The woodland flora of the Forest of Writtle and surrounding area
Brome Bromus hordeaceus and Rough Meadow-grass Poa trivialis dominate the set-aside land but
both Slender Brome Bromus lepidus and Lesser Soft Brome Bromus x pseudothominei have also
occurred here while damp, low lying areas abutting Little Edney Wood have been colonised by
small numbers of acid woodland species such as Lesser Spearwort Ranunculus flammula, Slender
St John's-Wort Hypericum pulchrum, Heath Speedwell Veronica officinalis, Marsh Thistle Cirsium
palustre and Tormentil Potentilla erecta. The discovery of the much scarcer Fen Bedstraw Galium
uliginosum in 1999 suggests the presence of a more base rich flush in this area.
Little Edney Wood; TL658038. Size; 20 ha/50 acres, sixty per cent of which was grubbed out in
c. 1971 after replanting c. 1870. Less affected by the great storm of October 1987 than its neighbour
and has not been replanted. Among the trees to survive that storm was a magnificent European
Larch, the best of its kind remaining in the area. Otherwise, the flora is poor.
Edney Common: TL655042. Size: 27 ha/67 acres, of which around 8 ha/20 acres still remain. The
surviving fragment adjoins Great and Little Edney Woods to the east (appearing on the map to be
part of them) and extends in a narrow belt between their boundary woodbanks and Nathans Lane.
It is covered in dense secondary woodland but is low lying and damp and retains a wide ranging
flora of both native and introduced species, among which are Gooseberry Ribes uva-crispa, Black
Currant R. nigrum, Stinking Iris Iris foetidissima, Broad-leaved Helleborine Epipactis helleborine,
Heath Groundsel Senecio sylvaticus and Wood Millet Milium effusum.
Ellis Spring: TL643027. Size: 28 ha/70 acres, of which around one fifth was grubbed out c.1968.
Formerly known as Hilly Spring. This is a rather dense and dark wood that is badly in need of
coppicing. Some work has been carried out in recent years adjacent to the track known as Chalk
Hill (TL64203 3) but the resulting ground flora was very poor apart from the unexpected appearance,
in 1998, of an orchid that bore all the vegetative characteristics of Green-flowered Helleborine
Epipactus phyllanthes. It reappeared the following year but was eaten by deer before it could
flower and has not been seen since. Thus this record still awaits confirmation. A pair of Woodlarks
nested successfully in this area in 1990, the first such breeding record in Essex since the 1960s. The
wood is crisscrossed by broad grassy rides where both Tormentil and Heath Wood-rush Luzula
multiflora ssp. multiflora and congesta are often common. These rides are also a favoured haunt of
Ringlet butterflies Aphantopus hyperantus and Southern Hawker dragonflies Aeshna cyanea.
Coppice (Copy) Spring : TL638028. Size: 24 ha/59 acres, of which three-quarters were grubbed
out in c.1968. The surviving fragment is often lumped together with Ellis Wood on modern maps,
and is similar in appearance. A small marshy area adjacent to Cock Lane/Chalk Hill is one of the
few remaining sites in the area for Ragged Robin Lychnis flos-cuculi while small-scale coppicing
work alongside one of the streams in the early 1990s was sufficient to encourage up to eight spikes
of Bird's Nest Orchid Neottia nidus-avis into bloom each summer for a period of 3-4 years, this
non photo-synthetic plant presumably responding to the disturbance rather than the increased light.
In June 2003 several Common Twayblade Listera ovata were found along a boundary ditch but
these, as with so many orchids in the Forest, were soon eaten by deer. An attractive moss, Rhizomnium
punctatum, is occasionally to be found growing on broken drainage pipes along the same stream
bed.
Deerslade Wood: TL635022. Size: 22 ha/54 acres, of which nearly half was grubbed out in
c.1968. This, along with adjacent Stoneymore Wood, was subjected to several attempts to turn it
into an oak/conifer plantation during the Victorian era. Mature Sessile and Pedunculate Oaks (and
their hybrid) dominate this wood and there is little in the way of ground flora. Thus it came as a
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