Buckinghamshire: Cliveden and Taplow

3 July 2011                             SU911853, 909832, 906821 & 909819

Length of walk: Half a day to all day, easy walking, some driving.

These four locations in one small area may be visited in various combinations and for different periods of time.  Unfortunately there is no walk conveniently connecting them without spending most of the time along roads, so it is best to dip in and out at each location and drive between them.  Taplow Court is only open on very few days each year.

Cliveden Estate SU911853

This is managed by the National Trust and open from 10am to 5.30pm, at £9 per person to visit the gardens (including a map).  There is a café and coffee shop at The Orangery.

          On leaving the car-park we immediately passed the invasive small balsam Impatiens parviflora.  Large common limes Tilia x europaea near the house (which is also a hotel) bear many clumps of mistletoe Viscum album.  On the south side of the house are several terraces with marble balustrades, built from stone imported from Italy in the 19^th century.  Apparently imported along with these stones were the Mediterranean snails Papillifera papillaris (papillate door snail, sometimes called the “Cliveden snail”).  These small club-shaped snails with conspicuous white ribs crossing the whorls have found the new habitat to their liking and are numerous in crevices and the crannies of stone carvings, where they enjoy a sunny dry micro-climate, leaving in wet weather to graze lichens.  This is one of only two sites for this snail in Britain. 

Papillate door snail

The balustrades also support our native fern wall-rue Asplenium ruta-maria.  South of the terraces is the Parterre, formal planted gardens of richly coloured bedding plants protected by low box hedges.  (By these gardens we spotted the small bright red lily-beetle Lilioceris lilii, the scourge of bulb-growers!)

Parterre with balustrade in foreground

This is the crown of Maypole Hill and the bank around the parterre on the south, west and east sides is quite rich in native flowers, including common centaury Centaurium erythraea, nettle-leaved bellflower Campanula trachelium, rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium, great mullein Verbascum thapsus, hop trefoil Trifolium campestre, lady’s bedstraw Galium verum and both prickly and grey sedges Carex muricata ssp muricata & C.divulsa ssp divulsa.  

Bank around parterre

Near the southern end of the west side there is a large colony of Caucasian mullein Verbascum pyramidatum, a garden escape but now well naturalised here, with individual spikes like dark mullein but arranged in huge branching candelabra. 

Caucasian mullein

Here were also deeply red flowers of wood-dock Rumex sanguineus at their best, and in the gravelly path prostrate plants of sand spurrey Spergularia rubra, sticky with glandular hairs.  

Wood dock

These banks around the parterre, however, are most notable as one of the few sites for a rare grass, slender cocksfoot Dactylis polygama.  Although it looks slight compared with the common cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata which also grows here, it is difficult to separate on any easily identifiable characters.  Although it tends to have lemmas with keels that are only slightly scabrid instead of long-ciliate, and awns that are much shorter, cocksfoot is a variable grass in itself.  We found a whole range of specimens from typical cocksfoot to some that appeared to be slender cocksfoot, but with many intermediates, which may have been hybrids or merely natural variation.  The most slender specimens, however, do look quite distinct from the usual cocksfoot, which is quite a coarse plant with broad branched spikelets.

Cocksfoots (normal on left, slender? on right)

Down the short series of steps on the west side to the Tortoise Fountain (named after the eponymous reptiles carved on the stonework) there is a rich mix of nettle-leaved bellflower, small teasel Dipsacus pilosus and musk mallow Malva moschata. 

Tortoises on the fountain

Nettle-leaved bellflower

Small teasel in bud

We saw a single plant of deadly nightshade Atropa belladonna on the bank just above the fountain itself.  

Deadly nightshade flower

C11 Deadly nightshade fruit

From here is a view over the River Thames, mostly obscured from Cliveden by the tall woods descending the banks. 

River Thames from Tortoise Fountain

Another viewpoint above an opening through the woods can be visited along the path on the west side of the house and to the north of it.  This used to be marked by a huge overhanging oak tree that was old even in 1666 when the house was built.  This tree, called the Canning Oak, has unfortunately now fallen and part of its impressive trunk has been left in situ, with a seat added from which to admire the scene. 

