Buckinghamshire: Bulstrode to Littleworth Common

12 July 2011                           OS Explorer 172 Chiltern Hills East

Length: All day

This walk, in an area that is not generally very rich botanically, particularly features a few rare species for the county, such as reversed clover Trifolium resupinatum, goldenrod Solidago virgaurea, hairy-stemmed hawkweed Hieracium trichocaulon, leafy rush Juncus foliosus, bulbous rush J.bulbosus, bladder-seed Physospermum cornubiense, and tower mustard Arabis glabra.

          We started our walk by the footpath leaving south from Oxford Road A40, Gerrards Cross, just east of “Rock Dell” on the OS map SU994888.  The footpath divides into two just inside a gate in an open grassy field on a gentle rise.  We took the right-hand path (as we would be returning by the other) to the top of the hill near Bulstrode House (now the headquarters of WEC International – Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade – a missionary organisation).  Apart from the house and gardens the rest of the park is owned by a local farmer.  The field is semi-improved pasture, used for horses, with a lot of lady’s bedstraw Galium verum, common bird’s-foot-trefoil Lotus corniculatus, and lesser stitchwort Stellaria graminea.  At the top are a few old oaks Quercus robur remaining from the old Bulstrode Park.  The one on the right of the path had a girth of 531cm, representing a substantial age going back possibly to Elizabethan times.   

The large old oak at Bulstrode

Burnet-saxifrage Pimpinella saxifraga (usually having a preference for limy soil) grew near the tree, despite the soil being apparently acidic, and there was also some musk thistle Carduus nutans.

          The path skirts the house on the north side beside a meadow with musk mallow Malva moschata where we saw several green woodpeckers, the hedge on our left with tufted vetch Vicia cracca and the hybrid Des Etangs’ St John’s-wort Hypericum x desetangsii.  

Des Etang’s St John’s-wort

The path has been diverted from the route shown on the latest OS map and now turns north-east through the edge of new woodland (also not shown on the OS map) and directly away from Bulstrode House.  It eventually meets another footpath that is marked, going north-south between the A40 and Hedgerley Lane and the M40 motorway.  We turned south (left) beside more woodland and then fields to Moat Farm.  Just before the farm there is a “silt lagoon” on the right, securely double-fenced, where we could see goat’s-rue Galega officinalis and tall plants of what looked very like dittander Lepidium latifolium, although we could not get close enough to check this out.  The path passes through a brief section of scrub with overgrown bramble before entering a mown area by the farm, where we took the right-hand fork, not clearly visible, through tall grass and scrub, leading to a stile into Hedgerley Lane.

          The OS map shows a footpath going underneath the motorway opposite the farm, but there was no evidence of this, so we turned right along the lane, which goes over the M40.  Just before it does so a track comes off to the right (before reaching the footpath signed down steps right next to the motorway).  Ducking under a single-bar gate, we could follow a path down to some large pools, presumably left over from sand-extraction.  Here there is fringed water-lily Nymphoides peltatus, a pink variety of white water-lily Nymphaea alba cultivar, water-plantain Alisma plantago-aquatica, and galingale Cyperus longus, but New Zealand pigmyweed Crassula helmsii is taking over the margins.  

Galingale

Between two pools were seeding common spotted orchids Dactylorhiza fuchsii, standing tall in the shade of scrub, and trodden paths had parsley-piert Aphanes arvensis.  The ponds have some good dragonflies.  We returned from here to the road.

          Just over the motorway a footpath is signed eastwards beside it, which leads to the footpath that we had been looking for, where we turned south beside a few houses into a small lane.  Here we turned left and then right along a path between two large ponds with moorhens.  This is initially a surfaced track and where it turns to the left we went straight on along an un-surfaced track, following the footpath.  The path now follows the north edge of Church Wood (famed for its nightingales, although we heard none).  At a path junction we took the bridleway downhill to the left to Hedgerley Church, where there stand a number of substantial old oaks.

 

Hedgerley Church

A right turn along a surfaced drive then quickly took us to the main Village Lane through Hedgerley, where we turned left down the road, past, on the right, a pond with more planted galingale and bogbean Menyanthes trifoliata, plus common fleabane Pulicaria dysenterica, although the most abundant plant actually flowering at this time was hogweed Heracleum sphondylium!  At a road junction we left the main lane for a narrower one on the right.  A small wood on the left had wood spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides growing on the bank.  When we came to Andrew Hill Lane we carried on straight across along what was now a track, bordered with more mature oaks, and straight on through Pennlands Farm, where there was a large timber business.  Trackside banks here had lots of wood melick Melica uniflora.

After passing a couple of houses we reached the A355 and crossed into Harehatch Lane.  At corner here the verge had a decent meadow flora of agrimony Agrimonia eupatoria, common centaury Centaurium erythraea, white campion Silene latifolia ssp alba, common knapweed Centaurea nigra, and wild basil Clinopodium vulgare.  A path turns off left almost immediately into woodland known as Healy’s Gorse, where we immediately found the path swarming with wood ants. 

