Oxfordshire: Ewelme to Maidensgrove: Ancient Landscapes of Swyncombe

12 March 2012                          OS Explorer 171 Chiltern Hills West

Length: All day.

We parked at the western end of Ewelme (Eyre’s Lane) SU639920 (near the Shepherd’s Hut pub) and walked straight down to the stream after which it was named (Anglo-Saxon ēa “stream”, wielm “bubbling up”).   From here right through the village this stream is the site of former commercial watercress beds that had become derelict after ceasing operation in 1988 and were recently restored as a wildlife habitat by the Chiltern Society.  There is an interpretation board that mentions water voles being seen here.  At this time of the year the stream looked rather desolate, the watercress Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum brown and straggly, new shoots just beginning to emerge.  Moorhens and mallards were active around the shallow water-beds separated by concrete bunds.  The scrub at the side was alive with spring bird-song, and a few lesser celandine Ficaria verna and coltsfoot Tussilago farfara were out in grassland that had obviously been a hive of mole activity.

          We returned to the main road through the village going east just above the stream, with more good views of the cress beds. 

Ewelme water-cress beds

On the corner were many plants of red dead-nettle Lamium purpureum flowering profusely.  Cherry-plum Prunus cerasifera was flowering, very noticeable as always before the rest of the hedgerow shrubs had any colour. 

Cherry-plum

We passed a very old long single-storey building which we guessed was once a smithy, as the house next to it was called Forge Cottage. 

Old smithy?

The Watercress Beds Centre is also along here.  Although the restoration has been purely for historic and environmental purposes to date, there are plans if possible to begin a commercial operation again one day. 

          Many tall trees in the village were occupied by a large and raucous rookery.

Part of rookery

          Where the village street bent to the left we carried straight on, the street signs indicating Swyncombe, passing a large primary school, an imposing rectangular two-storey red-brick building that had originally been built as a grammar school, complete with mullioned windows.  Built in 1437 it is part of a medieval complex including the church and almshouses.  It is reputedly the oldest building in use as a state primary school in Britain.  

Ewelme CE Primary School

After Rectory Cottage on the right a path leaves the lane and proceeds, in much the same direction, through Cow Common, a registered common with certain grazing rights.  Here we passed an old laburnum tree Laburnum anagyroides, a pair of kestrels glided in and out of the thick morning fog, and we noticed the old base of a meadow puffball Vascellum pratense.

Old laburnum, Cow Common

          At the lane at the end of the path we turned left and then followed the track to Ewelme Down Farm.  A small copse along here had numerous self-sown bushes of Lawson’s cypress Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, perhaps form “Tamariscifolia”, which has a spreading form.  Other evergreens have been planted beside this farm-track.  We proceeded rather quickly past the large farm complex itself, as this was distinctly malodorous, and after another copse used for rearing game-birds we crossed Swan’s Way, still continuing directly eastwards.  The hedge on the right here had several plants of spurge-laurel Daphne laureola.  The track continued to the gates of a private drive, where a footpath diverged left to continue as “Ladies Walk” towards Swyncombe House.  There was a little more spurge-laurel in the copse at the beginning of the path.  A pair of buzzards was swooping around high trees.  We were soon walking between a hedgerow and ploughed land on our right, followed by a narrow line of beechwood, many of the old beeches Fagus sylvatica now felled.  On the left here the field boundary is marked by a long line of uniform horse chestnuts Aesculus hippocastanum, obviously planted to make a formal avenue approaching the House, probably in 1840 when the C16^th manor house was rebuilt as an uninspiring Victorian edifice.  Some of these trees bore old remains of honey fungus Armillaria mellea, while the base of the old beeches had clusters of lacquered bracket Ganoderma lucidum.  In this belt of trees was also a large patch of snowdrops Galanthus nivalis. 

Snowdrops, Ladies Walk

Soon after we were joined by the Ridgeway path, the right hand side was bordered by a tall wooden fence marking the boundary of Swyncombe Park.  We then reached Swyncombe Church of St. Botolph.

          The Church had its annual open days to celebrate its snowdrops in early February.  They were mostly going over, but as we entered the churchyard they were mixed with a large colony of winter aconites Eranthis hyemalis, supposed to be one of the best colonies in this country.  Dripping with water from the fog, their delicate petals were unfortunately not at their best, but it was still quite a site because of the density of the two colonies of plants. 

Swyncombe Churchyard: snowdrops & aconites

Winter aconites

There were also a few primroses Primula vulgaris (although outnumbered by polyanthus Primula x polyanthus) and sweet violets Viola odora.  Clumps of gladdon Iris foetida, some still showing their bright orange seeds in open pods, were scattered around, a plant associated with aconite and snowdrop also at Drayton Beauchamp churchyard in Bucks (see our entry for 22 March 2011).  There are some large yews Taxus baccata at the boundary of the churchyard, but those close to the church seemed to be quite young and were kept well clipped and decapitated, which to us seemed rather ugly, although they were supposed to be neat and regular. 

