Belmore Wood

A pleasant walk may be had in Belmore Wood, the most southerly of three adjoining areas of woodland. The other two are Racecourse Plantation to the north on the other side of the Plumstead Road and Brown’s Plantation to the east, between Pound Lane and Dussindale.

The woodland as a whole covers 205 acres, an area which is larger than the entire Heartsease Estate. It’s owned by Thorpe and Felthorpe Trust, a private trust of the Gurney family.

The entire wooded area has been designated a County Wildlife Site. It is also recognized in various planning documents as an Area of Green Infrastructure, an Area of High Landscape Value and an Area of Core Biodiversity.

Belmore wood is made up of various sections reflecting its management over the years, and the species of trees to be seen varies from section to section. You can get a better idea of this by looking at the wood on Google Earth, which allows you to look at different images for different years. If you adjust the ‘clock’ icon at the top of the page back to 1999 there is a wonderfully detailed image which shows the various species of trees in the wood very clearly.

While you are on the web, take a look also at Norfolk County Council’s emap explorer http://www.historic-maps.norfolk.gov.uk/Emap/EmapExplorer.asp This allows you to type in the name of the Parish and see maps and aerial photographs side by side, including the first Ordinance Survey of the area, postwar 1940s b&w aerial photography, enclosure maps and tithe maps where they are available.

http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html is also useful and allows you to track an area through each major revision to the OS. 

It is not known how long Belmore has been woodland but it was certainly well established by Victorian times as it is shown virtually in its current boundaries on the first Ordinance Survey map of 1882. However Bryant’s map of 1826 shows an area marked ‘plantation’ which fits almost exactly with the current wood, but is missing the right hand margin with Pound Lane.


If this map is accurate, it would suggest the central part of the wood is the oldest. Faden’s late 18^th century map of Norfolk shows it simply as part of the vast Mousehold Heath, a term which covered both heathland and woodland. The balance between the two depended very much on the intensity of livestock grazing. The heath was enclosed in 1801, when Pound lane was built.

It seems probable that the ponds and some of the specimen planting near them – such as the beeches, the giant redwood  and the rhododendrons – were part of gardens laid out to complement the house known as Woodlands, which is now the Oasis Club. Old maps show a network of paths leading off from the house and around the lakes on both sides of Pound Lane, as well as statuary on the eastern part of the site.

Old photographs exist showing Victorian ladies boating on the ponds, several of which had large islands.

In the woodlands as a whole many rare and scarce species occur, including: Chaffweed (only recorded site in Norfolk); Allseed flax (one of only two records in Norfolk); heath milkwort; heath-grass; tasteless water pepper; fairy flax; bulbous rush; bristle club-rush; great woodrush (all scarce or rare in Norfolk); white admiral butterfly (UK BAP priority species & scarce in Norfolk); adder, grass snake; common lizard; slow worm; nightingale; hobby; bullfinch, and a very long list of other flora & fauna.  Many of the rare species are present in Racecourse Plantation rather than Belmore as it has more unique habitats. However the White Admiral may frequently be seen feeding on bramble flowers in Belmore.

Woodland types

There are extensive areas of hazel, some of which are in need of coppicing and some of which have been fairly recently coppiced and the standards thinned. Hazel was traditionally coppiced on a 5 to 7 year rotation, depending on what products were wanted.

The standard trees include oak, ash and sweet chestnut, which is common here but does not appear to be coppiced in the more southern parts of the site although it is in the NE corner. There is a problem with sycamore invasion, particularly in the areas nearest to Booty Road. In coppiced areas they can outstrip many other species in the few years before the canopy begins to close again.

As well as the hazel, the understory includes a lot of holly as well as rowan, rhododendron, honeysuckle and a little hawthorn. There are some fine specimen beech towards the centre of the wood. The other largest and oldest trees on the site are generally oak and chestnut. There is also a very large redwood just north of the garden of the second cottage on Pound Lane.

In old woodland where the standards were cut on rotation for timber and only the more gnarled specimens marking the border of the wood were spared the axe, the oldest trees are generally on its borders. In Belmore the older trees are more widely distributed, but there are some fine oaks and chestnuts backing on to South Hill Road and Plumstead Road.

In the northern centre of the site there is a large block of conifers grown as a commercial crop, now mature. Not to everyone’s taste but I think these are rather lovely, and the paths through them are pleasant.  The larch was apparently planted in the 1930s for boat building.

To the north of the former ponds near Pound Lane there is an area of chestnut coppice mixed with a lot of birch, hazel and softwoods. However the soils here are very shallow and gravelly, and some have keeled over. The chestnuts are particularly prone to bark stripping by grey squirrels. There are a lot of them in the woods and although they are great to watch they do a tremendous amount of damage to both trees and wildlife. Unfortunately the nuts are often infested by larvae of the chestnut weevil (Curculio elephas) which renders them inedible.

For more information on coppicing and woodland products, see http://www.coppice.co.uk and for a historical angle look at some of the videos on http://www.woodlands.co.uk/tv

The Wikipedia entry is also a good start http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicing

A suggested route (to be followed together with the map below)
 

1)      Regenerated hazel coppice by the entrance.  Coppicing is an ancient means of woodland management, which took advantage of the ability of many native species to quickly regenerate in order to provide essential products in the pre-industrial age. Coppicing has shaped our woodlands for centuries and possibly millennia, and many only survived because of the value of their crops. Fortunately, the alternating cycles of open and closed canopy encourage great diversity in plants and wildlife.