Wood ant nests

At a stile was a clump of wood-sage Teucrium scorodonia, which was to become one of the dominant plants hereon; plus a sign showing the wood was owned by the Portman Burtley Estate (an organic beef-farming business).  Cow-wheat Melampyrum pratense and toad rush Juncus bufonius agg became increasingly common, with some wood-sorrel Oxalis acetosella, bugle Ajuga reptans, hairy woodrush Luzula pilosa and wood spurge.  The path carries on to the western edge of the wood and then follows the edge.

Cow-wheat

As we crossed a stile into fields, we saw lapwings in the field on the right.  We walked beside a hedge with a great deal of blackthorn Prunus spinosa with large green sloes.  The barley on our left had some field pansy Viola arvensis and corn spurrey Spergula arvensis (now becoming rather scarce as an arable weed).  At the far end of this field, just before a gate into a track, a patch of red clover Trifolium pratense was mixed with an odd-looking bright pink clover new to us.  The oddity was due to the fact that each of the florets making up the head was turned upside-down, the shorter keel above the longer standard.  Some downy fruits were forming, rather like a brown strawberry clover, with two conspicuous sepals protruding from each floret.  Along with a hollow stem and toothed dark green leaves with hardly any white marking, we could recognise that this was reversed clover T. resupinatum, an introduction that sometimes becomes established in a variety of scattered places.

Reversed clover

The track led to a lane at a bend and we carried straight on west along here to Littleworth Common.  Ignoring Common Lane on the left we proceeded along Wood Lane
to the short track on the right that leads to the Jolly Woodman pub, appropriately timed for a lunchtime rest and refreshment.  To the right of the pub, garden walls shelter greater celandine Chelidonium majus. 

Jolly Woodman

Appropriate “Flowers” mirror in pub

We returned after lunch to the road and carried on west to Littleworth Common churchyard (St Anne’s Dropmore), which proved to be something of a gem botanically, being left largely unmanaged and full of grasshoppers and flowers, including wood-sage, lady’s bedstraw, gorse Ulex europaeus, the native goldenrod Solidago virgaurea, bell heather Erica cinerea, heather Calluna vulgaris, common knapweed Centaurea nigra, mouse-ear hawkweed Pilosella officinarum, wild thyme Thymus polytrichus, heath bedstraw Galium saxatile, tormentil Potentilla erecta ssp erecta, slender StJohn’s-wort Hypericum pulchrum, wavy hair-grass Deschampsia flexuosa, heath milkwort Polygala serpyllifolia, hairy-stemmed hawkweed Hieracium trichocaulon, quaking-grass Briza media, sheep’s sorrel Rumex acetosella, wild strawberry Fragaria vesca, black spleenwortAsplenium adiantum-nigrum, western polypody Polypodium interjectum and large rock stonecrop Sedum rupestre.  There was also a fine specimen of blue Atlas cedar Cedrus atlantica “Glauca”.

Wood-sage with noble associates

Lady’s bedstraw

Goldenrod

Bell heather

Gorse and heather

Hairy-stemmed hawkweed

Black spleenwort

Blue Atlas cedar

A recently emerged September thorn moth was eager to use our clothes for acclimatisation and remained with us for quarter of an hour until it left us eventually on Littleworth Common.  A path opposite the entrance to the churchyard provided access to the Common itself and to the Beeches Way trail going across the middle, which we followed to the left.  Here, apart from some of the plants in the churchyard, there was some slender St John’s-wort Hypericum pulchrum, purple moor-grass Molinia caerulea, an early specimen of the tawny grisette toadstool Amanita fulva, but most notably masses of wavy hair-grass.  

Slender St John’s-wort

Wavy hair-grass

We saw a young speckled bush-cricket on the bracken. 

Young speckled bush-cricket

There is a large pool on the left off the trail, just before leaving the common, which had on its margins lesser spearwort Ranunculus flammula ssp flammula, marsh pennywort Hydrocotyle vulgaris, gipsywort Lycopus europaeus, leafy rush Juncus foliosus, toad rush J.bufonius, jointed rush J.articulatus and bulbous rush J.bulbosus, the last on the Bucks Rare Plant List.  

Littleworth Common pond

Lesser spearwort

The common is managed by Bucks County Council, which is restoring the original heath-land, important for reptiles like grass snake and slow-worm, while the ponds contain all three native British species of newt and a variety of invertebrates.  The trail leaves the common across the road by the right-hand side of the Blackwood Arms (an alternative lunch-stop), along the edge of a wood and then through a field with marsh cudweed Gnaphalium uliginosum in the path.

The trail then enters Dorney Wood and crosses it to Park Lane.  The wood is the only site in Britain outside Cornwall for the umbellifer bladder-seed Physospermum cornubiense, another plant on the county Rare Plants List.  It is not easy to find, walkers are encouraged to keep to the public footpath, but about two-thirds of the way across the wood there is a large pit on the right hand side of the path.  We descended the slope on the right just after the pit to find the plant quite widespread in the more open spots after some 50 metres.  Although said to flower July-August, on this date we could only find basal leaves which are fortunately quite distinctive (see photo). 

