13th May 2012 OS Explorer 171 Chiltern Hills West
Length: All day.
Bluebells, Cowleaze Wood
Woods in the Chilterns vary from chalk to clay subsoil and even more considerably in terms of management. The best-managed can have a rich and colourful under-storey of spring flowers, but many are merely green swathes of dog’s mercury Mercurialis perennis or woodland grasses, and others are virtually devoid of ground vegetation altogether. All types occur in this walk. There are also many steep slopes (it is the Chilterns!).
We started from the car park at Cowleaze Wood SU725955 in Oxfordshire. This is one of the finest native bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta woods in the vicinity, but we initially left it by walking south along its western edge and then crossing the road to take the footpath to the open access area on Shirburn Hill (the second of the two paths, leading SW). The strip of woodland reaching the road here has wood anemones Anemone nemorosa.
Wood anemone
The path leads across improved pasture dominated by bulbous buttercup Ranunculus bulbosus, where we disturbed a pair of red-legged partridge, but also crowds of black march-flies Bibio marci that were emerging from the wet grass and blundering into our faces clumsily. Fresh leaves were just emerging on oak Quercus robur, ash Fraxinus excelsior and beech Fagus sylvatica.
Ash leaves emerging
Young beech leaves
The path crosses a short section of private beech and larch woodland on the Chiltern escarpment, where bluebells were mixed with yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon, which always makes a good sight, like a disordered Swedish flag.
Yellow archangel
We soon reached an open area of south-facing escarpment past some old beeches on the right. This would presumably once have been typical chalk grassland, with a mixed scrub of extensive juniper Juniperus communis and spreading box Buxus sempervirens (native?) on the mid-slope, and leached-out soils above with many acid-soil indicators like tormentil Potentilla erecta and patches of heather Calluna vulgaris. The heathers were just over the fence at the top (the crest of the hill is not part of the open access area),
Juniper and box scrub
The open area is full of mossy old anthills (still active with their inhabitants, the yellow ants Lasius flavus).
Shirburn Hill: anthills and view
A close look, however, reveals that virtually the whole turf is covered with rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium, unfortunately only just coming into bud at this time. Given that rock-rose is a woody plant that is really a dwarf shrub, then one could say that the whole hillside is covered in scrub. Indeed, Shirburn Hill is one of the favourite haunts of mycologist Penny Cullington, who finds a huge variety of rare woodland fungi here associated with the rock-rose rather than the more usual beech, oak and other trees of the Chilterns. This site may well be ecologically unique.
Several trees are scattered around, especially towards the top – including evergreen oak Quercus ilex, white beam Sorbus aria (a splendid old one with multiple trunks sprawls low to the ground in one place, its grey-white leaves just unfurling looking very attractive at this time of year), beech, and pedunculate oak.
Whitebeam on Shirburn Hill
One of the oaks had a good covering of lichens such as Xanthoria parietina, Ramalina fraxinea, Parmelia sulcata and P.caperata, along with dark orange growths of a dry fungus Tremella mesenterica (“Yellow Brain” from its colour when fresh).
Lichens and Yellow Brain fungus
This was the micro-haunt of a small brown bristly weevil Strophosoma melanogrammum, which is common on oak and can be a forestry pest. It is interesting for the fact that only females are known and it reproduces parthenogenetically (but obviously very successfully). There were also shrubs of spindle Euonymus europaeus, many of the fresh leaves already having the typical rolled leaf margins caused by the mite Stenacis convolvens.
Still competing successfully with the rock-rose, especially on the anthills, were wild strawberry Fragaria vesca,
Wild strawberry
glaucous sedge Carex flacca,
Glaucous sedge
spring sedge Carex caryophyllea (with their top male spikes conspicuously bulbous while in flower),
Spring sedge
field woodrush Luzula campestris, common dog-violet Viola riviniana, last year’s carline thistles Carlina vulgaris, dwarf thistle Cirsium acaule, common milkwort Polygala vulgaris, biting stonecrop Sedum acre, mouse-ear hawkweed Pilosella officinarum, rosettes of ploughman’s spikenard Inula conyza, salad burnet Sanguisorba minor, bugle Ajuga reptans, common valerian Valeriana officinalis, sheep’s sorrel Rumex acetosella, and, a rarity in the Chilterns, early forgetmenot Myosotis ramosissima, its tiny flowers needing a close look to see, but far more abundant than field forgetmenot Myosotis arvensis here.
Early forgetmenot
This was a strange mixture of chalkland and heathland plants – despite the leaching of the soil the chalk was very close to the surface, as shown where rabbits or badgers had dug holes. Also frequent all over the slope were delicate little dandelions Taraxacum Section Erythrosperma, of which we identified a couple, T. fulviforme and T. rubicundum.
Taraxacum Section Erythrosperma
Cowslips Primula veris were only to be seen beside the footpath along the bottom of the slope.
