1960s,
and late 1980s in the case of
Warren Farm
In the 1980s there were a number of
threats of commercial use of Nonsuch,
first the proposal for a golf course that
brought The Friends of Nonsuch into
being as the proposal involved taking
over the Mansion House. This was
followed by the sale of Warren Farm to
a developer by the Inner London
Education Authority disposing of
surplus land that they had never used
and the submission of planning
permission for housing on the site.
Naturally this brought a strong local
protest and the plan was refused but
went to Public Inquiry. This was the
stimulus for the formation of Nonsuch
Watch with a key interest in the wildlife
that would be lost from such a
development with certain species only
present at Warren Farm where chalk is
exposed. The battle brought action in
collating existing knowledge of
Nonsuch natural history with very little
gleaned from published accounts and a
programme of surveys set up to provide
data. The outcome of the Public Inquiry
was that the Inspector was persuaded of
the need to preserve open space and
Spurge laurel in flower in The Wood in April
Photo: J Chatfield
Nodding star-of-Bethlehem by
the Mansion House
Photo: J Chatfield
Silk-button gall on oak leaves at Nonsuch
Photo: J Chatfield
countryside but if the housing proposal
was refused totally then within planning
laws of Open Space and Recreation 1
(OSR1) there was no potential objection
to formal sport, closing off Warren
Farm to the public and eliminating the
special flora and fauna that lived there.
The solution was a compromise
allowing the developers 10 acres of
housing adjacent to that of East Ewell
on the Condition that the remaining
land was handed to a conservation
organisation. The developers
approached The Woodland Trust who
now own Warren Farm. Another battle
then ensued over the disused nursery
site by the Ewell gate with advanced
plans submitted for a formal leisure
centre but this was overturned by a
campaign led by the Stoneleigh
Residents’ Association and Nonsuch
Watch. It has now been incorporated as
part of Nonsuch Park with a pathway
constructed from the London Road.
Nonsuch has from the beginning had its
own organising committee, the
Nonsuch Park Joint Management
Committee and they commissioned a
Management Plan from Surrey Wildlife
Trust that was done by Isobel Girvan
who examined all the habitat blocks and
gave guidance for management,
especially the value of dead wood that
so many people want to see tidied away.
Nonsuch in the London fringes is also
stag beetle territory with both species
present and their larvae need old logs
for the long period of development over
several years. Nonsuch Watch
pioneered the case for meadow
management to maximise the wild
flowers and insect life in longer grass.
Natural history
The exceptional diversity of geology
together with differences in topography
and land management and use all
underpin the variety of species found
there. It is a good place for the beginner
to learn the basics of natural history
with many robust species but it also has
some notable insects and other animal
species protected by the Wildlife and
Countryside Act 1981 and amendments
that have been an issue when
development proposals occur. Since it
was first opened officially to the public
in 1937 Nonsuch Park has been
extremely popular with local residents,
firmly part of their lives, and has
enchanted visitors from further afield. I
have used it many times for field visits
connected with courses at the South
London Botanical Institute and guided
walks for Nonsuch Watch.
Trees
There is perimeter woodland all around
Nonsuch Park, much of it planted in the
remodelling of the estate after the
palace era and some, behind Wickham
Avenue as recent as 1930s and the selfsown wood by the old road along
Warren Farm is later in the twentieth
century. A feature of Nonsuch has
been the small copses in the middle of
fields. There is very little ancient wood,
apart from The Wood alongside Cheam
Park where Spurge Laurel is found.
Oak is the major tree of Nonsuch today
with some veteran oaks and other
mature examples in the perimeter
woods. In the 1950s common or
English elm as standard trees at the
edges of fields and copses was a
dominant part of the Nonsuch
landscape, but no more due to the
Dutch Elm Disease that swept the
country in the 1970s. Common elm
survives only as scrub elm from
rootstock still sensitive to the fungus
carried by the elm bark beetle that
attacks the trunk of young trees. there
has been enough to keep white letter
hairstreak butterfly on the Nonsuch list.
Wych elm, a native species from the
medieval landscape is in the perimeter
woodland.
Another veteran tree is an old sycamore
at the corner of the palace site on
Cherry Orchard Farm probably planted
by the Thompsons in the late eighteenth
century. This is probably the source of
seed for the sycamores that have freely
established in the perimeter woodlands
and colonised bare ground along the
abandoned road by Warren Farm.
With the Nonsuch estate a landscape
feature around a country seat the
avenue connecting the Ewell and
Cheam gates is lined with horse
chestnut that have been a source of
conkers for local children from as soon
as the park opened in 1937. These trees
are now affected by the micromoth
horse chestnut leaf-miner that makes
the leaves go brown between the veins
in July and then shrivel. The tree by the
Cheam gate car park was badly affected
soon after the initial introduction to
Wimbledon Common but it has
survived and this year was
photographed early in season with good
foliage and white candles. First spotted
on a hybrid poplar by the Sparrow
Farm Road gate was mistletoe and this
is now spreading and is also on
common hawthorn.
