Most of the plants were, unfortunately, rather lacking in excitement. One nice find was
Great Wood-rush Luzula sylvatica on the Belvedere hill, another was Monkeyflower
Mimulus guttatus by the big lake, and lastly several plants of Lady Fern Athyrium filix-
femina were found in a ditch. Lots of different species were eventually recorded.
We all enjoyed the day, and grateful thanks are due to Ken Adams who guided us with
identifications tirelessly throughout the day.
General field meeting at St. Nicholas', Laindon, on 5 July 2008
Mary Smith 33 Gaynes Park Road, Upminster, Essex RM14 2HJ
Seven people met at St. Nicholas' church, Laindon, to have a look at the area of land
around, at the request of the church. The area was roughly 16 ha. Part of this area was
probably Glebe land, belonging to the church, but part had a few 'plotlands' on it long
ago, but now it has been set aside for nature conservation as a 'Designated Wildlife
Site'. Most of the land is north of the church, and is fairly flat, but the church and its
graveyard are on a small hill. The whole lot is public access land, with paths leading to
and from the surrounding residential roads. The area around the church is rough-mown
at intervals, but most of the rest seems to be largely untouched except for two horses
grazing. Much of it is covered largely in scrub and young trees, but quite a bit is open
grassland. There are the over-grown remains of a stew-pond (a traditional pond stocked
with carp as a source of 'meat' in winter, for stews) not far from the church on the E side,
and a recently-made pond in the NW corner. This latter was dug and planted with wild-
type water plants, and had Great Crested Newts put in when their original pond elsewhere
was built on. Our visit had been arranged by Dawn Knox, who runs the website and
edits the Parish Magazine, and she welcomed us in and took some photos of us at work.
Two people, Roger and Sylvia Jiggins, were from the Essex Bat Group, and they hunted
inside and around the church building. No bats were found, but there was evidence (ie
droppings) that bats had occasionally visited in the recent past. They commented that
the church looked ideal for a bat colony, and one may have been destroyed when the
steeple was renovated a decade or so ago. They also met a small Adder inside the
church, (which Ken Adams quipped had corne into the church to prey!) which was speedily
removed outside. A few weeks earlier, an adult Adder had been seen by Ken Porter in
grass nearby, and a beautiful picture of it was taken by Stuart Ricketts (see photo).
These two are local people who help with tidying the area and they were very helpful to
us when we arrived, and when we left (one kindly got my car out of the wet verge on
which it had got stuck!).
The other five of the group were mainly botanists, under the guiding hand of Ken Adams,
to whom many thanks are due for his expertise. Some people, notably Barbara Chapman
and Ken Adams, spotted butterflies and other insects, Barbara and David Bloomfield
18
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 57, September 2008