It was too early to see the wealth of toadstools associated with the rock-rose. There was a little Amethyst Deceiver Laccaria amethystea, normally only encountered in woodland, but the others seen were the usual meadow or heath species such as Meadow Puffball Vascellum pratense, Common Funnel Clitocybe gibba (large amounts in one patch), and Psathyrella obtusata.
Common funnel
Dwarf Bell Galerina pumila, delicate and slender, was associated with the moss, which enlivened the anthills with a patchwork of greens, yellows and golden-browns, including Montagne’s Cylinder-moss Entodon concinnus (the golden species) and Broom Fork-moss Dicranum scoparium (fresh green), while the general turf between the hummocks was dominated by Spring Turf-moss Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, with its distinctive reflexed leaves. Out of the moss, when examining it, came the tiny black staphylinid beetle Stenus brunnipes with its eyes so large that the head was wider than the rest of its slender body.
Rock-rose growing through moss (mostly Montagne’s cylinder-moss)
Over all flew the red kites, brazenly sweeping low around us, birds that would be conspicuous all day. Stonechats were heard in the scrub, while a herd of roe-deer was both “heard” and seen. With the recent rainy overcast weather, and it being before 10 o’clock in the morning, we saw hardly any butterflies, just a single Dingy Skipper. With a long walk still ahead we had to move on, taking a last look at the wide view of the plain below the escarpment before retracing our steps.
Arriving back at Cowleaze Wood we walked north to the public footpath and took that east to the far tip of the wood. Now we had time to take stock of the wide swathes of bluebells, many wood anemone leaves (though few in flower), wood-sorrel Oxalis acetosella, three-nerved sandwort Moehringia trinervia, and woodruff Galium odoratum, typical of the more floriferous Chiltern woods.
Cowleaze Wood, where the trees have orange eyes
There is a sign from the path to the Bomber Memorial, a concrete pillar to commemorate the Halifax bomber that crashed here on 31 March 1944 after a successful raid over Nuremberg
At the end of the wood the path descends steeply through arable and then sheep pasture to a drive leading to Lower Vicar’s Farm, where there were cowslips in the verge.
Sheep pasture
Cowslips in verge
We turned left and then right, passing just south of the farm – a cluster of houses, of which the original barn is a listed building, and where house martins were flying.
Lower Vicars Farm
The grass slope to the east has plenty of scattered cowslips, but is also planted with garden daffodils Narcissus sp. Here the red kites were mewing and mobbing a lone buzzard. At the top of the slope the path enters Langleygreen Plantation, a young wood with lots of new planting, dominated by dog’s mercury, with plenty of wood spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides spikes standing up proudly in flower, several clumps of blackcurrant Ribes nigrum, their leaves with that unique aromatic smell that can only be described as “blackcurrant”, and a little bugle.
Wood spurge
Blackcurrant
Reaching the top of the hill within the wood, the path then descends again into the next dry valley through pasture created out of recently cultivated land. A lone brimstone flew past us.
The slope up the other side is wooded and the wood-edge marks the boundary of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, into which we now ascended, taking the left-hand fork to the north side. This is again a dog’s mercury wood with little else other than wood spurge, although we did see the odd primrose Primula vulgaris. Only at the far NE corner at the edge of the wood, on the clay plateau, did we pass through a carpet of bluebells. Here we emerged eastwards through rather rough arable land where we started looking for the rare cornsalad Valerianella rimosa that has been seen around Stokenchurch, but there were only ordinary annuals like parsley-piert Aphanes arvensis, field pansy Viola arvensis, and red dead-nettle Lamium purpureum. A hedged track then leads into Stokenchurch village, a community sandwiched between the A40 and the M4 motorway, the noise of which is inescapable. The path crosses through a little industrial estate where there is wasteland with plants like common storksbill Erodium cicutarium (which seems to be rare generally in the Chilterns), green alkanet Pentaglottis sempervirens and goat’s-rue Galega officinalis.
Common storksbill
Green alkanet
An orange-tip was inspecting the plants of garlic mustard Alliaria petiolata. Crossing the Ibstone Road leading to the M4 interchange the path reaches a lane that bears north then east (Green Lane) parallel to the motorway and to a footbridge over the M40 into the centre of Stokenchurch. Cuckooflowers Cardamine pratensis flowered at the side of this path, and so did hedgerow cranesbill Geranium pyrenaicum on the ramp up to the bridge.
On the other side of the bridge are allotments and clumps of common winter-cress Barbarea vulgaris in flower. The lane leads past the cricket pitch to the A40, where we turned right and then crossed to Church Street. Just past the church is the Royal Oak pub and here we could pick up the Chiltern Way, although it is not signed until you get further along, so is hard to find. We followed the Chiltern Waythrough grassland and then an arable field with lots of black grass Alopecurus myosuroides and other common arable plants like field madder Sherardia arvensis and field pansy.
