7 June 2011 OS Explorer 172 Chiltern Hills East
Length: All day
This is a comfortable trip, almost all on the level, focussing on the old oaks and beeches of Burnham Beeches and the heathlands of Stoke Common, all on acid soils. The walk follows, more or less, part of the long-distance trail “The Beeches Way”.
Comprising 220 hectares, Burnham Beeches is classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a National Nature Reserve. It is also designated as an internationally important Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Stoke Common covers 80 hectares and contains the largest remnant of Buckinghamshire’s once extensive heathland. It is also designated as an SSSI. Both are owned and managed by the City of We parked at the car-park across the road (Hawthorn Lane) from the Burnham Beeches offices, just east of “Lord Mayor’s Drive” (SU946844). We walked up to Lord Mayor’s Drive and along it straight into Burnham Beeches, having an immediate encounter with wood ants Formica rufa thronging on the tarmac, a species that was with us for much of the day in the grasslands, on the woodland floor and up and down the trees. They immediately deter any idea of a country picnic!
Wood ants
On the right hand side we soon came to a small enclosure with what remains of the Druid’s Oak Quercus robur, the oldest tree in Burnham Beeches, a former pollard at least 800 years old, thus having germinated a hundred years or so after the Norman Conquest. It is looking a little sorry for itself now, having lost much of its former height, but the girth of its trunk is still impressively large.
Druid’s Oak
A dead stump of another tree in the enclosure carried the bracket-fungus split-gill Schizophyllum commune. In the grassland by the enclosure is much slender parsley-piert Aphanes australis.
We now left the Drive behind and took a path from behind the enclosure through the woods (with more old oaks and some beeches Fagus sylvatica) going down towards the valley bottom. A glade on the left had another old pollard oak approaching 5 metres in girth.
Old pollard oak
There were also some recently planted beeches here, part of the tradition involving the Lord Mayor of London
Middle Pond
Yellow Water-lily
Yellow iris
A large crane-fly with brown markings on the wings, Tipula maxima, was trapped in the water, but flew away immediately on being rescued. Mallards with ducklings were making quite a fuss over some altercation, while moorhens busily crossed the lily-pads selecting morsels for their youngsters, and a female mandarin duck (a drab brown compared with the splendid male, but still with noticeable eye-spectacles) was protecting an almost fully grown chick.
Mandarin duck with duckling
At the side of the pond were hard fern Blechnum spicant, remote sedge Carex remota, and many wispy rushes with long bracts some 50cm tall which we eventually realised were toad rushes Juncus bufonius, growing much taller than we were used to them in more trampled agricultural habitats.
Tall toad rush
The wet edges of the pond were covered with marsh pennywort Hydrocotyle vulgaris and water forgetmenot Myosotis scorpioides.
Rushes ,water, light: impression
This is a good habitat for dragonflies, although they were too active to identify them all as we walked by. They included broad-bodied chasers Libellula depressa, common darters Sympetrum striolatum, azure damselflies Coenagrion puella, and large red damselflies Pyrrhosoma nymphula, but we were sure there were more. Up the slope beneath the trees was cow-wheat Melampyrum pratense, a plant we were to see in several places during the walk.
Cow-wheat
A path follows the west side of the pond and the stream between it and another large body of water, Top Pond, which was in this case dominated by white water-lily Nymphaea alba and bogbean Menyanthes trifoliata.
Stream between the ponds
White water-lily
Alder Alnus glutinosa borders it. Beyond is a large area of bog dominated by Sphagnum mosses, with a little cross-leaved heath Erica tetralix. Round-leaved sundew Drosera rotundifolia has been found in the bogs at Burnham Beeches very recently, a very rare plant in Bucks. Adders are also common in the more open areas, as they are also at Stoke Common later, worth looking out for on a sunnier day.
The path passes some wood sculptures as it skirts the north side of the bog and rises uphill to rejoin the Lord Mayor’s Drive, just at the point that the Beeches Way joins from the NW.
