The Atlas 2000 Survey - a review of TL60
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gravel working at Roxwell where the underlying chalk is very near the surface. The flora, which
includes Yellow Wort Blackstonia perfoliata. Blue Fleabane Erigeron acer, Rough Hawkbit
Leontodon hispidus, Cornsalad Veterianella locusta and good numbers of both Bee Ophrys apifera
and Pyramidal Anacamptis pyramidalis Orchids has no real parallel in this square although a not
dissimilar but less varied site at nearby Newney Green boasted a wonderful display of over 500 Bee
Orchids in 1999.
In his book, Trees & Woodland in the British Landscape, Oliver Rackham comments that Writtle
Forest "is not quite so well preserved as Hatfield Forest but most of it is still there, and in the quiet
of winter is a wild and lovely place. Nearly everything one sees is of the fourteenth century or
earl ier: the great assart surrounded by hornbeam springs or alder slades; the heathland, pollard oaks
and woodbanks; the lonely cottage, with a palfrey grazing in its pightle, on the site where King
Stephen set up a solitary monk. (No Forest was really complete without a hermit). This astonishing
survival from the depths of the medieval countryside is within twenty-five miles of St Paul's
Cathedral". I couldn't put it better myself! It is a wonderful place. Before I read his books, though,
I remember being appalled by a rumour that some four hundred acres of woodland was due to be
coppiced for the manufacture of toilet rolls - it seemed a terrible waste of good timber! After I read
his books I took a somewhat different view, of course, and since I began botanising I've often
wished that green campaigners had not been so successful in persuading manufacturers to switch to
recycled paper as there is no doubt that, from a botanical point of view, coppiced woodland is far
superior to high forest.
Although this particular rumour proved to be just that - a rumour - small scale coppicing work has
been carried out in recent years whenever a worthwhile market for the product has been found. It is
astonishing how plants which you imagined had been lost during the decades of deep shade which
often preceeded the coppicing almost miraculously reappear. One such area, in Stoneymore Wood,
Mill Green was, for a few years, carpeted with plants such as Heath Speedwell Veronica officinalis,
Primrose Primula vulgaris, Common Viola riviniana and Early Dog V reichenbachiana Violets,
Heath Bedstraw, Slender Hypericum pulchrum and Trailing H. humifusum St John's Worts, Tormentil
Potentilla erecta, Heath Luzula multiflora and Hairy L. pilosa Wood Rushes, Wood Sorrel Oxalis
acetosella. Yellow Periwinkle Lysimachia nemorum and Enchanter's Nightshade Circaea lutetiana
while even less resilient species like Common Cow Wheat Melampyrum pratense, Wood Anenome
Anenome nemorosa, Golden Rod Solidago virgaurea and Broad-leaved Helleborine Epipactus
helleborine made a minor comeback. Other coppiced areas have produced sudden flourishes of
Early Purple Orchid Orchis mascula. Yellow Archangel Lamiastrum galeobdlon, Bugle Ajuga reptans
and Goldilocks Ranunculus auricomus while an area of Ellis Wood, Highwood known as Chalk Hill
yielded an octet of Bird's Nest Orchids Neottia nidus-avis and a plant showing the vegetative
characteristics (if not necessarily the DNA!) of Green-flowered Helleborine Epipactus phyllanthes.
Even the damp ruts created by the woodmen's tractors develop their own distinctive flora; a community
dominated by Water Pepper Persicaria hydropiper, Compact Juncus conglomeratus and Toad J.
bufonius Rushes but also including Lesser Spearwort, Marsh Bedstraw, Square-stemmed St John's
Wort Hypericum tetrapterum, Bog Stitchwort Stellaria uliginosa and small quantities of Pill Carex
pilulifera and Yellow C. viridula Sedges, Bristle Scirpus Isolepis setacea, and Water Purslane Lythrum
portula.
The high forest and other damp, deeply shaded areas corne into their own when it comes to ferns, a
group of plants that are only sparsely represented outside the forest. Within it ten species occur,
often in large numbers. Hard Fern Blechnum spicant is one of the area's specialities but both Scaly
Male Fern Dryopteris affinis and Soft Shield Fern Polystichum setiferum are to be found in small
quantities and some of the smaller woods contain hundreds of clumps of Narrow Buckler Dryopteris
carthusiana and Lady Athyrium filix-femina Ferns. These deeply shaded areas have also produced
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)