Swyncombe Church & its odd yews

While asarabacca Asarum europaeum was regularly seen here in the late 1900s, we could find no evidence of it today.  We met the vicar who told us something of the history of the church.  Although early Norman in its foundation (11^thC) it was extensively rebuilt around 1850.  We determined to take a look inside the church on our return later.

          We continued east from the church along the Chiltern Way, going across part of the old Swyncombe Park, with the 19^thC Rectory overlooking us.  

Swyncombe Park and Rectory

Then it was up a wooded slope, at first a young plantation, with older beechwood at the top, followed by a plantation of western hemlock-spruce Tsuga heterophylla.  There were lots of bluebell plants emerging here which will make a good sight later on.  Eventually the path leads into Church Lane going down into Cookley Green.  Where it ends at another lane the eponymous green lies ahead and we took a path along its northern side, trees bordering the B480 on its south side just visible through the fog, which was very persistent. 

Cookley Green

When we reached this road we crossed to where the Chiltern Way goes along a track, at the beginning of which was a young maple flowering profusely with bright yellow clusters.  The early season and the fact that the flowers were well before the leaves indicated that this was Norway maple Acer platanoides, a tree which is much less attractive later in the year.

Norway maple flowering by the

Chiltern Way

          The Chiltern Way here descended gently in a valley with a belt of trees on each side.  Embankments in places and the width of the track seem to indicate that this is an ancient way which once joined the Ridgeway itself.  As well as some impressive old trees, especially oak Quercus robur, there are many coppiced hazels Corylus avellana, left uncut now for many decades, so that the last cut made in anticipation of a future harvest of poles had become a waste of effort with changes in the economics of forestry.  After passing the path up to Russell’s Water on the left, and the entry of another path on the right, we saw on the left-hand side one patch of wild primroses near the field edge – surprisingly the only ones we were to see on this walk. 

Primroses by

Chiltern Way

Similarly a small patch of wood anemones Anemone nemorosa by the path a few yards further on was the only evidence of that plant we were to see.  This was surprising, as the habitat looked good.

Wood anemone by

Chiltern Way

          We then came to a path on the left which led straight up the steep slope (meaning steep!).  We left the Chiltern Way to labour slowly up this path on a chalk slope (Little Cookley Hill) that is likely to be botanically interesting in the summer, and we did see the leaves of thyme Thymus sp on our way and remnants of knapweeds. 

Steep path up Little Cookley Hill

At the top of the main slope the path turned right a short way, with masses of sweet violets at the edge, a few purple, mostly white. 

Sweet violets, Little Cookley Hill

Then it turned again straight up the short steepest section with the help of a series of wooden steps, this section presumably marking where the narrow band of hard chalk-rock traverses the hillside between the Middle and Upper Chalk.  Above the steps the rise was more gradual, past more sweet violets, soon emerging into the lane at Upper Maidensgrove.  Just a few yards to the right lies the Five Horseshoes and a well-earned chance of recuperation, eating burgers made from locally-caught muntjac. 

Five Horseshoes

The view from the back of the pub is superb along the valley we had been following, and red kites sailed above, lower than the buzzards that tended to keep high in the sky.

View from Five Horseshoes, fog clearing

          After lunch we returned to Swyncombe the way we had come, but now the fog had finally been burned off, we could enjoy a blue sky and warm sun, and the surroundings came to life in the light and shade.  

Coppiced hazels beside

Chiltern Way

A few lesser celandines and all the dog’s mercury Mercurialis perennis were in flower.  Wood mice ran in and out among rotting logs and bankside crevices.  Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta abounded along this walk, but we were still surprised to see one, just one, in flower.  We could see no others that had even thrown up buds as yet, and this seemed an unusually early date. 

Our first bluebell of the year

There were several clusters of gooseberry bushes Ribes uva-crispa, a plant which can be a sign of ancient woodland, or just as easily a garden escape.  In this case it seemed more likely to be the former than the latter.  Old trees carried lichens like the common blue-grey Lepraria incana.

Lepraria incana lichen on old oak

          As we walked back through the woodland between Cookley Green and Swyncombe (Church Wood) we noticed there were large numbers of earthworks consisting of small holes, large enough for a couple of people, with the earth piled up on one side.  They may be relics of wartime training in trench warfare.  On regaining Swyncombe Church we took a brief look inside.  One small window in the west end, so high it is difficult to see, is glazed with small lozenge panes (quarries) with strange figures of birds engraved on them.  This window used to be open and was where the bell hung outside in a small frame (the reason why the church has no tower), but this bell, the vicar had told us, was removed in Victorian times and replaced with this window.  We found we needed binoculars to observe the birds properly, these being highly stylized and in strange attitudes in order to fit the diamond shapes.  Fortunately the church sells cards with copies of each of the six bird designs and we bought a packet of them.  One is reproduced here:

          From the church, after another look at the flowers, this time in the sun, and another fruitless search for asarabacca, we took the track due north, on the Ridgeway Trail, which goes past the Rectory.  The banks outside the Rectory have more snowdrops and winter aconites.  There is also a thick stand of butcher’s broom Ruscus aculeatus by the gateway and, on the bank beyond, naturalised blue anemone Anemone apennina among sweet violets.

