Berkshire: Knowl Hill to Hurley Chalk Pit

30 August 2013                                OS map 175 Reading & Windsor

Half-day

We walked after lunch from the car-park of the Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill SU818718. 

Bird in Hand

The eastern boundary of the car-park itself has a tall false acacia Robinia pseudacacia with large clusters of mistletoe Viscum album - an unusual host.

The dark bunches of mistletoe show up against the paler Robinia foliage

We walked alongside the A4 a little way to Canhurst Lane, from the end of which a footpath goes NW through a strip of woodland, with a large old sandpit on the right, which has apparently used as a landfill site but was currently being reworked.  Where the path bent left we passed a group of common spotted orchids Dactylorhiza fuchsii in seed.  The dampness of this area, rising up Bowsey Hill, was indicated by the common presence of water mint Mentha aquatica and hemp agrimony Eupatorium cannabinum.  There was also some peppermint Mentha x piperata, the hybrid between water mint and the garden spearmint.  We took a path to the right inside the wood, which kept us near the edge of the sandpit.  Here was marsh horsetail Equisetum palustre, remote sedge Carex remota, wood sedge Carex sylvatica, wood spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides, dog's mercury Mercurialis perennis and hard rush Juncus inflexus in an unkempt neglected woodland of birch Betula pendula, hornbeam Carpinus betulus, and beech Fagus sylvatica.  Of most note was the frequency of wood barley Hordelymus europaeus, an ancient woodland indicator which seems to be able to survive quite a lot of disturbance.

Marsh horsetail

Bowsey Hill wood

When we encountered a bridleway at the end of the path we turned right out of the wood (the turn left goes to the top of Bowsey Hill, but there seemed to be no more interesting flora in that direction).  Beyond the wood we turned left through a double hedgerow towards Warren Row, with more wood barley and wild angelica Angelica sylvestris.  After a small wood we emerged in the centre of Warren Row at a small green with an oak Quercus robur carrying young knopper galls among its ripening acorns. 

Knopper gall among normal acorns

We turned right along the lane past another large oak with oak brackets Inonotus dryadeus growing out of the base of the trunk.  These were easily recognisable by their buff colour and the brown droplets that sprinkled the surface. 

Oak bracket

By a group of planted white poplars Populus alba we turned left along the Chiltern Way (Hodgedale Lane) and continued north by horse pastures and another double hedgerow with yet more wood barley and coppiced hazels Corylus avellana.
          When we reached the next wood we immediately came upon a young fallow deer.  On the left was an entrance to an old quarry now a small BBOWT nature reserve, Hurley Chalpit.  The rough grassland here had small scabious Scabiosa columbaria, fragrant and common agrimonies Agrimonia procera and eupatoria, chalk knapweed Centaurea debeauxii, clustered bellflower Campanula glomerata, carline thistle Carlina vulgaris, ploughman's spikenard Inula conyza, devilsbit scabious Succisa pratensis, Chiltern gentian Gentianella germanica and other typical chalk grassland species.  Shorter turf had wild and large thymes Thymus polytrichus and pulegioides, rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium, autumn gentian Gentianella amarella and squinancywort Asperula cynanchica.  A variety of early summer orchids were now unrecognisable spikes of seed-pods.  A hornet was exploring the vegetation with us.

Carline thistle

Clustered bellflower

Fragrant agrimony fruits

Common agrimony fruit

A remnant of the bare chalk face was difficult to get to above loose scree, but was worth it to see a few plants of the very rare slender bedstraw Galium pumilum.  This needed a good lens to see that the prickles at the edges of the leaves were pointing outwards or backwards, not forwards.  Unlike the common hedge bedstraw Galium mollugo also present it is not very robust and quite prostrate.

Hurley chalkpit

Slender bedstraw

A second entrance from the lane led to the top of the quarry and woodland where round-mouthed snails Pomatias elegans were evident and crested hair-grass Koeleria macrantha grew at the top of the chalk face.  Under the trees was a small patch of helleborines in fruit, apparently broad-leaved Epipactis helleborine.

Round-mouthed snail

We continued through this part of the reserve to the bridleway on the far side, which we took SE towards Ashley Hill.  The hedge along here had hedgerow cranesbill Geranium pyrenaicum, tufted vetch Vicia cracca, sweetbriar Rosa rubiginosa, and a surprising sea buckthorn Hippophae rhamnoides. 

Sweetbriar hips

Sea buckthorn

We passed along the edge of Channers Wood with more wood barley and a glimpse of roe deer.  A ditch contained hartstongue fern Phyllitis scolopendrium and soft shield fern Polystichum setiferum.
          The woodland up Ashley Hill was again neglected and dominated by bracken Pteridium aquilinum and rhododendron Rhododendron ponticum, but we did see some tutsan Hypericum androsaemum, lesser spearwort Ranunculus flammula, yellow pimpernel Lysimachia nemorum and dark mullein Verbascum nigrum. 

Ashley Hill wood

Near the summit we turned right on a path descending southwards back towards Knowl Hill, past a little bugle Ajuga reptans.  Below the wood the path passes through ordinary pasture with a view of the church at Knowl Hill, in front of which a steel walkway rises above the busy A4.

Path to A4 and Knowl Hill church