strayed far from the Farm's straw-barn and adjacent straw strewn horse paddock. An
old hollow oak provided a roost (and possible nesting site) for a Barn Owl while a Little
Owl was also seen and the severe frosts in January forced a couple of Woodcock to
move from their normal haunts and seek food on the still soft margins of the Farm's
fields.
The mild, wet weather in early December saw many fungi still in fruit on the Farm.
These included a wide range of species associated with dung or richly manured pastures
such as Bolbitius vitellinus, Conocybe rickenii, Paneolus campanulatus, Mycena
olivaceomarginata and the tiny but beautiful Coprinus cordisporus which resembles a
delicate pale blue parasol. There was also a magnificent specimen of Volvariella
gloiocephala but perhaps our best find was Agaricus placomyces, several groups of
which were found growing under some of the thicker sections of the old thorn/elm hedges.
This is one of a group of yellow staining mushrooms that includes the familiar Agaricus
xanthoderma. Placomyces, though, has a markedly bulbous base to the stem and the
margin of the cap is ringed with cigar-brown scales that in well-marked specimens can
give it a passing resemblance to The Prince (Agaricus augustus). Like its commoner
cousin it can cause alarming symptoms when eaten in mistake for a Field Mushroom. A
xanthoderma is often common in pastures adjacent to St Peter's Chapel at Bradwell and
a wonderful demonstration of this species indigestibility was provided several years
ago by the nearby Othona Christian Community, who were going through a back to
nature phase at the time. One morning all the Yellow Stainer's disappeared from the
field alongside the Bird Observatory. I wondered where they had gone : next day I found
out. Virtually the entire Community - apart from one or two people with smug smiles on
their faces - were reeling around in varying stages of distress, ranging from mild tummy
upsets to having to spend all day on the toilet, but mercifully none suffered the most
extreme symptoms, whereby the victim sinks into a coma for several days!
On our final visit, in early February, I made a bryophyte survey of the Farm. A fairly
humdrum list of species resulted but I did find one plant that was new to me, namely,
Pohlia proligera, a species distinguished by its abundant bulbils, up to twenty-five per
leaf axil. Several were growing on a pile of old fire ash in the derelict grounds of the
former farm house, abandoned since the 1953 floods. The garden - which contains several
old fruit trees - was obviously once lovingly tended but is now littered with rubble that
is overgrown with nettles and the house - with its broken windows and cracked walls -
presents a desolate air, emphasised by the rusty implements that have stood unused on
the kitchen mantlepiece and table for fifty years. The land rises behind the house to the
farmyard, where Gordon Hooper lived for much of his adult life in a caravan, and from
the crest of the hill there are wonderful views across Stow Marsh and the River Crouch
which warranted far more time that we were able to devote to them. A beautiful farm.
The big talking point in the area this winter has been DEFRA's proposal to flood around
425 acres of arable land at Weymark's Farm, midway between Bradwell St Peter's and
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 41, May 2003
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