Blue anemone outside Rectory

          The Ridgeway continues across a road and down into a valley from which it rises again from 150m to 215m in the next 300m through beech woodland. 

Ridgeway path

Near the top there is a particularly impressive formerly pollarded beech tree just off to the left.  Roe deer galloped across in front and quickly disappeared.  After descending a little way on the other side of the hill we reached embankments enclosing a ditch and immediately after this we turned left along what was again the Chiltern Way, leading along the Swyncombe Downs.  This an SSSI for its botanically-rich chalk grassland, which would no doubt reward a summer visit.  Even at this time of the year we could appreciate the bushes of juniper Juniperus communis, which has become so rare in the south of England.  Some of the bushes seemed quite young, so that it may unusually still be capable of regeneration here.  They had obviously been used over winter as shelter by seven-spot ladybirds, which were sunning themselves among the shoots and berries.  

Juniper bushes, Swyncombe Downs

Juniper berries & 7-spot ladybird

The track follows the north side of the ditch with embankments, which has gained the name of the “Danish Entrenchment” on the basis of the belief that it marked the limit of the Viking insurgence from the north against the southern Saxons, but it seems much more likely, given its huge length (about a kilometre) and size, that it could not be a hurriedly erected fortification, but more likely a Bronze Age boundary.  Its similarity to Grim’s Ditch, generally agreed to be such a tribal boundary, is striking.  Its antiquity means that some of the beech trees that have grown along the embankments are an impressive size and were once pollarded. 

Pollard beech by “Danish Entrenchment”

The ditch itself would make a suitable trackway if it were not for the fact that much of it is scrubbed over.  One has a real sense here of standing in the midst of an ancient landscape, although this is dispelled by the view north over North Farm across the plain beyond the Chilterns, where most of the fields are of huge extent to suit modern machinery, the old field hedges having been extirpated long ago.

View from Swyncombe Downs over North Farm

          At a fork in the path we took the left path, still following the Chiltern Way
and the “entrenchment” through an area, a little further on, rife with anthills and more junipers. 

Anthills, Swyncombe Downs

From here the path descended through almost pure yew woodland, not at all common in the Chilterns. 

Yew flowers

Below is more recent deciduous plantation, probably on the site of ancient woodland, as we saw a clump of Borrer’s male-fern Dryopteris borreri (characteristic of ancient woodland) surviving from last year.

Borrer’s male-fern

At the bottom of the wood the Chiltern Way crosses a track and continues west through agricultural land (some of those huge fields).  The Chiltern Way soon turns left towards east Ewelme, but we continued westwards along what is termed in newspeak a “restricted byway”.  On the right, approaching Huntingland farm, is a recent plantation which was alive with birds – yellowhammers, chaffinch, goldfinches and great tits.  We then passed along the north side of a very large piggery extending into the far distance, part of Down Farm to the south that we passed early in the day (and explaining its smell).  The earth here was totally bare with Tamworth pigs grubbing, the landscape dotted with metal shelters.  Coincidentally, this echoes the origin of Swyncombe in Anglo-Saxon swīn “pigs”, cumb “valley” – so some things do not change.

Down Farm piggery

The track continued past agricultural land.  Although the hedgerows on each side were largely grubbed out they have recently been replanted with new shrubs.  Two older trees have survived, noticeable for their disordered shape, pale bark and glossy twigs, the buds dark grey-brown and occasional longer catkin buds of the same colour.  The leaf scars were similar to horse chestnut.  We eventually worked out that they were walnut Juglans regia, a surprising find in this otherwise bare landscape. 

Walnut tree

We discovered some fallen brown leaves that had the typical walnut leaf-galls, large pouches, hollow and filled with hairs on the underside, made by the mite Aceria erinea.  There were many broken twigs below these trees, probably a result of people trying to collect the fruit.  One of the trees was smooth-barked and covered in lichens including Xanthoria parietina, Lecanora chlorotera and Amandinea punctata.

Lichens on walnut tree

Eventually the track reaches the lane of Firebrass Hill, where we turned left and then quickly right along another footpath (patch of lesser periwinkle Vinca minor at the corner) to the little copse of Hyde Shaw.  Turning to pass along its northern side we soon reached Eyre’s Lane, a little way above where we were parked.