Trees and Woodland Strategy

Bexley's strategic approach to tree management and new tree planting

The Urban Forest of Bexley

The phrase 'Urban Forest' is used to describe all the trees in a built-up area, whether publicly or privately owned, in gardens, hospitals, schools or parks. It is the total tree cover in an area.

Aerial view of Bexley When a view of an area is taken from a high vantage point or from an aerial photograph it is easy to see how the phrase 'Urban Forest' describes quickly and accurately the tree cover in an area.

Because trees take many years to reach maturity, the urban forest of today is the result of tree planting and planning that took place at least 50-100 years ago.

In the mid to late 1800s the Borough of Bexley that we know today was predominantly used for agriculture. The landscape would have been a patchwork of fields, orchards and woodlands, many owned by estates or country houses, which were interspersed with villages and settlements.

The development of the Borough that we know today, really started with the construction of the railways, which enabled workers to commute to the City. At the same time development in the inner suburbs such as Bermondsey and Deptford reduced land available there for farming and created greater pressure locally for intensive farming, especially market gardening, fruit and flowers. This led to the entire clearance of several woodlands in the Borough, notably West Wood which covered the area known today as Falconwood. All that remains as a reminder of West Wood is the road Westwood Lane, the public house at Blackfen called The Woodman, and several oak trees on The Green at Falconwood Parade and at Westwood School.

During the early part of the twentieth century, especially during the First World War, development was slow to take place. However, many trees would have been felled, principally for shipbuilding, so that by 1919 woodlands only covered 5% of the land area throughout the country. It was then that the Government set up the Forestry Commission to begin a programme of tree-planting to replenish the nation's timber supplies. Joyden's Wood, on the boundary of Bexley Borough and Dartford Borough, was formerly owned by the Forestry Commission and planted with coniferous trees to assist with this requirement for timber. Today it is owned by the Woodland Trust and is managed primarily for public access and recreation, and nature conservation. It was during the period between the two World Wars that most of the residential development took place. Many of the large landed estates were broken up field by field to provide houses mainly for people working in Thames-side industry and Central London. Some areas of the estates and country houses remained, which, today provide a large proportion of our parks and open spaces. They are characterised by parkland trees, such as at Sidcup Place; avenues or groups of trees; Foots Cray Meadows and Danson Park; ornamental or exotic trees including Cedars, Evergreen Oaks, Planes and Giant Redwood trees. The Victorians were great plant-hunters and it is due to their fascination with exotic trees that we have inherited this wonderful legacy.

The Edwardians, though not to the same extent, continued with this fascination and, when streets were laid out in the 1930s, trees were often planted. Many of these trees, including Birch, Cherry and Whitebeam, remain today as street trees, although after 60 years' growth in an unnatural environment, many are nearing the end of their life. In some areas existing trees were retained when streets and houses were developed. Good examples of this include mature oak trees in Carlton Road and Bexley Road, Erith, which were probably a remnant of the former Lime Wood which used to cover much of this area. A row of mature oak trees in Danson Road, at the junction of The Grove, Bexleyheath, serves to remind us that Danson Road was once a rural lane bounded by a hedge with hedgerow trees.

Much of this history helps to characterise a particular area and serves to reinforce local identity. Although sometimes the trees do not remain, their existence lives on in a road name such as Burnt Oak Lane, Chestnut Drive, Walnut Tree Road and Hornbeam Lane, or in a Public House such as the Charcoal Burner, the Forester's Arms and the Royal Oak.

Indeed several of the towns in the Borough have tree connections: Abbey Wood is fairly obvious while Bexley requires some explanation. According to Wallenberg, in Kentish Place Names, Bexley, or Byxlea as it was known in AD814, means a clearing in a Box wood or a clearing marked by a Box tree. As the Box tree is normally native on chalky soils it is likely that the latter description holds true.

After the Second World War, tree-planting was undertaken on an irregular basis from trees produced at the Council's nursery, Hall Place. Street trees would be pruned during the winter by grounds maintenance gangs using ladders and handsaws. This approach continued until the early 1970s when Dutch elm disease caused the most devastating tree disease the country has experienced in recorded history. Dutch elm disease killed an estimated 20 million trees throughout the country and removed from the landscape the characteristic and majestic English Elm.

