The British Naturalists’ Association
Annual Conference 2008

A Living Forest : Epping Forest

Location
Forest School in southern Epping Forest

LOCATION NOTES :

Epping Forest

The area of Epping Forest that provides the Conference location for the Field Workshops and encompasses Forest School is known as Gilbert’s Slade, and although it is itself enveloped between the urban areas of Walthamstow on the west and Snaresbrook to the East it is a secluded haven of pollarded hornbeam, oak and beech, with birch and holly. It is in the southern part of the Forest, with most of the Forest to the north of it, nonetheless, the Forest does extend below Gilbert’s Slade to Leyton Flats and Wanstead Flats, Bush Wood and Wanstead Park. The area perfectly illustrates the Conference title of "A Living Forest : Epping Forest".

Historic Forest

It is certainly historic, as Epping Forest owes its wooded landscape to its designation during the Norman period as a Royal Forest. This gave the king alone the right to hunt deer throughout the Forest, and restricted the manorial lords from changing it to agricultural fields. Compensatory rights of communal or ‘common’ grazing and gathering “lopwood” emerged. In the 19th century when it was assumed the monarch was no longer interested in hunting, the Forest was nibbled away down from 12,000 acres to just 2,000 by 1871.

As owners of 200 acres of land in the southern part of the Forest, the Corporation of London had rights of common grazing, and systematically took those that had taken land out of Forest use to court for usurping their rights, and so reclaimed the Forest.

With the Epping Forest Act of 1878 the Corporation of London were appointed as Conservators, who continue to manage the Forest’s 6,000 acres. In 1882 Queen Victoria at a ceremony in Epping Forest dedicated it “to the use and enjoyment of the public at all times”.

The Trees, Plants & Wildlife : Epping Forest

Historic Tree Management
In forest areas trees were managed as :
Standards or Maidens -
Trees allowed to grow for timber.
Coppice -
Trees were coppiced by cutting near ground level on A regular cycle, to produce poles. This would be in enclosed woods without grazing access.
Pollards -
Where grazing occurred in a forest including particularly wood pasture, the trees were pollarded, or cut at a man’s head height (ie, poll height), to produce a crop of poles on a cycle like coppicing, but out of reach of grazing deer and cattle.

Epping Forest has the highest remaining concentration of historic pollard trees in Britain, so these are of particular significance in the Forest. Unfortunately in the early period of public ownership many thousands of pollards were removed from the Forest, but today they are rightly regarded as important relics of historic management and also important habitats for wildlife. These pollards are associated with a number of rare insects, including the very rare beetle Prionocyphon serricornis. The southern area of Epping Forest once held extensive areas of coppice most of which have disappeared. Residual Dog’s Mercury can indicate such areas.

Historic Grazing
The right of common grazing across Epping Forest is still enjoyed by cattle today. Across the centuries deer, cattle, sheep, horses and rabbits grazed and browsed in the Forest, which has had a profound effect on its structure and wildlife. Epping Forest was noted for a dark variety of Fallow Deer, but today few deer are found free in the Forest. Cattle are still grazed, but overall grazing pressure is less. As a result, birch, once uncommon has established itself. The Forest has numerous ponds, many originally maintained for grazing livestock.

Mammals
Far more than either the Fallow Deer or more recent Muntjac, the small mammals, Wood Mice, Bank Voles, Field Voles and Common Shrews are common across the Forest. Foxes have increased, and at the Forest edge they are regularly seen in gardens where they are fed. Similarly, hedgehogs are most commonly noted at the Forest edges, including in gardens bordering the Forest.

Birds
The closeness of the Forest to London in the past caused it to be an area of extensive trapping of birds such as Linnets, Greenfinches and Chaffinches. Some birds in the past, like the Redstart, occurred in big numbers, but no longer. Common garden birds of Robins, Wrens, Blackbirds and Blue Tits have remained common. The Rooks of the southern Forest have noticeably declined with the increase of urban envelope density. In the 1970s Ring-necked Parakeets appeared in the local area of the southern Forest, but were reduced by the bad weather at the beginning of 1979. A good range of birds breed in the same local area including Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Kingfishers, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, House Martins, Wrens, Long-tailed Tits, Coal Tits, Spotted Flycatchers, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap etc.

Amphibians and Reptiles
In the area near Forest School there are a number of ponds with cover, and reptiles found have included Common Frog and Toad. The Grassy open heath land supports a population of Common Lizards.

Flowering Plants
Common plants of Epping Forest include typical plants of woodland edges and rides such as Lesser Cellandine, Foxglove, Red Campion and the ubiquitous Herb Robert. The walks of Gilbert’s Slade amid the trees have Enchanter’s Nightshade and Wood Forget-me-not, and the edge has Tormentil and Perforate St John’s Wort. On the southern front of Forest School is acid grassland and fragmented heath, in medieval times an area grazed by sheep, which extended over Leyton Flats. The area has gorse and heath grassland plants like Milkwort, Heath Bedstraw and Heath Rush. The ponds of the southern Forest contain a range of plants, such as Hornwort in the Hollow Pond, south of Forest School.

Mosses, Liverworts & Lichens
The ponds and bogs provide good habitat for Bryophytes, most noticeably sphagnum mosses. The Forest is an area where lichens have been particularly closely studied for over 200 years, particularly on the Forest’s historic trees. In the 18th century the Forest was unusually rich in lichens, but subsequently sulphur dioxide sensitive species suffered with coal burning in London, but by the mid-1980s this was dramatically reduced and there has been a remarkable recovery of lichens. However, surprisingly this recovery has not been as much as in suburban areas.

Insects
Insects in the area of Epping Forest close to Forest School have includes a number of species of ladybirds, including the 7 Spot, 14 Spot, 24 Spot and Pine Ladybird, among butterflies the Speckled Wood, and amid bees the Red-tailed Bumblebee. Other insects recorded include the Four-spotted Oak Bug and the Green Shield Bug.

Spiders & Harvestmen
Remarkably the spiders were relatively little studied in Epping Forest’s past. The loss of the Forest’s southern heaths has caused a reduction of good spider-rich habitat. The area fronting Forest School is likely to be a good area for looking for spider species. Similarly, harvestmen have not been studied in detail in the Forest, but over half of the British total number of species has been recorded.

Organisations
Organisations that have recorded species in the area include The Wren Conservation Group, The Essex Field Club, The London Natural History Society and the Epping Forest Branch of The British Naturalists’ Association and other members of The British Naturalists’ Association.

©Roger Tabor 2007

For those wanting to do some background reading on Epping Forest the following book is recommended:

'Epping Forest, Its History and Wildlife'
by Alfred Leutscher
former President of the British Naturalists’ Association
Published by David & Charles Ltd (1974)

This classic book is an excellent introduction to the origins of the Forest by a long-term naturalist resident of the Forest, the role of the king’s deer, forest laws and commoner’s rights, and how the use of these enabled the Corporation of London to save the Forest for our present day use and enjoyment. The book ranges from special Forest birds such as the redstart to beetles such as the dor beetle, and recall alternative historic names for the hornbeam tree as the ‘hard-beam’ or ‘horn-beech’. It usefully recalls past naturalists of Epping Forest such as John Ray, Henry Doubleday, and describes the formation of formation of the Epping Forest Branch of the British Naturalists’ Association in 1937 (following the demise of the Woodford branch of the LNHS).