Profile of a Naturalist Geoffrey Arthur Pyman MBE (1920-1999)
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And finally the thanksgiving: a packed St Mary's Church at Little Baddow was ample demonstration
of the fondness and high regard we all felt for Geoff Pyman. I, like all who met him. remember Geoff
with gratitude, respect and affection as a kindred spirit.
The Danbury Ridge - a living tribute
Despite his many achievements the length and breadth of Essex, and elsewhere, one area rarely
stayed out of conversations with Geoff for long - the Danbury Ridge. To many people, he was the
face of the Danbury Ridge, the voice of authority which could inform, enthuse and motivate anyone
to protect this biodiversity hotspot in the heart of our county. The fact that it remains an area of
considerable wildlife value, despite burgeoning pressures from housing and other developments and
the incessant, almost surreptitious, threats from neglect or mis-management, is a living testament to
Geoff. I can do no better in this review of Geoff, his life and achievements, than to detail some of the
wildlife riches of this wild heart of Essex - a place which needed him as much as he needed it. The
Ridge and Geoff have much in common - they both changed the face of the Essex countryside and
wildlife.
The Danbury Ridge, one of the primary topographical features of the county, can be justifiably
viewed as the Essex Alps. The core of the Ridge is a fold in the underlying London Clay, the upheaval
being part of the Alpine Earth movements some 20 million years ago when the continents of Africa
and Europe collided. The Ridge may not be huge - it peaks at just 107 metres - but it has played a
significant role in the subsequent development of the county. Most notably it was large enough to
stop the greatest advance of the Ice Age (the Anglian glaciation) in its tracks. Everything to the north
was glaciated, and is now covered in a blanket of chalky boulder clay. Apart from minor incursions,
the area to the south remained unglaciatcd, and so London Clay provides much of the surface, soil-
forming rock. On the Ridge itself, terminal moraine deposits of sand and gravel were laid down,
giving rise to the current situation: nutrient-poor, drought-prone, sandy soils, locally with springs
where the clay reaches the surface.
Left to its own devices, the Ridge would be fully wooded, typically with Wild Cherry, Alder and
willows in the wet areas, and oaks and birches on drier ground. But in common with all of lowland
England, considerable deforestation by early Man took place - here possibly at a very early date, as
the thin, infertile soils probably supported less dense woodland than the more amenable clays, easier
to clear with just stone tools and fire. And the peaks of the Ridge made for excellent vantage points
and defensive fortifications.
The result? Plateau areas largely converted to heathland, with woodland remaining extensively on
the slopes. And so it remained, subject to common grazing and coppice management, with small
settlements gradually growing, especially during the 20th Century, making ever-increasing inroads
into the wildness. As the human population grew, so the exercising of common rights declined, and
especially following the decimation of Rabbits through myxomatosis in the 1950s, the semi-natural
habitats fell into neglect. Undergrazing of flie valuable open habitats led to the growth of scrub and
secondary woodland, while on the slopes, coppice management dwindled. Fortunately the latter
half of the century saw substantial areas taken under the wing of conservation bodies. The National
Trust acquired Danbury Common, Blake's Wood and Lingwood Common, and through Geoff's
influence, the EWT secured interests over a substantial estate - now amounting to more than 400
acres. Many of these reserves are now additionally protected as Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)