Hainault Forest

Grand in size, stature and origins, Hainault Forest today is, in fact, just a tiny remnant of what was once the “Forest of Essex”. Never the less this is a site of national historic, cultural and landscape importance. A former hunting forest and created to provide venison for the King’ table, it’s one of the best surviving medieval forest of its kind, dominated by the distinctive top heavy and distorted shapes of veteran hornbeam pollards.

It’s estimated that Hainault has around 12,000 such pollards, numerous large oaks, a number of wild service trees and a few ash pollards. The myriad species they support include owls, woodpeckers and bats to whole communities of specialized insects, lichens, mosses and fungi.

Hainault’s status as an ancient woodland is confirmed in spring by its dense carpets of bluebells which make a stunning display in patches of the forest between April and June. The rare wild service tree and butcher’s broom (once prized as a scrubbing brush for butcher’s blocks) also provide strong evidence of its age.

Another notable feature is a small area of heather heathland – rare in Essex – where key plants such as dwarf gorse and lousewort have been recorded. There is also a pond next to which, it’s believed, a local herbalist called Dido lived in the 19th century, producing alternative medicines from the forest’s trees and plants.

The forest has contracted steadily over the last 150 years but, with the purchase of 53 hectares (131 acres) of adjoining land, the Woodland Trust aims to breathe new life into Hainault by creating new woodland which will help buffer and extend the old.