Woodlands
and
Trees
Trees
The oldest trees are the oaks which stood in the deer park. They are probably about three hundred years old, and at one time were grown in the Bristol area for use in the ship-building industry.
Originally there were only a few scattered trees, as can be seen in the Ordnance Survey Map of 1888. These were chiefly oak, beech and the non -native Spanish chestnut. Victorian planting included yew and hazel, as well as some exotic species such as holm oak and Turkey oak. Since then seedlings of ash and sycamore have colonised widely, and many other species such as holly, prunus, elder, Scots pine, and silver birch have been planted.
Woodland flowers
In the spring the woodland floor has carpets of lesser celandine, bluebells and wild garlic. One of the commoner plants is ivy which supports ivy broomrape. The latter is parasitic on ivy and is nationally rare but locally quite common.