28/8/09: Former Sweet Chestnut coppice, Bursted Wood

Bursted Wood is an ancient woodland site, with Ash, Pedunculate Oak and a significant proportion of outgrown Sweet Chestnut coppice that has not been cut for very many years.

Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) in fruit at the eastern margin of Bursted Wood, by Erith Rd in Barnehurst


A good crop of Sweet Chesnuts on the fringes of Bursted Wood

I used to ply here as a kid, even though it was a lot further from where I lived at the time than it is from where I live now. My mates and I used to build 'camps' in the centre of the rings of regrown coppice trunks.

The London Wildweb site description is here:

http://wildweb.london.gov.uk/wildweb/PublicSiteViewFull.do?pictureno=1&siteid=6139

I've seen the Purple Hairstreak butterflies in the past, but have yet to locate the Slender St. John's Wort.