Bladder-seed basal leaves

To see the eponymous swollen seed-pods, a visit in mid- to late August would be advisable.  Our first sight of this plant was on 12 August 1973, when it was easier to find beside a track across the wood to the south of the current footpath, but this track has now been obliterated.  Note also that wood ants are abundant here and pushing through the bracken to find the bladder-seed resulted in a considerable number of them crawling all over us!  Also in the wood, which is mainly beech Fagus sylvatica, oak, rowan Sorbus aucuparia and silver birch Betula pendula (old ones of the latter almost entirely with the conspicuous birch polypore Piptoporus betulinus brackets), are cow-wheat and wood melick, but it is generally unremarkable except for the bladder-seed.

Rowan berries

We crossed Park Lane and followed the trail into Burnham Beeches (north of the area we walked on 7 June 2011, q.v.), past some old oaks. 

Old oak, Burnham Beeches

On the left are the remains of a medieval moated settlement, still with deep ditches, best seen by leaving the Beeches Way along Halse Drive and turning left opposite an information point along McAuliffe Drive, which cuts through part of the embankments and close to the corner of the square moat. 

Old moat

Further along, we noticed that there were both pedunculate and sessile oaks Quercus petraea and passed bushes of both rhododendron Rhododendron ponticum and yellow azalea R. luteum (now of course well past flowering). 

Sessile oak leaves

Many of the old trees have fascinating twisted and gnarled shapes.

 

Twisty trees

This route ended in Dukes Drive, where we turned left.  An old beech along here had southern bracket Ganoderma australe at the base of its trunk, the cocoa-powder spores covering the tops of the brackets. 

Southern bracket

Some of the beeches are old pollards. 

Pollard beech

As we left the wood, past a line of houses on the left, there was a wooded area on the right full of massed cow-wheat.

This brought us to Egypt Lane and we walked left along here, past some creeping Jenny Lysimachia nummularia, hairy wood-rush, hard fern Blechnum spicant and hartstongue Phyllitis scolopendrium in the verge, until, beyond the houses, a path took us off the road again on the right.  Although it passes through woodland, this path is fenced closely both sides.  It leads to the A355 once more, with another path opposite through more woodland to Collum Green Road, which we followed to the right as far as a crossroads, where we turned left up Andrew Hill Lane.  As we came to a bend going left we continued straight on along another fenced footpath.  Eventually a gate gave access to more open bluebell woodland and a less claustrophobic experience.  On reaching another lane we turned right back into Hedgerley: this was in fact the same lane we used when leaving the village in the morning.  When we reached the pond once more we turned right on a footpath that leads to the southern edge of Church Wood, walking just outside the wood at the top of pleasant open meadows.  Leaving the wood-edge the path goes straight on through fields, across another path and to an echoing underpass beneath the M40. 

On the other side of the motorway the path continues straight on, but we digressed to the right across a horse pasture munched to ground level between stems of common ragwort Senecio jacobaea to the double fence-line on the east side of the field.  Here, mostly behind the fence, were hundreds of plants of tower mustard Arabis glabra, another entry on the Bucks Rare Plants List. 

Horse pasture and fenced area with tower mustard

By now the flowers were almost all over, although we could still see some at the tips with their subtle creamy colour distinct from the usual stark yellows and whites of their relatives in the cabbage and cress family of crucifers.  The most distinctive feature of the plants, however, was their narrowly erect stance, with even the seed-pods lying close to the stem.  They look as though they want to be as thin as possible so that they will not be noticed!  

Tower mustard

The double fence, which prevents the plants being grazed, also harbours musk mallow Malva moschata and hedgerow crane’s-bill Geranium pyrenaicum.  At the north end of the field we rejoined the path over a stile and into a road at a bend, going straight ahead to another bend at Ponders where a footpath diverges along a paved track to the left (some caper spurge Euphorbia lathyris grew by the gateway).

Caper spurge

This took us back into the large field of Bulstrode Park where we had started the walk, past banks of goat’s-rue, with both mauve and white flowers.  Where the paved track bends left we continued more or less straight on along a mown grass way through the field and back to the A40 at Gerrards Cross.

We then took a little time to look at the ponds on Gerrards Cross Common, where starfruit Damasonium alisma has been recorded in the past, although not, as far as we can gather, in the last few years.  There is a large pond beside the A40 with white water-lilies Nymphaea alba, but the draw-down where the starfruit might occur is now completely blanketed by New Zealand pigmyweed, suffocating virtually all native vegetation, although some lesser spearwort, marsh woundwort Stachys palustris, and common spike-rush Eleocharis palustris agg survive, and it is still a breeding-site for frogs.  

New Zealand pigmyweed

We then crossed the mown grass common (past feeding mistle thrushes) to another pond on the northern edge, now partially enclosed by housing.  The stony margin here had small patches of New Zealand pigmyweed, and can be expected to be overwhelmed soon.  However, there were still plants like marsh yellow-cress Rorippa palustris, sharp-flowered rush Juncus acutiflorus, water purslane Lythrum portula and marsh foxtail Alopecurus geniculatus.

Water purslane