Remains of the Canning Oak

Along this path there are three-veined sandwort Moehringia trinervia, remote sedge Carex remota, wood-sage Teucrium scorodonia, tormentil Potentilla erecta ssp erecta and hybrid cinquefoil Potentilla x mixta, which had conspicuous 4-5 petalled flowers above leaves with 3-5 leaflets, all on long stalks. 

Hybrid cinquefoil

There are also interesting planted shrubs like yellow buck-eye Aesculus flava (a relative of the horse chestnut from the USA) and Bentham’s cornel Cornus capitata (a relative of dogwood from the Himalayas).

Yellow buck-eye in fruit

Bentham’s cornel

In the Long Garden on the north boundary of the estate with more formal flower-beds there are two baboons carved in granite that were brought long ago from Egypt and were made in the time of the Pharaohs.  They are beautifully made and kept cleaned from lichens, so that they look quite modern, well worth a visit.

Long Garden

Baboon & sweet chestnut

Cliveden Woods SU909832

A 2-km drive south from the entrance to the Cliveden Gardens is the free Woods Car-park, signed on the right-hand side of the road.  There is an interpretation board showing three colour-signed routes.  We followed the green signs along the upper part of the woods north 1½km to the Duke Monument, only just outside the Gardens, and then the red signs down a steep zig-zag path to the side of the Thames, walking back along the river to a path which climbs, less steeply, back to the car-park.

          Immediately from the back of the car-park the path passed through areas with small balsam, and this invasive plant is scattered all the way in places from here north to the far side of Cliveden Gardens.  The path goes through a pleasant picnic area with various wooden sculptures, including some based on the papillate door snail (see above), to a viewing platform overlooking the Thames. 

Bear sculpture

Snail sculptures

The picnic area had meadow puffballs Vascellum pratense emerging through the turf, while just below the viewing platform we saw a giant puffball, both no doubt encouraged by a recent spell of rain.  The path then turns north through various native and planted trees like sweet chestnut Castanea sativa (whose flowers were indeed scenting the air) and yew Taxus baccata.  Under-shrubs included spurge-laurel Daphne laureola, butcher’s broom Ruscus aculeatus (uncommon in Bucks), and well-naturalised box Buxus sempervirens.  

Butcher’s broom

Box in fruit

Other plants were wood-sage, musk mallow, hemp agrimony Eupatorium cannabinum, ploughman’s spikenard Inula conyza, wood-sedge Carex slyvatica, dark mullein Verbascum nigrum, nettle-leaved bellflower, deadly nightshade, and a wide patch of stinking hellebore Helleborus foetidus, almost certainly a naturalised garden escape. 

Ploughman’s spikenard

Stinking hellebore

Small brown marks on the leaves of the hellebore were the incipient leaf-mines of the fly Agromyza hellebori, only recognised in this country about ten years ago.  Grasses included wood meadow-grass Poa nemoralis and wood small-reed Calamagrostis epigeios.  Many of the hemp agrimony had leaf-mines caused by the agromyzid fly Liriomyza eupatoriae.  In a patch of sunlight we glimpsed a fritillary butterfly, but it flew high up into the trees before we could get close enough for specific determination.  Common blue damselflies Enallagma cyathigerum flew among the tall plants of hemp agrimony.  

Common blue damselfly

At the Duke of Sutherland statue there is a good view of Cliveden House and steps down to the river past large exposures of chalk. 

Cliveden House from Monument

Here in the humid shade we began to see large amounts of hart’s-tongue fern Phyllitis scolopendrium.  

Hartstongue Fern

At the bottom we entered a wider track by the remote Seven Gable Cottage, just past which was a huge London plane Platanus x hispanica with a girth of over 9 metres. 

Plane leaves

Beneath it was a large stand of Forrest’s tutsan Hypericum forrestii, naturalised no doubt from the nearby garden.  It had leaf-mines of the micro-moth that attacks all Hypericum species - Ectoedemia septembrella.

