Hatfield is of supreme interest in that all the elements of a medieval Forest survive: deer, cattle, coppice woods, pollards, scrub, timber trees, grassland and fen …. As such it is almost certainly unique in England and possibly in the world. Hatfield is the only place where one can step back into the Middle Ages to see, with only a small effort of the imagination, what a Forest looked like in use. Oliver Rackham, The Last Forest: The Story of Hatfield Forest.
I reached Hadfield Forest from Brighton by train and bus. I took the Thameslink train to Finsbury Park from Brighton; then took the Victoria Line tube to Tottenham Hale and picked up the Liverpool Street to Stanstead Express train that stops at Bishops Stortford; which takes 2 hours 20mins, 2 trains an hour. The closest bus stop is The Green Man, Takeley Street, on the northern border of Hatfield Forest. This can be reached by Arriva bus service 508 which runs from Harlow, via Bishops Stortford to Stansted Airport bus station. See: Hatfield Forest | Essex | National Trust
A day is not sufficient time to visit all of the forest; so I focussed on the areas of pollarded Hornbeam and Oak, with a brief walk through Oak Coppice My Walk https://www.mapmywalk.com/
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Hatfield Forest is unique in being the last small medieval Royal Forest to remain virtually intact in character and composition. The Forest, together with the purlieu woods: Wall Wood, Monk's Wood and Wallis's Spring, was originally an outlying part of the extensive Forest of Essex and still covers over 400 hectares of mixed ancient coppice woodland, scrub, unimproved grassland chases and plains with ancient pollards, and herb-rich marshland bordering a large lake. The woodland is predominantly wet ash-maple and the ash-maple variant of oak-hornbeam. There is a small area of plateau alder, a restricted habitat within Essex and also the only example in the county of calcareous mixed oak coppice, with it's unusually large oak stools. More than four hundred species of higher plants have been recorded, including about thirty trees and shrubs, and many county rarities with Stinking Hellebore Helleborus foetidus and Oxlip Primula elatior of national importance. It is comparatively rich in bryophytes and lichens and has locally important breeding bird communities and insect populations.
Over fifteen different woodland stand-types have been recognised within the coppices. They are mainly mixed with standards of Ash Fraxinus excelsior, Oak Quercus robur and Hornbeam Carpinus betulus - the latter forming more pure stands in Monk's Wood and Wallis's Spring. Aspen Populus tremula and Birch Betula spp. occur in varying quantity, especially where Elm Ulmus spp. has declined through Dutch Elm disease. The shrub layer is similarly variable with Hazel Corylus avellana and Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna, with some Blackthorn Prunus spinosa. Holly Ilex aquifolium is conspicuous by its unexplained absence. Hatfield Forest particularly noted for its ancient '"thorn", often covered with Mistletoe Viscum album, which is also found growing on Black Poplar Populus nigra, Ash and Maple Acer campestre.
The ground flora is dominated by Dog's Mercury Mercurialis perennis and Bramble Rubus spp. and in the wetter areas by Tufted Hair-grass Deschampsia cespitosa. Wall and Monk's Woods are well known for their Primroses Primula vulgaris, while Oxlips P. elatior are found in Dowsett's and Parsley's (Street) coppices as well as in Wall Wood which is close to their southern limit in Britain. Herb Paris Paris quadrifolia is found over larger areas of Round and Long Coppice. Other noteworthy species include Early Purple Orchid Orchis mascula, Greater Butterfly Orchid Platanthera chlorantha, Bird's-nest Orchid Neottia nidus-avis, Common Twayblade Listera ovata, Wild Daffodil Narcissus pseudonarcissus, Common Gromwell Lithospermum officinale and Stinking Iris Iris foetidissimal. Centuries -old pollarded trees are scattered across the grassland plains of the eastern half of the Forest. They include Hornbeam, Oak and probably the only native Beech Fagus sylvatica in Essex outside Epping Forest and South Weald Park.
The grasslands of the ancient wood pasture are both varied and herb-rich. Notable species include Bee Orchid Orphrys apifera, Pyramidal Orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis, Common Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii, Strawberry Clover Trifolium fragiferum, Wild Thyme Thymus praecox, Dwarf Thistle Cirsium acaule and Adder's Tongue Ophioglossum vulgatum. Typical plants of a more sandy area include Sheep's Fescue Festuca ovina, Heath-grass Danthonia decumbens, Spring Sedge Carex caryophyllea, Upright Chickweed Moenchia erecta, Small-flowered Buttercup Ranunculus parviflorus and Harebell Campanula rotundifolia.
The rich fen area at the northern end of the Lake, fed by Shermores Brook, is one of the largest known island marshes in the county. It contains numerous plants which are rare elsewhere in Essex, such as Early Marsh and Southern Marsh Orchids Dactylorhiza incarnata and D. praetermissa, Broad Blysmus Blysmus compressus, Marsh Pennywort Hydrocotyle vulgaris, Bog Pimpernel Anagallis tenella, Marsh Arrow-grass Triglochin palustris, Tubular Water Dropwort Oenanthe fistulosa, Ragged Robin Lychnis flos-cuculi and Marsh Valerian Valeriana dioica as well as at least six species of sedge Carex spp.
The Lake itself provides an additional habitat for both resident and migrant wildfowl and contains Pike, Tench, Roach, Rudd and Perch.
Grasshopper Warbler, Snipe, Water Rail and Nightingale are amongst the more than sixty species of birds breeding in the Forest. There are also a number of Badger setts within the woodland.
Wood Pasture - Oak
Lecanora Chloritera on the bark of this Oak
The bark of a pollarded Oak
Oak Coppice
Oak Coppice in the background
Chaenotheca ferruginea on coppiced Penucnulate robur
Pedunculate Oak, Quercus robur with Birch spp., Betula spp. coppice
Pedunculate Oak with Trentepohlia sp. alga covering barj
Ancient Pollarded Hornbeam
Hornbeam is one of our native trees, it colonized the tundra left after the last Ice Age (approx.11,000 BC) together with holly, ash, beech and maple, preceded chronologically by birch, aspen, sallow; pine and hazel; alder and oak; lime and elm. It is now confined to Southern and Eastern England, most notably in S. Essex and S.E. Herts where it occupies at least half of the ancient woods and wood pastures. (Rackham Ancient Woodlands 2003).
Why Hornbeam? The C16 herbalist explains: “In time it waxeth so hard that the toughnesse and hardnesse of it may be rather compared to horn than unto wood, and therefore it was called hornbeame, or hardbeame” It is this feature of the wood that has limited the uses of hornbeam since its extreme hardness tended to blunt the tools used to work it; however, it was useful where extreme durability was needed as cogs in water and windmills. It was also used to make the yokes of oxen and milkmaids (I shudder at putting these as if they are equivalent!)
Hornbeam is an excellent wood for fuel and for charcoal making and this is likely the reason for previous hornbeam coppicing in Epping and other woods close to London.
When left to grow unfettered by coppicing or pollarding the hornbeam is a beautiful tree whose branches fan out around a stout, not tall, central trunk; it has a pleasing symmetry which is enhanced on closer acquaintance by the swirl in the bark. The leaves are often confused with beech leaves, look closer and they can be seen to have serrated edges around green pleats, uniquely hornbeam. The fruit is delightful, a samara, formed in groups akin to tiny pagodas hanging from the tree. Hornbeam — Tree Tales — Essex Gardens Trust
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