grassland on the common (Ramsey and Fowkes, 1986).
At Theydon Bois Village Green sucker trees from this group and English Elm occur, to be
found at the edge of the roadside. These suckers are found in the same position as an avenue
of trees marked on the Chapman and Andre map of 1777. The avenue of Oaks present on the
green were planted in 1832 by the lord of the manor.
East Anglian Elm Sites in Epping Forest 1989
Bell Common TL 453014 Wanstead Flats TQ 405858
Chingford Golf Course TQ 392953 TQ 402867
Hatch Grove, Western Wanstead Park TQ 413873
Sewage Farm Site TQ 397934 Warren Hill TQ 413954
Leyton Flats TQ 398880 Theydon Bois
Yardley Hill TQ 383961 Village Green TQ 453992
Hybrid Elm (Ulmus x Hollandica)
Ferris (1980) records Ulmus Hollandica from Wanstead Park. The trees that grew there are now
dead, but I have found suckers of a tree I believe is a Hybrid Elm. The suckers indicate the tree
is U. x Hollandica nm. Hollandica, the Dutch Elm. I have also found suckering elm, which I
believe to be Hybrid Elms on Warren Hill, on the edge of the Loughton High Road and nearly
opposite the Warren Wood Public House on the Epping New Road. Here a large-leaved,
suckering hybrid occurs (the leaves are slightly scabrid, also with a tendency to longer petioles
than Wych Elm). I assume both these again to be the Dutch Elm.
I have also found a suckering elm at the Western Sewage Farm site near Hatch Grove which
does not fit any group of elms. It may be a recent hybrid. The leaves are typically long but very
narrow, 4 - 5 in. by 2 in. is common. The leaves are as scabrid as Wych Elm. It occurs as masses
of suckers about 25 ft. high on the edge of part of the site. It may be a hybrid between the large
East Anglian Elm and the Wych Elm at this site. A leaf of this tree is illustrated on p. 17.
Hybrid Elm Sites in Epping Forest 1989
Hatch Grove, Western
Sewage Farm Site TQ 397934
Wanstead Park TQ 415874
Warren Hill TQ 413954
Near Warren Wood
Public House TQ 407947
Lineage Elm? (Intermediate between U. glabra and U. minor)
A small group of elms found at Woodredon in Epping Forest is my most interesting elm find
in Epping Forest. There are 8 or 9 small elms and four much larger trees with g.b.h. of 4 ft. 8
in., 4 ft. 8 in., 4 ft. 9 in. and 6 ft. 2 in. are found but most significantly there is a massive living
elm pollard here, of the same type as those just noted. The trees have a not very rugged bark,
the trunk lacking epicormic growth and the leaves medium sized, but very variable in shape
with a relatively short stalk and smooth upper surface. The pollard has a g.b.h. of 10 ft. 10 in.,
with a boiling about 8 ft. above ground level from which arise four large poles. The height I
estimated to be about 55 ft. The tree is unusual: it is a living elm pollard, the only one I know
of growing within the physical Forest (i.e. not on a boundary bank). The only other elm pollards
I know of are all dead: one on a nearby boundary bank at Woodredon; one on the edge of
Wanstead Flats (see back, an U. minor pollard); a group of seven U. minor pollards in the Lower
Forest (Rackham, 1978), and one each at Epping Green and Sewers Green, again on boundaries.
The Woodredon tree is probably a native local elm. I detected no suckers in the immediate
vicinity of these elms (a feature of Lineage Elm) although a few small trees near the
Woodredon Estate entrance may be suckers. I found further elms on a nearby boundary bank:
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