Forrest’s StJohn’s-wort

A large vine climbing over shrubs just after this, with leaves and stems very rough from prickly wide-based hairs, was a conundrum, but we eventually put it down as a another escape, a marrow Cucurbita pepo!  It had leaf-mines of the agromyzid fly Chromatomyia [horticola].

          Alongside the Thames, which is here about 100m wide, we saw wild angelica Angelica sylvestris, purple loosestrife Lythrum salicaria, meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria, common valerian Valeriana officinalis, hemlock water-dropwort Oenanthe crocata, marsh woundwort Stachys palustris, and gipsywort Lycopus europaeus.  Some of the angelica had the leaf-mines of the picture-winged fly Euleia heraclei.  

Marsh woundwort

Gipsywort

There were also what appeared to be plants of the true native common comfrey Symphytum officinale, with wings running down the stem from the leaves well past the next leaf below.  

Common comfrey

Nettle-leaved bellflower was abundant all along this path, but we saw only one patch of small teasel.  In the water there was some yellow water-lily Nuphar lutea.  Coots, mallards, some other nondescript ducks, and a female mandarin duck came to see if we were offering food, while we also saw a heron flying over the river and (so briefly) a kingfisher flying along the bank.  A great crested grebe remained in the middle of the river, only moving from time to time to allow boats to pass.  Other grasses appeared along this lower path, wood barley Hordelymus europaeus, wood melick Melica uniflora and bearded couch Elymus caninus.  A bush of wild rose had had its leaves almost entirely decimated by large rose sawfly Arge pagana.

Rose sawfly larva

Taplow Court SU906821

1km south of the Cliveden Woods car-park this old mansion houses the headquarters of an international Buddhist organisation SGI-UK.  The grounds are only open on the first Sunday of June, July and August each year, 10am-5pm.  Entrance is free, including the car-park.  Afternoon cream teas are served 3-5pm.

Taplow Court

The grounds include some impressive old trees of sweet chestnut Castanea sativa, pedunculate oak Quercus robur, and particularly cedar of Lebanon Cedrus libani. 

Sweet chustnut

Cedars

Part of the grassland has a patch of bugloss Anchusa arvensis, unusual for the area, but the soil is generally impoverished, as indicated by plenty of sheep’s sorrel Rumex acetosella. 

Bugloss

On cultivated ground there is some spotted medick Medicago arabica and black nightshade Solanum nigrum ssp nigrum, and in old walled orchards south of the house there is an apple tree with a huge cluster of mistletoe almost down to ground level. 

Mistletoe on apple tree

There is a colony of ring-necked parakeets that make their presence felt by their regular shrieks, even if they can be difficult to spot at times in the tops of the trees.  By the house is the site of an old Saxon church, a large 7^th century burial mound and nearby gravestones which support wall-rue and pellitory-of-the-wall Parietaria judaica.

Anglo-Saxon burial mound

Pellitory-of-the-wall

Just outside Taplow Court, a few yards to the south, at a three-way junction in the centre of Taplow, grows a conspicuous young tree of common laburnum Laburnum anagyroides with bright golden-yellow leaves, cultivar “Aureum”.

Taplow House Hotel SU909819300 metres further down the road this hotel stands on the left.  The grounds include Europe’s largest tulip trees Liriodendron tulipiferum (one features in the hotel’s logo). 

Taplow House & tulip tree

Refreshments (available all day) on the terrace allow one to look out peacefully over the lawns and trees.  One tulip tree directly in front of the hotel has a huge bole but is without most of its upper boughs.  Another across the lawn is much taller. 

Tulip tree near hotel

Tulip tree leaves

Taller tulip tree

A plaque says they are the largest in Europe with girths of 5.8m and a height (presumably the further one) of 35m.  They are certainly impressive and are said to have been planted about 1770-1775.  A further claim that they were planted by Elizabeth I (died 1603) hardly squares with this and must be assumed to be a myth!  Another huge tree is a Wellingtonia Sequoiadendron giganteum said to have been planted as late as 1865, but overshadowing everything else.  

Wellingtonia

Wellingtonia leaves and new cones

A deodar cedar Cedrus deodara near the drive was planted about 1880 and is also an impressive size, although it lacks the classic shape after tree surgery.