Location: Croydon
There’s history in this wooded hilltop in south-east Croydon – some of which we know, some we only suspect. We’ve been managing Bramley Bank for over 40 years, but there are hints of a much longer, more storied past: grand old beech and oak trees, along with native bluebells and dog’s mercury, suggest it was ancient woodland a century ago or earlier. We first got involved in the early 1980s, following an amphibian survey here, which led to us managing this 10-hectare site on behalf of Croydon Council.
Today, the focus of much of our conservation work is an old heathland. We’ve cleared scrub, scraped back soil and sowed heather collected from nearby Addington Hills on the exposed earth; it’s already taking well. One of the largest woodland ponds in the borough (probably dug in the late 19th century) attracts newts, toads, grey herons and other birds. But, being rain-fed, has run low in recent hot, dry summers, so we’re planning improvements there, too. At this time of year, the summer’s stag beetles are going or gone, as are many of the butterflies that thrive in glades and grassy areas. But colour pops still: purple heather, egg-yolk blooms of gorse and broom, and the russet shades of turning bracken. Take a stroll on an autumn day, perhaps following the London LOOP waymarked path between the neighbouring Addington Hills and
Littleheath Wood, to immerse yourself in its autumn splendour.
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Location: Hillingdon
This compact woodland gem in Uxbridge, formerly the grounds of a Victorian mansion, is tucked between a school and Brunel University in the east of the Colne Valley. It consists mainly of ash, yew, sycamore and some wonderful veteran oaks. Admire late-flying speckled wood butterflies in glades – they’ll be on the wing into October, look for a dashing green woodpecker or listen out for the high-pitched shrills of a flock of long-tailed tits. For the past five years we’ve been working with Hillingdon Council to restore the ponds that form the centrepiece of the Grove, but which have largely silted up. As well as reprofiling the waterways, we’ve thinned out the trees and scrub that had begun to shade out the ponds to allow more light in. Stroll alongside the revived ponds, enjoying the leaves sparking into autumn colours and watching for frogs and other amphibians that are increasingly returning
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Location: Chigwell
A remnant of the once-vast medieval royal hunting forest of Essex, this still-expansive mix of woodland, grassland and wetland is a wonderful place to roam. And with various colour-coded walks, a café, outdoor play area and family-friendly Foxburrows Farm, it’s a great destination for a day out on London’s eastern outskirts. Wildlife-wise, it’s famed for its ancient pollarded hornbeams, their mast seeds now littering the forest floor, providing food for tits, small mammals and even hawfinches among the sprouting fungi. But there are also veteran oaks and other venerable trees among which fallow, muntjac and roe deer browse; grasslands where green woodpeckers pick off ants; and a large lake hosting great crested grebes, tufted ducks and, arriving for winter, pochard and shovelers. Hainault Forest is also home to 11 bat species including the rare, distinctive barbastelle – visit at dusk and you might spot one flitting around overhead.
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