In most British woodlands coppice is grown with scattered large trees, known as standards.

2)      Recently coppiced and thinned area to immediate left of main path. Hazel coppice with mainly sweet chestnut standards. Note rather drawn, thin standards produced by dense shading and overcrowding. The understory also includes rowan saplings, sycamore saplings, holly etc. With regular coppicing the flora and fauna of the wood could be greatly improved. Some of the regrowth here has been grazed by deer. This work was carried out by students from Easton College.

(diversion to the right )

3)      'Secret Army' site dating from WW2. The Home Guard used the woods for training and there have long been rumours, since confirmed, of a ‘Secret Army’ hideout here. Strangely enough, the 1980 Russian map on the http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html site actually shows two structures in the wood here, the only map to do so! If we were invaded, the idea was that small units would literally go underground to continue operations.

from English Heritage National Monuments Record:

The site of a former Second World War Auxiliary Units underground hide is situated at Belmore Plantation off Plumstead Road East at the eastern outskirts of Thorpe St. Andrew. According to an oral source the hide featured two entrances, three rooms with long connecting tunnels and a ventilation system through hollow tree stumps. In 2006 the condition of the underground hide is uncertain.

Information and pictures can be seen here: http://www.coleshillhouse.com/thorpe-st-andrew-auxiliary-unit-and-operational-base.php

The Auxiliary Units were specially trained highly secret units created with the aim of resisting the expected invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany during World War II. Having had the advantage of seeing the fall of several Continental nations, Britain was the only country during the war that was able to create such a resistance movement in advance of an invasion. - See more at: http://www.coleshillhouse.com/the-auxiliary-units-history.php#sthash.uMZ3vz0n.dpuf

The Auxiliary Units were specially trained highly secret units created with the aim of resisting the expected invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany during World War II. Having had the advantage of seeing the fall of several Continental nations, Britain was the only country during the war that was able to create such a resistance movement in advance of an invasion. - See more at: http://www.coleshillhouse.com/the-auxiliary-units-history.php#sthash.uMZ3vz0n.dpuf

For information on an important new (July 2012) find regarding another Auxiliary Unit in Thorpe St Andrew, see http://www.coleshillhouse.com/norwich-special-duties-zero-station.php The entrance to a well-preserved 'Zero Station' - call sign 'Bowling Zero' - has been located under the car park at the Pinebanks site.

(Rejoin the main path)

4)      Another coppiced  area of hazel  further along the main path, cut a little while ago and with oak standards.  No sign of recent browsing, denser undergrowth of brambles.

5)      Large beech trees are reached by turning left on to the main N-S  path just after a dead beech. Two of the trees here are showing the fruit of the bracket fungus Ganoderma adspersum. This is a common fungus on beech.

(carry on through the small beech grove, noting derelict ponds to left)

6)      A large stool of coppiced lime is on the left hand side. This appears to be the only lime in the wood. This brings us to:

7)      The remains of a once extensive system of ponds linked by a watercourse. Sadly they have all run dry in recent years. The only standing water is in the large lake on the other side of Pound Lane, which was also linked to these ponds by a culvert under the roads, now dry. 10 years ago there were water voles in these banks. What a wonderful addition to the life of the wood it would be if we could see water running through them again!

Going through the gap in the ponds and turning right up the side of the garden of the empty cottage brings us to:

8)      Very large specimen tree.  This is a Sequoiadendron giganteum, the Giant Redwood or  Wellingtonia and is possibly the grandest tree in Belmore. Giant Sequoias are the world's largest trees in terms of total volume. They grow to an average height of 50–85 metres (160–279 ft) and 6–8 metres (20–26 ft) in diameter. The oldest known Giant Sequoia based on ring count is 3,500 years old. Sequoia bark is fibrous, furrowed, and may be 90 centimetres (3.0 ft) thick at the base of the trunk. (General Sherman in the US is 275 ft tall). General Belmore has a way to go to catch him!

Returning back to the path where it crosses the ponds, as we head NW there is:

9)      Sweet chestnut coppice on the gravelly slopes to our right. They seem to have a hard time staying upright here. Thorpe residents may have noticed that when the chestnuts fall on the road in autumn and get squashed by the cars, they release  soap-like substances (saponins). If it rains this can make the streets and drains foam.

10)   By heading to the north again we cross a very mixed area of chestnut, conifers, some oaks and a good deal of birch. The birch are said to be natural colonists after the great gale of 1987. As we near the Plumstead Road there are wild raspberries, some large beech and oak and also some huge, tumbled sweet chestnut coppice stools. We emerge underneath the mast at the top of the main N-S path through the wood. This is the nearest Belmore gets to a ride and a glade now, but at one time the wood had a network of tracks, as can be seen on the old maps. It would be good to open some of them up again as they attract insects and birds as well a greater variety of plants.

11)   Heading south and then west along the main path though the conifer plantation we can see the cleared and replanted area to the north. The birch has taken hold again here;  there are also mosses and rushes. Juncus effusus, the soft rush, is flowering now (July), halfway up its stem. This species was at one time stripped for its pith, which was soaked in grease and used as ‘rush lighting’ for those too poor to afford candles.

12)   Our path leads off to the left and eventually brings us out behind the area of oaks with coppiced hazel we noted earlier. If we stay on it, we will reach the first area of coppice and be able to rejoin the main path on which we entered the wood.