Chigwell Row Wood Local Nature Reserve

Size: 15.6 Hectares
Grid Reference: TQ 462 930

Car Park off Lodge Close

Veteran oaks and ancient hornbeam pollards are to be found here with some fantastic stone sculptures throughout the woods. Site has a 350m hardened pathway through the wood.

A forgotten corner of Hainault Forest?

The LNR is very important for its 100's of veteran hornbeam pollards and associated fungi and insects. Picture taken by M Barham.

To all the staff and volunteers at Epping Forest Countrycare, Chigwell Row Wood LNR is now a very familiar place. Over the last 16 years numerous volunteer projects have been held in the wood to both improve its nature conservation value and improve access for visitors. But who else knows its there and really understands its true significance? As I have delved more into the woods history and slowly discovered more about its special trees and wildlife, a bigger picture is emerging.

Let me take you back to 1130 when much of Essex is woodland and the son of William the Conquer, Henry I has just designated the Royal Forest of Essex.

Two centuries later in 1301 the Forest is greatly reduced and broken up into several smaller royal forests by Edward I. Chigwell Row Wood is now part of the Forest of Waltham, which contains both the forests of Hainault and Epping. By the 1640s this impressive Forest still covered some 60,000 acres.

This is the way things remained for centuries as colliers and woodsman maintained the management of the wood pasture and what must have been a staggering number of pollards. However, at the turn of the 1800s trouble was on the horizon for Hainault  as illegal enclosures had forest officials taking people to court. This was eventually to lead to an Act of Parliament being passed in 1851 that saw the wholesale enclosure and destruction of the Forest begin. Specially invented machines cleared the timber and in just 6 weeks around 3,000 acres of the Forest were gone forever to create farmland. Over the next 50 years further parts of the Forest went to the same way until by 1900 Chigwell Row Wood was the only significant part of the Forest left to the west of the Romford Road. The fact the wood survived at all probably comes down to the fact that in 1896 it was felt the inhabitants of Chigwell should have somewhere to walk and exercise so on the 19th September 1886 an enclosure award established the Manor Hill Recreation Ground as a charity. A further 62 years passed until in May 1948 Chigwell Row Wood and the recreation ground was bought by Chigwell Urban District Council for £700. The following year in July 1949 a Trust was formed to regulate management of the Chigwell Row Recreation Ground.

And so it was the wood survived, but has it been rather forgotten?

For many years the wood had little or no management until Countrycare arrived on the scene in the late 1980s, but even then staff had not looked really hard at what was there. We knew there were hundreds of veteran hornbeam pollards, but what of the oaks?

In 2001 a veteran tree* survey was undertaken that was to surprise everyone as 45 veteran oak trees were recorded.

Fly and Beetle Survey 2002
Probably the most significant survey work to be undertaken in the wood to date was undertaken in 2002 as the Oxford Natural History Museum undertook a beetle and fly survey. In March 2004 the results were made available.

A total of 391 species were recorded, 286 Diptera (true flies) and 105 Coleoptera (beetles). Of these 56 species were of conservation concern and a further 24 species, are considered to have a localised distribution. Also found were 2 species, which were recently described as new to science. The latter are scarce, but not enough information is available yet to allocate conservation status. The fungus gnats included 98 species, almost 20% of the British Fauna, of which 16 had conservation status. In comparison, the much larger Epping Forest, surveyed over several decades, had 50% of the British Fauna.

34% of the Diptera and Coleoptera recorded are considered to be dependent as larvae on decaying wood or associated fungi and of these 29 % had conservation status or had only a localised distribution. The results show that the rare species in Chigwell Row Wood LNR are predominantly associated with ancient woodland. This illustrates the high quality of the woodland. Due to favourable management, i.e. pollarding, scrub clearance and scattering of dead wood, the scarcer species are spreading into the younger areas of woodland. The results show that dead wood is extremely important in Chigwell Row Wood LNR and many of the species recorded are scarce.

NB. Veteran trees are of interest biologically, culturally or aesthetically because of its age, size or condition. As a rule, a tree that is either over 250 years old or has a diameter of over 3 metres at breast height can be described as a veteran. However, other factors must be considered such as the location and past management of the tree.

Fly and Beetle Survey 2002 Part 1

Fly and Beetle Survey 2002 Part 2

Fungi Survey 2005 - Local expert Peter  Coomber has helped Countrycare by recording fungi in the wood.

Click here for further details on Hainault Forest website

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