The woodland flora of the Forest of Writtle and surrounding area
surprise when, in the early 1990s, following coppicing work along what, since 1968, has become
the margin of the wood, there was a spectacular resurgence of species that had long since been
shaded out of both sight and mind. They included such classic coppice plants as Primrose Primula
vulgaris, Common Dog Violet Viola riviniana, Yellow Periwinkle Lysimachia nemorum, Wood
Sorrel Oxalis acetosella, Common Cow-wheat Melampyrum pratense, Heath Speedwell Veronica
officinalis, Heath Bedstraw Galium saxatile and both Pill Carex pilulifera and Oval C. ovalis
Sedges. The medieval wood-bank which still forms part of the parish boundary with Ingatestone is
the principal haunt of Hard Fern Blechnum spicant in the Forest, up to eighty plants having been
recorded here in recent years. Nearby, in June 2000, a pool that formed in the hole left by an
uprooted larch was colonised by Ivy-leaved Crowfoot Ranunculus hederaceus and this remains its
only site in the area.
Barrow Wood; TL630026. Size: 31 ha/78 acres, all of which remain intact. Three extensive areas
of coppicing have been carried out in this wood during the past two decades. In one of these, on the
southern boundary, a similar proliferation of woodland flora to that experienced in Deerslade resulted
but in addition this was followed, a year or two later, by an equally spectacular display of Rosebay
Willowherb Chamerion angustifolium. A second area is now covered by dense birch thickets while
the third, close to Barrow Farm, never successfully regenerated, many of the coppice stools dying.
This may have been due to over grazing by deer although this has seldom been a problem in other
coppiced areas within the Forest. Heath Grass Danthonia decumbens was found growing here in
2000 together with Pilk Oval, Brown Carex disticha and Common Yellow Sedges C. viridula. The
stream banks in this wood, as elsewhere in the Forest, are often thickly lined with ferns, both Lady
Athyrium filix-femina and Narrow Buckler Dryopteris carthusiana among them. This wood also
contained, until recently, one of the few ponds in the Forest with a decent flora, its chief delight
being large quantities of Fine-leaved Water-dropwort Oenanthe aquatica; then the deer found it
and it is now just a muddy hole!
Birch Spring: TL625024. Size: 45 ha/112 acres, all of which survives. This wood is similar in
appearance to Deerslade, containing large numbers of mature Sessile and Pedunculate Oaks. The
ground flora is very poor apart from alongside the three forked streams which pierce its boundary
with Barrow Wood, in one of which the only surviving Sphagnum bog in the Forest is to be found,
the species concerned being Sphagnum subsecundum var. inundatum. Common Spotted Orchids
Dactylorhiza fuchsii and Broad-leaved Helleborine are occasionally to be seen along these streams
but are invariably eaten by deer before they can flower. There is also a narrow strip of open woodland
on the southeast boundary where Wood Anemone Anemone nemorosa abounds. The only recent
coppicing work has been close to the Blackmore-Highwood road : the resulting flora was poor but
a pair of Redstarts Phoenicurus phoenicurus subsequently bred in a hollow oak on the edge of the
area for a year or two.
Parson's Spring: TL625027. Size: 27 ha/68 acres, all of which remain intact. The area to the east
of the bridleway which leads to Horsfrith Park consists largely of dense oak/birch secondary
woodland and is littered with what appear to be old clay pits while that to the west is rather more
mature. The flora in both is poor, particularly so in the old pits which here - as at Mill Green
Common - seem to support nothing more than Common Water Starwort Callitriche stagnalis,
Floating Sweet-grass Glyceria fluitans and Bittersweet Solanum dulcamara. However, the changing
nature of the soil in this area from acid to boulder clay is evidenced by the Hairy Violets Viola hirta
and plentiful Cowslips Primula veris on the trackside verge just beyond the wood and this is also
the only area of the Forest where I have found Death Cap Amanita phalloides.
186
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)