Local Wildlife Site

Wildlife

Despite its popularity and the impact of trampling, this ancient hornbeam woodland has a varied ground flora, including slender St John's-wort, heath speedwell, three-veined sandwort, common cow-wheat, stinking iris, moschatel, sanicle, goldilocks buttercup, and tutsan. Additional species recorded in the past, but not seen recently, include pill sedge, hairy wood-rush, yellow pimpernel and oppositeleaved golden saxifrage. Breeding birds include nuthatch, treecreeper, blackcap and green and great spotted woodpeckers. The River Shuttle runs through the northern portion of the site, the less heavily eroded banks providing some refuge for plants, such as London rare squarestalked St John's-wort and thin-spiked wood-sedge. An area of scrub in the south-west of the site supports a good range of butterflies, including ringlet, which is rare in Bexley, and the purple hairstreak butterfly. In order to maintain the richness of ground flora advice was given in 2016 to re-instate the coppice and introduce measures to control visitor access to the most fragile areas, with tighter control of dog waste. Several invasive species have been recorded at the site, including cherry laurel, cotoneaster, Spanish (and hybrid) bluebells and three-cornered garlic.

Facilities

Walking route