The woodland flora of the Forest of Writtle and surrounding area
wood could have been situated; it was only when I examined old maps that its original name came
to light, namely, Pocmochole Wood - a name which seems to speak for itself, or maybe I am
jumping to conclusions! Like Woodbanks Spring it has a poor flora due to lack of coppicing in
recent years.
Fryerning Wood/New Wood: TL615013. Size: 20 ha/50 acres. Howlett's Hall. Fryerning Wood is
ancient woodland, New Wood (10 acres) was added sometime between 1740 and 1825. Both are
typical Oak/Hornbeam/Sweet Chestnut woodlands. As mentioned elsewhere, this wood was being
actively coppiced up to the 1939-45 War and four species of fritillary butterfly survived here until
the mid-1950s. Since then there has been no further work and most of the wood consists nowadays
of dark, dank and depressing overgrown coppice and the ground flora is all but non-existent.
However, a large Scots Pine plantation alongside the Fryerning-Blackmore road, planted in the
1950s, was flattened by the 1987 hurricane and subsequently cleared and replanted, work which
resulted in a brief resurgence of a typical acid woodland flora.
College Wood: TL625017. Size: 20 ha/50 acres. Howlett's Hall. Adjoins Birch Spring to the
southwest. Around five acres alongside the Blackmore-Highwood road were planted with Scots
Pine in the 1950s. A broad strip adjacent to Maple Tree Lane was clear-felled of mature oaks and
also coppiced following the October 1987 hurricane; otherwise this wood, like the above, has not
been coppiced for fifty years or more and is currently very overgrown. The removal of the oaks
created numerous deep, water filled ruts that were subsequently colonised by a wide range of
species that included Lesser Spearwort, Marsh Bedstraw Galium palustre, Water-pepper Persicaria
hydropiper, Bog Stitchwort Stellaria uliginosa, Square-stalked St John's-Wort Hypericum
tetrapterum, Common Water-plantain Alisma plantago-aquatica and - more unexpectedly - both
Bristle Scirpus Isolepis setacea and Water-purslane Lythrum portula.
Bell Grove: TL624014. Size: 3 ha/8 acres. Howlett1 s Hall. An overgrown Oak/Hornbeam/Sweet
Chestnut coppice that once formed a continuum of woodland with College Wood and Oak Redding,
the latter of which was grubbed out in the 18th century. It has a very poor flora.
5. The Outlying Woods
Horsfrith Park Wood: TL616044. Size: 6 ha/15 acres. Fingrithhall Farm, Blackmore. As mentioned
elsewhere references to this wood in manorial records date back to 1242. For such an ancient wood it
supports a surprisingly poor flora; I was, for instance, unable to find a single fern during my survey!
The centre of the wood is dominated by Dog's Mercury, to the exclusion of most other plants, and it is
only along the north-westem edge, where a narrow ship has recently been coppiced, that a richer flora
is in evidence, species found here including Wood Speedwell, EnchanterVnightshade Circaea lutetiana,
Primrose, Hairy Violet, Bugle Ajuga reptans, Bluebell, Yellow Archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon
var. galeobdolon, Goldilocks Buttercup and Wood Melick Melica uniflora. This copse's chief delight,
though, is the great number of wonderfully gnarled, knotted and twisted old coppice stools of Ash,
Field Maple and - to a lesser extent - Hornbeam, a display augmented by a small number of equally
ancient pollards. Many of them are festooned with a rich array of bryophytes and more lichens than I
have seen in any other wood in the Forest. A few of the pollards are within the wood - which indicates
a wood pasture origin - and this may explain the poor flora.
Southwood: TL677042. Size: 18 ha/45 acres. Hylands Park, Writtle. An Oak/Birch wood with
some Hornbeam, Sweet Chestnut and Ash coppice. The northern edge is secondary woodland, the
rest ancient coppice and there are a few very old Wych Elm stools in one area. It has quite a rich
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)
191