The woodland flora of the Forest of Writtle and surrounding area
Polygonum rurivagum, Yellow-wort Blackstonia perfoliata and Bee Orchid Orchis apifera, all of
which presumably originated from long dormant seed. Chalky boulder clay gradually becomes
more pronounced the further north and west you travel away from the main Forest. Thus, while
adjacent woodlands in Writtle parish, namely, Southwood, Lee Wood and Lady Grove, retain much
of the character of the Forest springs those on the outer reaches of the ancient parish such as
Horsfrith, Sandpit, Skreens and Nightingale Woods are subtly different, consisting of Ash, Hornbeam
and a little Field Maple coppice with few (if any) oak standards. The shrub layer also tends to be
richer and can include Dogwood Cornus sanguinea, Wych Elm Ulmus glabra and Spindle Euonymus
europaeus. There are also a number of tiny woods that were once part of ancient woodlands but
have been partially replanted with trees that are not native to the area such as Beech Fagus sylvatica,
Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum and Common Lime Tilia x europaea but retain their basic
structure. All these woods are described in greater detail elsewhere in this article.
Woodland Management
The Forest and surrounding area, described above, would not have been radically different in
Norman times from what is present today as there has been remarkably little housing development
within the boundaries of the ancient parish, even in recent decades, and the physical fabric of
coppice-woods, plains, parks and wood-pasture commons is largely retained. Oliver Rackham
considers that the bulk of Writtle parish would have been arable land in 1086, with only about one
eighth woodland, concentrated where it is now but rather more extensive. Both Writtle and Horsfrith
Parks have been converted to arable farmland since the 1939-45 war and the many hundreds of
trees that once adorned them have been felled but even Horsfrith, which is a typical modern farm,
retains an ancient feel to it and it does not require much imagination to visualise the park in its
heyday. Likewise with Edney and Highwood Commons. Both were partly destroyed in 1871 -and
the rest overgrown - following one of the last enclosure acts, but their former outline is still easy to
follow on the ground and the fragments that remain, both secondary woodland, retain a fairly rich
flora. Woodland loss has undoubtedly been far greater in the parishes to the south and east,
particularly Ingatestone and Fryerning, but Mill Green boasts one of the best preserved wooded
commons remaining in Essex. The southern half of the Common was enclosed in the nineteenth
century but the classic four or five-pronged outline of ancient commons is clearly discernible, one
of which (known as The Mores) extends deep into the adjacent woodland along the boundary
stream between Stoneymore (Ingatestone) and Deerslade (Writtle) Woods.
One of the best preserved historical features in the Forest Springs and adjacent ancient woods in
both Margaretting and Ingatestone and Fryerning parishes are the woodbanks. These were
constructed to define the boundaries of a wood or ownership within a wood. Thus the best surviving
examples in the Forest are in continuous blocks of woodland that were shared between two or
more landowners or where coppice springs and commonland share a boundary. Perhaps the finest
example is the parish boundary woodbank between Highwood (Deerslade) and Ingatestone
(Stoneymore), mentioned above (see Plate 17). Until recently the banks were overgrown with saplings
and fallen trees and the ditches part filled with leaves and dead branches, and it would not have
been apparent to a casual observer just how much hard toil was involved in their construction at a
time when the technology available to help the woodsmen consisted of little more than a mattock
and shovel! It was only following coppicing work in the 1990s that the extent of their achievement
became clear as in places ditch and bank arc 25'-30' (8 - 9 m) in total width while the former must
originally have been at least six or seven feet (2 m) in depth. In profile it resembles a medieval
woodbank in Felsham Hall Wood, West Suffolk, depicted by Rackham (1986; p. 99). Other fine
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