Chiltern Way
At a hedgerow the Chiltern Wayturns eastwards along it and beside more cultivated fields with parsley piert before crossing a farm track and more arable to reach a track called Collier’s Lane on the OS map. We followed this east all the way to Bennett End where we turned left up Horseshoe Lane to the Three Horseshoes at the top of the slope, a good place for lunch.
Three Horseshoes, Bennett End
We returned down Horseshoe Lane to the footpath opposite it, which ascends a sunken lane by a few houses, with wood melick Melica uniflora and goldilocks buttercup Ranunculus auricomus flowering by the path, shrubs of red currant Ribes rubrum and spindle, and mature beech trees. Along here we came across patches of flowering ramsons Allium ursinum, explaining why “wild garlic” had been in our risotto at lunch! There were also patches of moschatel Adoxa moschatellina, a few plants still in flower, woodruff and wood-sorrel, as we bent round through a small wood to the top of the slope and eventually reached a lane past a war memorial surrounded by field woodrush. We turned left and then right along Green Lane, a plant of shining cranesbill Geranium lucidum on the right, but then with houses both sides, apparently called “The City” according to the OS map.
At the end we turned right down towards Ashridge Farm, where three footpaths start at the end of the paved lane. We took the left-hand one which leads to Bottom Wood, a Nature Reserve well managed by the Chiltern Society.
Bottom Wood
Male fern uncoiling in Bottom Wood
A wide ride leads along the bottom of the wood, although this is also a bridleway and gets very chewed up by horses. It was pleasing to be back in another flowery wood with extensive bluebells, yellow archangel, woodruff, goldilocks buttercup, wood melick, wood sedge, and wood millet.
Woodruff
Goldilocks buttercup
In many places the main ground carpeting plant seems to be lesser celandine Ficaria verna. Towards the east end, where the bridleway runs along the southern edge of the wood, a path goes off to the left to an area that is being managed as chalk grassland, although it is still obviously recovering from having become wooded over at some stage, as the main grass was the common woodland one, false-brome Brachypodium sylvaticum. A sparrowhawk flew over as we looked around to see the vigorous shoots and spotted leaves of common spotted orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii emerging amid a scattering of cowslips. Muntjac slots in bare muddy places showed that it was going to be a problem protecting the orchids from being eaten off. Indeed, having returned to the track where we turned off, we saw a small notice about violet helleborines Epipactis purpurata that appear here later in the year and wire-cages that unfortunately have to be used to guard them from the deer. We were too early to see the beginnings of the shoots of these orchids.
At the end of Bottom Wood a belt of beech woodland runs south and we followed the bridleway uphill through it to reach Studley Green. This woodland is a stark contrast to the one we had just left, the ground totally bare of vegetation, let alone flowers. Just before we left there was a patch of gooseberry Ribes uva-crispa, making up the trio of Ribes species one can expect to see in these Chiltern woods. In this case, however, it looks likely to be an escape from the nearby houses. We emerged on a short stretch of the Old Dashwood Hill (or Old Oxford Road) that has been by-passed by the modern A40, and along here was a milestone dated 1744 giving the distances as Oxford 20, London
At Studley Green there is a choice of return route. The choice is either “call a friend” and get a lift back to Cowleaze Wood, or take footpaths back towards Bennett End and pick up the morning’s route, or cross the A40 and follow footpaths south of Stokenchurch along a totally new route. The problem with the last choice is that the paths are not very direct and zigzag a lot, most of the paths are also bridleways and dense horse traffic has made them uncomfortable for walking, and, while the route passes through a lot of woodland, most of this is of poor quality botanically. (On the other hand, you have a good chance of seeing red deer
We took the third option but found it a bit of a drag. Thirds Wood beside the A40 at Studley Green was muddy and uninteresting, and at the far west end had been invaded by a huge expanse of garden yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp argentatum, hybrid bluebells Hyacinthoides x massartiana and clumps of drooping sedge Carex pendula, the fate of many Chiltern woods too close to habitations.
East Wood was quite fresh green with wood spurge and was a pleasant enough walk.
East Wood
UNTIL, that is, we reached the west end (separately demarcated as Hedgepit Wood) where a wide “road” of builder’s rubble extended along the route of the public footpath for hundreds of metres, making for an exhausting and dangerous walk over brick and tile rubble, broken glass and ceramics, and even cutlery (!). It is incredible that someone has not been prosecuted over creating such a safety hazard. This is apparently part of a plan to build a large sports stadium here, although it seems highly unlikely that the District Council would give permission for it in Green Belt and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Penley Wood is another woodland dominated by dog’s mercury with few other flowers, although there were primroses along the north-south footpath through it. When we emerged on the west side of Penley Wood, south of Studdridge Farm there was a herd of ten red deer red deer
Commonhill Wood near Lower Studdridge Farm has extensive bluebells by the footpath. The farm is now used as a base for a removals firm, but there is a high fence separating the woodland and the latter is relatively unspoiled. We finally reached Langleygreen Plantation and could follow our morning route back to Cowleaze Wood and its welcoming bluebells.
Our shadows in the evening light
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