Dead Wood
This is an important habitat on the
ground as logs that provide damp
protected refuges for a variety of
invertebrates such as snails, slugs,
woodlice, spiders, millipedes,
centipedes and insects as well as
hibernacula for frogs, toads and newts.
As the wood rots it supports a
succession of dead wood fungi and
insects. As it is low in nutrient the
insect larvae of large beetles in logs
take several years to develop so it is
important to leave old logs in situ.
Nonsuch at the edge of the Thames
valley is a good place for stag beetles
with both greater and lesser stag beetles
found there. Myxomycetes or slime
moulds e.g. Lycogala terrestre were in
evidence on logs in the perimeter
woods in autumn 2011. Standing dead
wood of tree trunks forms another
habitat catering for a different suite of
species. Look for holes of woodpeckers
and smaller exit holes made by longhorned beetles. A sequence of species
of fungi help in the rotting down of
logs. Dead wood features in the
Nonsuch Park management plan as a
valuable resource for wildlife.
Field edge
As a deer park Nonsuch needed to be
an open landscape without the
obstructions of fences or hedges,
explaining why the modern landscape
has not inherited old hedgerows. Also
the farming was either arable or haymaking that did not require stock-proof
barriers. Simple rows of common
hawthorn and blackthorn with some
standard trees, usually English oak,
form field boundaries. In early spring
the bushes are white with blackthorn
and later, accompanied by young leaves
are flowers of hawthorn. These prickly
woody plants give good sites for
nesting birds. In autumn there is colour
and food from fruits and berries of hips,
haws, blackberries and elderberries for
both man and beast.
Grassland
This is the largest area of habitat and
affected both by the soil and underlying
geology but also by management in
mowing regimes. With later meadow
cutting the plants are given a chance to
seed rewarding the visitor with
colourful later summer meadows on the
clay with yellow flowers of agrimony,
hawkweeds, bird’-foot trefoil, purple of
common knapweed and self-heal.
White ox-eye daisies in profusion were
once a feature in immediate post-arable
days but are only sporadic now. Other
late spring meadows are found on the
lighter Thanet Sands between the
Mansion House and the old palace site
where blue germander speedwell and
white lesser stitchwort provide colour
with a patch of the less common field
scabious. Rougher grassland has
developed on the clays of Cherry
Orchard Farm but there is a nice damp
sloping meadow by the banqueting
house mound with bulbous buttercup,
cuckoo flower and other spring
meadow species, a breeding site for the
orange tip butterfly and also the ringlet.
Its sunny location supports many
insects. Warren Farm is special for the
more calcareous soil where chalkland
plants occur with pyramidal orchids in
profusion, common broomrape, hop
trefoil, yellow-rattle, kidney vetch,
grass vetchling and others. It also has a
sunny aspect.
Gardens
The formal gardens around the
Mansion House date to the early
nineteenth century. The dip at the end
of the lawn is an old chalk quarry, now
a landscape feature and carpeted with
snowdrops in February. Townhall clock
or moschatel grows in some damp
shaded spots and nodding star-ofBethlehem in a small plantation
woodland by the front lawn. In late
autumn the old lawn is full of fungi
with the poisonous ivory funnel-cap
(Clitocybe rimulosa = dealbata) and
plenty of bonnets (Mycena spp.) but it
merits much closer study from
mycologists.
Ponds
Ponds featured strongly in my Nonsuch
childhood, as they did in that of David
Bellamy as he gave his recollections
while the BNA party stood at the
Round Pond. In those days huge newt
populations lived in the old brickpit
ponds at Bluegates on the edge of
Cherry Orchard Farm. Whilst that pond
has gone a new balancing pond by the
Ewell gate still supports newts as does
the ancient Round Pond (its name in
the 1731 map) where great crested newt
was confirmed still living there in the
1990s. Gone are the temporary bomb
crater ponds of World War II, but pond
habitats still exist at Nonsuch although
the balancing pond does need
management to prevent colonising into
marsh. There is still much to see.
Birds
Nonsuch is a good place to view birds
and my early days of natural history in
Nonsuch started with these. Reports of
the bird life by residents who walk
Nonsuch regularly are given in the
newsletters of Nonsuch Watch. There
have been changes over the years.
Partridges, rooks and cuckoos are no
longer parts of the scene, the former
two related to loss of arable farming.
There has also been a sharp decline in
skylarks that used to be numerous and
all over the area, now reduced to a few
on Warren Farm. All three species of
woodpeckers still occur. In spring the
drumming of the greater spotted
woodpecker comes from the trees, the
small lesser spotted woodpecker is in
the canopy for the more experienced
birder while the strident call of the
green woodpecker or yaffle is still
common followed by a fleeting glance
of a gaudy green, yellow and red bird
as its undulating flight takes it away. It
is also to be seen on the ground after
ants. For a while in the DDT days we
lost sparrowhawks, but they are now
back.
