Park Wood, Bisham Woods — Spring Bluebells and a Woodland Wander with Elvis
Elvis and myself were long overdue a decent walk. After five days spent decorating in the house, and four days working in the garden on my previous days off, we were both getting fed up of the field over the back of the house. I didn't want to travel far so we plumped for a visit to Park Wood, as it's only a ten minute drive from the house.
Park Wood is a conjoining woodland alongside Winter Hill, Bisham Wood, Quarry Wood, High Wood, Fultness Wood, Inky Down Wood, Bradnam Wood and lastly Goulding's Wood. The only decent place I've managed to find to park at the moment is on Quarry Road, just before the junction with Grubwood Lane, where there is a small parking area and a little bit of parking alongside the road, which has probably just been worn in over the years with people parking there. Then it's just a case of walking through about three woodlands to get to Park Wood. It's not often I drive to these woods as when I've visited in the past I've always been on foot, passing through on longer walks.
Today's walk had no set agenda other than to get to Park Wood — no pre-planned routes to follow, just a leisurely stroll enjoying the sights and sounds of the woodland for a couple of hours, exploring corners I've not yet reached. With all the woodlands together, I have a few more visits to make before I've even touched the surface.
Elvis was in usual sniffer mode to start with, stopping every few yards and — how shall we say — leaving his mark on every tree and bush he could, before he settled down properly into the walk.
Camera of choice for the day was the Sony A350, set to black and white and stuffed into the usual hip pack for easy access when something caught my eye.
Walking through Quarry Wood, it was mostly the view looking back over towards Marlow and the surrounding area that got me to reach for the camera, along with a makeshift rope swing that someone had tied in one of the trees along the way. I couldn't resist an image of that — simple, I know. Some say an image should leave you asking questions rather than answering them, and I think this one does. The biggest question for me being — how on earth did someone manage to tie a rope that high in a tree with no branches to climb? Simple things please simple minds.
There didn't seem to be much in the way of spring growth or outstanding trees to capture, apart from some tree roots emerging from the embankment that runs along part of the path, and some nice patterns in the tree bark. When we reached Park Wood, it was a lot different. The first thing to catch my attention was quite a large grouping of beautiful primroses on either side of the track, along with some wood anemone.
Walking about halfway into Park Wood, I had stopped to look at a tree and then noticed an abundance of bluebells, which got me quite excited. Whether it was because they hadn't long sprung up, or because it was a slightly cloudy day, they were actually quite hard to see at first — a really dark purple that blended in with the dark green of the grasses, brambles and wild garlic which is still yet to flower. But stopping and really taking notice now they had caught my eye, and using the Sony 55-200mm lens from the path, I was able to pick out a few compositions. We spent quite a while here before turning back and heading for the car.
It was on the way back that it really struck me how unusual it was that the bulk of the spring growth was mainly concentrated in Park Wood — at least from the paths I had taken. In my mind I had always assumed that Park Wood was the older or more ancient of the woodlands I was walking through, but after a quick Google when I got home it turns out I was wrong.
Park Wood, along with Goulding's Wood, is actually a 19th and 20th century plantation — relatively recent in woodland terms. It's Quarry Wood and the northern sections of Bisham Wood that hold the ancient woodland designation, having been continuously wooded since before 1600. Quarry Wood in particular is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and was a medieval source of stone for Windsor Castle — which explains the name and, as it turns out, possibly explains the relative absence of spring flowers too, since the medieval quarrying would have disturbed and destroyed much of the original ground flora.
So why the bluebells and primroses in the younger wood and not the ancient one? It comes down to two things — light and seed banks. Park Wood's more recent planting means a less dense, more open canopy, which allows that critical spring window of sunlight to reach the woodland floor before the leaves close in above. Bluebells need that light to flower. In the older sections of Bisham and Quarry Wood, the mature beech canopy casts such deep shade that even established ground flora struggles to flower in any abundance. The other factor is that bluebell bulbs can remain dormant in the soil for decades, surviving through periods of clearance and replanting — so even though Park Wood is a plantation, the bulbs were already there waiting.
The wood anemone I found is actually the more significant find in terms of woodland history — it's one of the classic ancient woodland indicator species, spreading only a few metres per century. Its presence in Park Wood suggests the site has a longer woodland history than its official plantation classification implies, with older roots beneath the surface that the records don't fully capture.
So all in all, Elvis and I had a good couple of hours well spent. It really made a change not to be following a map for once. We'll be coming back next week for a longer look and to keep exploring the parts we haven't reached yet — and the best part? It's all local.