Acid Grassland, Grass Heath, Wet Heath and Bog
Walking northwards from Forest Gate through the Forest today, it is not until one reaches the Wake
Arms area, in particular Sunshine Plain, that you come across an area of ground that even remotely
resembles the average person's idea of a heath - a tract of very open land with species such as Ling
(Calluna vulgaris) and Cross-leaved Heath (Erica tetralix). Yet, in the not too distant past, from
research into published and herbarium records and the evidence of plants that still survive, it is clear
the Forest at one time had much more extensive areas of heathland than we see today.
Heathland develops on acid soils and is situated in Britain in lowland areas with low rainfall, unlike
moorland with which heaths share some species of plant. Decaying leaf matter on the surface of
heathland produces acids which are washed down through the upper layers of the soil, leaching out
particularly humus and iron compounds, leaving a bleached upper soil horizon. The leached products
are redeposited further down the profile, forming humus and iron pans. The latter can be an extremely
hard and impermeable layer. It is clear from pollen analysis undertaken on samples collected from
the Lodge Road Bog (Baker, Moxey and Oxford. 1978), that ericaceous (heather) plants have been
present in the northern Epping Forest area for thousands of years. They only appear sporadically in
the pollen record until some 1,350 years ago, when ericaceous plants slowly became a much more
frequent and regularly recorded feature of the pollen diagram, indicating that heathland was becoming
a more constant and stable feature of the Forest area in the vicinity of the Lodge Road bog. The
presence of the Lodge Road bog itself is of some interest. The earliest deposition in the bog is dated
to around 4,000 years ago. As expected. Club Moss (Lycopodium sp.) and Bog-Moss (Sphagnum sp.)
spores are present in samples analysed from all levels of the bog. indicating, in the case of Sphagnum
moss, a continuity of habitat since the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age until the present time and it
is only in recent years that we have lost the club mosses from the Forest. Most bogs in the Forest are
valley bogs, thought to have been formed by the accidental, or otherwise, impeding of the flow of a
stream causing an accumulation of organic debris.
Acid Grassland and Grass-heath
The written record of heathland in the Forest is of interest. The foundation charter of Waltham Abbey
in 1062 contains several short perambulations, indicating the boundaries of land endowed to the
monastery. Among them is a reference to heathland at Debden '...First at Tippaburne; from the burn
up to the heath, and from the heath to the boundary of Pecdene (Theydon Bois)' (Rackham, 1986). A
little later, not long after the establishment of the Royal Forest, a grant of 1199 mentions the right of
the Monks of Stratford to graze sheep on the 'bruerio' (heath) between Ham Frith and Welcomestow,
the area we now know as Wanstead and Leyton Flats. The latter two sites were still regarded as
heathland up to the 19th century. Aldersbrook Heath is mentioned in the 18th century and in the 19th
century Gibson made the occasional reference to Wanstead Heath in his Flora of Essex. Botanical
evidence recorded by 18th and 19th century botanists from Wanstead and Leyton Flats underlines the
decline of heathland as a habitat in the Forest. Richard Warner (1771) records Cross-leaved Heath
and Bell Heather both on the Forest 'near the great Pond at Snaresbrook' (Eagle Pond). He also noted
Dodder (Cuscuta epithymum) growing on Heather in the same location. Today, of these plants, only
Heather, and in very small quantity, grows on Leyton Flats. In the mid 19th century Joseph Freeman,
in his Stratford Flora (1862), mentions plants 'found within a short walk of Stratford' (an examination
of his herbarium material reveals that many records refer specifically to Wanstead and are dated 1838).
His list includes Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris), Eyebright (Euphrasia nemorosa). Heath Spotted
Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata) and Devil's-bit Scabious (Scabiosa Succisa), as well as many other
heathland species that still survive on Wanstead and Leyton Flats today. Other interesting early records
from this area are Saw-wort (Serratula tinctoria) (EN XIX p. 87) and Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia)
(EN XIX p.234). Gibson (1862) located other records such as Lesser Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera
bifolia), Dwarf Furze (Ulex minor) and the lovely Lemon-scented Fern (Oreopteris limbosperma)
from Wanstead Heath.
Of the sedges and rushes, Gibson reported Cotton Grass (Eriophorum angustifolium) from
Walthamstow (there may have been a bog located near Wood Street), Flea Sedge (Carex pulicaris)
from between Walthamstow and Wanstead (= Leyton Flats) and lastly Few-flowered Spike-rush
(Eleocharis quinqueflora), for which he also gives the latter locality. None of the dozen or so species
just mentioned are found on Wanstead or Leyton Flats today. In Table 4 I have listed plants recorded
on the Flats today. Although many plants have been lost, the survivors, which include Gorse, Mat
Grass (Nardus stricta), Petty Whin (Genista anglica) and Purple Moor Grass (Molinia coerulea),
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