Carrion crows in flocks of forty or
more now replace the rooks while
much in evidence in the last twenty
years are noisy green parakeets that
have settled in the London area and are
breeding in the woodlands. Their
silhouette in flight is marked by the
long thin tail, and when a shaft of
sunlight falls on the perched bird its
bright green plumage looks definitely
exotic.
Insects
A start on insect recording was made in
the 1993 surveys and subsequently but
there is still much to do and exciting
records to be made. In the butterflies,
Jovita Kaunang of Nonsuch Watch has
recorded the rare downland small blue
breeding on Warren Farm supported by
kidney vetch, and marbled white was
on the wing in July 2012. Roger
Hawkins referred to Nonsuch as one of
the best places in Surrey for ladybirds
and he has also noted the improvement
of grassland insects such as
grasshoppers since the grassland has
gone to meadow, mowing later in the
year. It is a hot spot for stag beetles
seen as adults in summer. Fields with a
sunny aspect are particularly good for
meadow insects.
References
Anon. 1934 Country-Side. Vol.10:3 (New Series)
p. 129.
Bellamy, D. 2002. The Jolly Green Giant.
London: Century [The Random House Group].
Biddle, M. 2005. Nonsuch Palace. The Material
Culture of a Noble Restoration Household.
Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Chatfield, J E. 1994. The London Naturalist.
Vol. 73, ending at p.142.
Dent, J. 1962. The Quest for Nonsuch. London:
Hutchinson & Co.(Publishers) Ltd. [2nd edition
reprinted by London Borough of Sutton. Leisure
Series, 1988.]
Fitter, R. 1949. London’s Natural History New
Naturalist. London: Collins
Lister, L. 1992. Nonsuch: Pearl of the Realm.
Sutton: Sutton Leisure Services.
Wright, F, 1995. The Nonsuch Open Space,
Ewell. Country-Side. February/March 1995
Wright, F. 2012 Nonsuch Watch Newsletter.
No.74, p. 2.
Book Reviews
Book Reviews
SNAILS ON ROCKY SEA SHORES by John Crothers.
Pelagic Publishing, Exeter 2012.
ISBN 978 1 907807 15 2. 97pp. Softback £19.99.
This is number 30 in the long-standing Naturalists’ Handbooks series. Some 40
years ago I was crouched on the shore near Hound Point on the Firth of Forth,
having had to get up at some unearthly hour in order to coincide with the right state
of the tide. It was cold and damp and I was engaged in plotting the distribution of
“winkles” etc along a transect between high and low water. Marine biology, I
concluded, was a decidedly uncomfortable occupation. This book, by a well known
authority, would have been invaluable then for it is a lavishly illustrated (in colour
and black and white) guide to the dog-whelks, topshells, winkles etc that live on
rocky seashores. There are keys for identifying the species, details of their
background ecology, an overview of the rocky shore habitat and, most importantly,
A clear description of the various surveying techniques. Also, one is shown how to
analyse all the collected data. Do not go on a rocky shore without this book.
Bryan Sage
TREVOR BEER’S NATURE WATCH 3 by Trevor Beer.
Halsgrove Publishers,
Somerset 2012. ISBN 978 1 906551 31 5. 128pp. Softback £9.99.
This is the sort of natural history writing that I particularly enjoy when in need of
some light reading. The book is a remarkable achievement because it marks the
author’s 20th year of writing his “Nature Watch” column six days a week for the
Western Morning News, and he never missed a day. His love of natural history and
his extraordinary breadth of knowledge become obvious as you read this collection
of articles. Since his home patch is the West Country both Dartmoor and Exmoor
are frequently mentioned, and he refers to many features such as tors and clapper
bridges with which I am familiar. He watched a pair of Merlins near the fine
clapper bridge over the Wallabrook – I saw one myself when I was last there. This
is a book packed with original natural history observations, all recounted in what at
times is a distinctly lyrical style. For example “A flock of curlews cascaded in like
brown and white bubbling, burbling water pouring onto the mudflats……” The text
is supported by numerous black and white drawings and eleven colour photographs
by the author and Endymion Beer. This is a hard book to put down once you start
reading it.
Bryan Sage
Offers to Country-Side readers. Order a copy of ‘Snails on Rocky Sea Shores’ at a 20% discount by ordering from
HYPERLINK "http://www.pelagicpublishing.com" www.pelagicpublishing.com and using coupon PEL20 in the
shopping basket.
Order a signed copy of ‘Trevor Beer’s Nature Watch 3’, by calling 01823 653777 with your credit/ debit card details or,
alternatively, please send a cheque (made payable to Halsgrove) for £11.98 (including £1.99 postage) to: Halsgrove
Publishing, Halsgrove House, Ryelands Business Park, Bagley Road, Wellington, Somerset TA21 9PZ, quoting ‘CountrySide Reader Offer’.

Autumn-Winter 2012 - The British Naturalists` Association

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