Restoration work begins at Norton Heath....
Tim Gardiner 2 Beech Road, Rivenhall, Witham, CM8 3PF, tg@writtle.ac.uk
Andy Vaughan Epping Forest Countrycare, Epping Forest District Council, Civic
Offices, High Street, Epping, CM16 4BZ, avaughan@eppingforestdc.gov.uk
The decline of Norton Heath is documented in Graham Smith's interesting account of
his walk from Ongar Railway Station to the heath via Fyfield (Smith 2002) that was a re-
creation of a ramble led by Essex Field Club Members in 1913 (Willmott et al. 1913).
The authors of the 1913 account describe the surface of the heath as being disturbed by
shallow excavations for gravel and speculate that the resulting swampy heath and shallow
pools "should prove, happy hunting grounds for botanists". The authors go on to list the
array of heathland plants that were found including Common Milkwort Polygala vulgaris,
Heath Bedstraw Galium saxatile, Heather Calluna vulgaris and Lousewort Pedicularis
sylvatica to name but a few. Sadly as Graham describes in his article, these plants have
all gone and the heath is largely dark and shady woodland which has established due to
the cessation of gravel digging and decrease in rabbit grazing due to myxomatosis.
Heather is not currently found on the heath and only Wood Sage Teucrium scorodonia
and Yellow Pimpernel Lysimachia nemorum still remain (Smith 2002). One of Graham's
last remarks in his article is that "money and determination permitting" the heath may
one day be restored to its former condition. Well we're happy to report that his wish
may be granted sooner rather than later, as Epping Forest Countrycare (Epping Forest
District Council's countryside team known as EFCC) led ably by Andy are undertaking
a restoration project on the heath.
The heath (OS grid reference: TL601042) is roughly 4 ha in size and is divided in two
by a road running diagonally from the north-west to the south-east corner. The north-
east section has a dense Bramble understorey with few former gravel workings and is to
remain an unmanaged non-intervention area as it gets less sunlight than the south-west
section where the main restoration work is planned. The heath is registered common
land and designated as open access (right to roam on foot) for walkers.
On 16th February 2007, Andy and Jordan Thomas of EFCC felled 15-20 Birch and Oak
trees on the sunnier south-west section of the heath in an effort to let more sunlight reach
the understorey which is currently very sparse comprising of Brambles, Honeysuckle
Lonicera periclymenum and Wood Sage. Twenty permanent quadrats (50x50 cm) were
marked out with wooden stakes on both sections of the heath to monitor the response of
the ground flora to management in a scientific manner. Monitoring of the ground flora
will take place in May and July in 2007 and subsequent years. The dense leaf litter and
fertile topsoil is to be scraped off around the quadrats in the summer of 2007 to see if
any Heather will germinate from the seed bank and this is to be followed up with more
tree felling in winter 2007/2008. If Heather does not re-appear naturally then it may be
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Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 53, May 2007