Shortly after this the Council's first dedicated tree team and Arboricultural Officer were employed, initially to remove the thousands of dead elm trees, and latterly to plan and plant trees for the future.

It was not long before another disaster struck. The Great Storm of 16th October 1987, swept over south-eastern England leaving destruction in its wake. The Forestry Commission estimated that 15 million trees had been totally lost and many more damaged.

However, as the saying goes, it is an ill wind that blows no good at all. The Great Storm awoke people to the importance of trees and their value to the landscape. The damage caused by the storm created opportunities to plan for the future, and replant trees in gardens, parks and streets. The resulting publicity, voluntary help, public donations and government finance all helped to exploit these opportunities.

Indeed, in Bexley a programme of replanting was undertaken as part of a Landscape Rehabilitation Strategy in conjunction with Task Force Trees, a unit of the Countryside Commission set up especially to deal with these issues. A five-year programme of replanting on sites throughout the Borough ensured that more trees were planted than were lost from the Great Storm. The quality of tree-planting and tree care also improved noticeably with the introduction of watering tubes and three-year aftercare programmes.

Trees Today in the Borough of Bexley there are approximately 172,000 individual trees in open spaces, gardens, streets, schools, industrial estates and churchyards, of which 74% are in private ownership. There are 238 hectares of woodland which amount to nearly 4% of the land area in the Borough. Within Greater London there are approximately 6 million trees, of which 69% are in private ownership.

Much of this woodland (approximately three-quarters) is classified by English Nature as Ancient Woodland, which means that there has been a continuous woodland cover since at least 1600 AD. Because of this continuous woodland cover, Ancient Woodland is particularly important for nature conservation and biodiversity. The ancient woodlands within Bexley include Lesnes Abbey Wood, Chalk Wood, North Cray Wood, Bexley Woods, Bursted Woods and Martens Grove. The remaining ancient woodlands such as Joyden's Wood, Churchfield Wood and Gattons Plantation are in private ownership, although Joyden's Wood and Churchfield Wood can be accessed by public footpaths.

Much of this Ancient Woodland was managed for centuries by coppicing, whereby the stems of the trees are repeatedly cut down to provide firewood for fuel and poles for hops, fencing or mining. From the cut base of the tree new shoots develop and grow to form the 'new trees'. This process can be carried out almost indefinitely and many coppice trees or stools are hundreds of years old. Unfortunately, coppice management declined considerably nearly 50 years ago due to the decline in the requirement for coppice products, i.e. firewood and poles. Sadly this decline in coppice management has decreased the flora and fauna value of many woodlands, especially wild flowers and butterflies, because they benefit from the increased light that coppicing brings to the woodland floor.

As well as this ancient woodland there are other areas of woodland or stands of trees especially within our Parks and Open Spaces such as Frank's Park, The Warren, Rutland Shaw and Shenstone Park. Native trees within the Borough are Oak (both Common and Sessile Oak), Ash, Wild Cherry, Field Maple, Hornbeam, Yew, Alder, Birch, Elm and Willow with Hawthorn, Holly Blackthorn, Hazel and Elder. Some tree species are naturalised, i.e. they are not native, but appear to grow wild and these are Sycamore, Horse Chestnut, Sweet Chestnut and Turkey Oak. By far the commonest species are the ubiquitous lawson and leyland cypress trees which are often grown as a hedge or a screen. Other widely found trees include cherry, apple, maple (especially sycamore) and Birch.

Species such as Oak, Lime, London Plane and Horse Chestnut, the largest trees and, therefore, providing the biggest impact, tend to be in the Council's ownership. More than half of these trees are mature and very few replacements have been planted in recent years, probably because of the concern of trees causing damage to property. However, if this trend is not altered it will have a dramatic effect upon the landscape.

An important element of Council's owned trees is its street trees, of which there are approximately 12,000. These trees provide a significant contribution to the amenity of an area, especially where there are fewer private trees.