Wood sculpture
Following the roadway east from here you pass a café, toilets and information centre on the right, where the low-energy buildings have “turf roofs”.
Green roof
Here we left Burnham Beeches and followed the Beeches Way, crossing a road to walk down Beeches Road to the A355.
Turning right here we followed the main road a short way through the urbanised village of Farnham Common , leaving on the opposite side of the road at the Foresters pub along Victoria Road, past a library and the Victoria Inn
Farnham Common beeches
At the east edge of the wood we faced a meadow full of common catsear Hypochaeris radicata. Here the trail turns north along the edge of the Brockhurst Wood, following what is plainly an old green way between banks with formerly laid hedgerow trees of ash Fraxinus excelsior, hornbeam Carpinus betulus, oak, and maple Acer campestre.
Laid hornbeams
On the left beside a house there is a patch of the huge leaves of Algerian ivy Hedera algeriensis, but then the vegetation becomes more natural with cow-wheat, foxglove Digitalis purpurea, wood-sage Teucrium scorodonia and wood melick Melica uniflora.
Foxgloves
After three bends Beeches Way leaves this green lane on the right to cross meadowland, on the left heavily grazed by horses, but on the right dominated initially by ox-eye daisies Leucanthemum vulgare and then (in what was presumably once a separate field before the intervening hedgerow had been destroyed) by Yorkshire fog Holcus lanatus and meadow buttercup Ranunculus acris. In this second field we passed a couple of spikes of common spotted orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii. The trail now crosses Duffield Lane and continues again between fences, that on the right made of ugly corrugated sheets that in places threaten to fall over on to the path and partially held up by a series of oak trees, all that is left of a previous hedgerow. Behind the fence is a wasteland and derelict buildings with horses grazing. Some plants of pignut Conopodium majus and slender St. John’s-wort Hypericum pulchrum indicate that this was at one time ancient woodland.
Wasteland
Fenced path
Fortunately one soon passes through this section to enter a wood that is part of Stoke Common. Again we chose to follow Beeches Way diagonally to the right through here, passing through an area of cleared birch Betula pendula and bracken with clumps of heather Calluna vulgaris. Recently taken over by the Burnham Beeches team, Stoke Common is being extensively cleared to recreate the former heathland environment. Towards the south edge of this section of the common we re-entered woodland and passed extensive creeping Jenny Lysimachia nummularia. The trail briefly leaves the wood to cross Gerrards Cross Road and enter the main part of Stoke Common.
Creeping Jenny
We continued to follow the Beeches Way here northwards through trees and then more cleared birch where cattle were grazing to help suppress re-growth of the trees.
Cleared area of Stoke Common with cattle
The heath here is obviously damp much of the time, indicated by the prevalence of cross-leaved heath, more common than the clumps of heather.
Cross-leaved heath
There was also lesser spearwort Ranunculus flammula, marsh thistle Cirsium palustre, sheep’s sorrel Rumex acetosella, heath rush Juncus squarrosus (on the county Rare Plants List), and other common rushes J. acutiflorus, articulatus and bulbosus.
Heath rush
At a junction we again followed Beeches Way to the right, by a shallow water-filled scrape with creeping red stems of water purslane Lythrum portula, its reddish flowers hidden at the base of the oval leaves.
Water purslane
By this path we saw petty whin Genista anglica, its yellow flowers now over and replaced by inflated seed-pods, plus more common spotted orchid.
Petty whin seed-pods
At the cross-roads we left the Beeches Way going straight on to turn left past a couple of ponds and a smaller scrape with cattle-trampled muddy margins, maintained as habitat for starfruit Damasonium alisma. We could see no signs of this plant, perhaps too early in the season, but then this is a very unpredictable plant that is not seen every year. This is one of the few sites where it has been seen recently, despite management attempts on its behalf at a few other former haunts. Around the ponds are lots of creeping willow Salix repens ssp.repens, heath woodrush Luzula multiflora, reed canary-grass Phalaris arundinacea, water purslane and rushes, and a broad-bodied chaser criss-crossed the water.
