The ancient Banstead Woods were fabulously beautiful today with their array of autumn colours (even in 4ºC and pouring rain). They are part of the Surrey Hills National Landscape. Previously known as the Banstead Park Estate; a deer park in the medieval period sheltering the royal deer (enclosed in 1439). In 1598 Banstead Park was stated to contain about 160 acres. Both King Edward I and II gave the park to their wives and hunted in the woods for deer. Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife, was the last queen to have the woods as a gift. She owned the woods until her death in 1536. See Explore Surrey- Banstead Woods Nature Trail for details of the nature trail through the woods which I followed.
I reached the wood by train. I took the train to Chipstead in Surrey from Brighton changing at East Croydon. The journey takes 1hr 30 mins in total; the trains from East Croydon to Chipstead run every 30 minutes. The entrance to the wood is a 10 minute walk from the station
SSSI Specification for Chipstead Downs area which includes Banstead Wood:
Situated on the dip slope of the North Downs, the Chipstead Downs complex includes areas of steeply sloping chalk grassland with associated scrub and secondary woodland, as well as large areas of ancient woodland over clay-with-flints on the plateau. Banstead Wood occupies an extensive area of the plateau. Sessile oak Quercus petraea and birch Betula spp. are the main canopy trees, but beech Fagus sylvatica is co-dominant in places. Stands containing sessile oak are rare in Surrey. Conifers, sweet chestnut Castanea sativa and other exotic trees have been randomly planted into these stands, especially in the area known as Perrott's Wood. An understorey of hazel Corylus avellana is well developed in some areas whilst rhododendron Rhododendron ponticum is locally abundant, and holy Ilex aquifolium is common throughout.
The ground flora of Banstead Wood is dominated by bracken Pteridium aquilinum and bramble Rubus fruticosus. There are several areas of well-developed secondary beech woodland on the chalk slopes. Ash Fraxinus excelsior and yew Taxus baccata are common and the shrub layer contains elder Sambucus nigra, hazel, holly, and field maple Acer campestre. Ivy Hedera helix, dog's mercury Mercurialis perennis and bramble dominate the ground flora in which twayblade Listera ovata and white helleborine Cephalanthera damasonium also occur.
There is an extraordinary number of induvial trees listed as ancient by the Woodland Trustin the wood Tree Search - Ancient Tree Inventory
And the whole wood is designated as ancient woodland by Nature England Ancient Woodland (England) | Natural England Open Data Geoportal
The entrance to Narnia
There is a Narnia trail through the woods: see: Narnia_map_updated_Nov_2024.pdf
A mosaic of autumnal trees.
Lichens and Brypohytes
Walking round the ancient woodland of Banstead Wood today on a very wet and dark day, forced me to use the flash on my Coolpix 950 bridge camera. I don't normally use the flash. What I noted is it highlighted the lichen on trees that had big sheets of lichen (which probably many people think are just a different shades of bark).
The were two colours of the large sheets of lichen, on mostly Quercus patrea (Sessile Oak, very rare on the North Downs). The most common was one/some of the pale green mostly non-fertile sorediate Lecanora spp. that grow on bark and look identical i.e. Lecanora compallens ; Lecanora expellans, and Lecanora barkmaniana.
Because it was wet I couldn't do any chemical spot tests in the field, and I didn't want to remove masses of bark, as its an SSSI, and technically you need the permission of Nature England to remove any biological material from an SSSI, so I just took two samples. There were both Lecanora compallens. Of course, some of the green sheets on these tress may be Lecanora expellans and/or Lecanora barkmaniana.
The white lichen sheets (that look if they have acne (their pycnidia)) were probably all Lecanactis abietina (and the one sample I tested with chemical spot tests at home was Lecanactis abietina)
Bryophytes and lichens on a Hawthorn Twig
Hooded Rosette Lichen, Physcia adscendens - white - looking as if its infected by a Lichenicolous fungus
Golden Shield Lichen, Xanthoria parietina - yellow - not its typical presentation
Fringed Rosette Lichen, Physcia tenella
Wood Bristle-Moss, Lewinskya affinis
,
Elegant Bristle-Moss, Orthotrichum pulchellum, on Hawthorn
Cartledge Lichen, Ramalina farinacea, on Sessil Oak
A superb day!
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