Creeping willow in seed
Here the lesser spearwort leaves were mined by what appears to be the larvae of the agromyzid fly Phytomyza stolonigera, apparently known only in Britain until now on creeping buttercup in London, although widespread in Europe.
Lesser spearwort with mined leaves
At the next crossing of tracks, where heath bedstraw Galium saxatile clung to the ground or scrambled in a larger form over the heather, we turned right and regained the Beeches Way, which takes one through the wooded north-east corner of the common, the often muddy tracks with bog stitchwort Stellaria uliginosa and wavy hair-grass Deschampsia flexuosa. At a particularly wet corner we had to be careful to turn left, although the trail is not clearly signed at this point. We walked up to the road to turn right towards Fulmer. On the right hand side of the road, in the ditch along the edge of the common, there is plenty of lady fern Athyrium felix-femina and small balsam Impatiens parviflora.
Lady fern
Small balsam
At the junction we turned left down the hill towards Fulmer. The Black Horse is on the right hand side as soon as the houses start and provides a good place for a break for lunch. We kept to the botanical theme by having a tart of wild garlic, sorrel and nettle as starter, followed by slow-roast local rabbit with crispy nettles! We are glad that the over-abundant nettles and rabbits are being put to such good use.
The Black Horse
Across the road from the pub is Webb’s Cottage, 1833, with a fish-scale tile roof, formerly the property of John Kaye of Fulmer, sheriff of Bucks 1849. The front includes a plaque with the Kaye family motto “Kynd Kynn Knawne Keppe” (look after your own kin-kind).
Webb’s Cottage
Kaye Family Motto
After lunch we more or less followed the same route back as we had come in the morning, with slightly different routes only across Stoke Common and through Burnham Beeches. Having re-entered Stoke Common we left the Beeches Way at the wet corner, carrying straight on to pass along the edge of Frame Wood, marked by a high mossy bank and ditch with laid hedge-trees, obviously a medieval boundary. Both pedunculate and sessile oaks Quercus petraea grew along here, with their hybrid. A roe-deer crossed the path ahead of us.
Stoke Common, wooded area
Frame Wood bank
Even though it was early for toadstools we came across both orange grisette Amanita crocea and panther-cap Amanita pantherina.
Panthercap
Wood-ants were again plentiful here and we were lucky enough to see a large leaf-beetle with red wing-cases, each with three black spots, black thorax, and serrated antennae - the uncommon Clytra quadripunctata, whose larvae feed on detritus in wood-ant nests.
Clytra quadripunctata
Where the wood-bank bent to the left we followed it to the south edge of Stoke Common and made our way westwards along that to the road gate where we had originally entered. Alternatively it is possible to cut diagonally across to this SW corner – although we found it difficult to find that path after there had been so much clearance.
The route now follows the Beeches Way again, the way we had come, all the way to Burnham Beeches and the café. Here, refreshed by an ice-cream, we left the main road to the right, Halse Drive, and then took a path off to the left along a fence-line to see some of the best pollard beeches in the forest. Some of these are clearly quite ancient and the pollarding creates grotesque shapes. They are in various stages of health and decay, and some have had to have branches removed to prevent them collapsing.
Old pollard beech
There are also some pollard oaks, including one we measured at 4.67 metres girth (tagged 01309).
Old oak
Oak bark
Along this path there are innumerable examples of these pollards, a fascinating trawl through history. Just beyond the earthworks of Sevenways Plain (a single rampart enclosure probably used for holding stock in the late Bronze or early Iron Age) we took a path south into Lord Mayor’s Drive. Turning right a little way we found a path on the left that led directly down to our car-park.
The old trees support many rare species of wildlife and lower plants. One such is the knothole yoke-moss Zygodon forsteri. We were able to see a small quantity of this dark moss around wet knotholes in the aerial root of one old beech. It is known from only two other sites in England
58 Knothole moss (centre)
Near it were also minute ants, Leptothorax nylanderi, which nest under the bark of such ancient trees and are again very uncommon.
(Thanks to Helen Read, ranger with the City of London Trust
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