Local Wildlife Site

Wildlife

The habitats within this site are mainly woodland, although the golf course is, of course, largely grassland, but with substantial belts of woodland and a number of ponds, and the embankment is mainly grassland. Largely surrounded by housing, Elmstead Wood and Marvels Wood form one block of ancient woodland. The canopy is dominated by oak and coppiced sweet chestnut. The higher parts of the wood are on dry acid soils, while the lower parts lie on the clay and are damper. Wild service-tree occurs in the wood. The ground flora includes pill sedge and a patch of saw-wort. Marvels Wood is particularly well-used by the public, so the ground flora is rather more sparse than elsewhere. Lower Marvels Wood is a small outlier of ancient wood and scrub to the north, and includes a short stream with natural banks. Sundridge Park Golf Course has several small woods and scrubby areas around the fringes. Woodland, covering about half the site, includes ancient fragments with wild service tree, hornbeam and hazel. The acid grassland in the roughs is, along with Hayes and Chistlehurst Commons, one of the three most extensive and diverse examples in the Borough. Notable species include mat grass, heath grass and trailing St. John's-wort, with some heather and bell heather. Parts of this habitat are under threat from recent tree planting. At the north-east end of the site, on heaps of soil dug out in the 19th century for the railways, the grassland is more calcareous. In this area, and on the steep railway embankment adjoining Elmstead Woods station, the very rare pale St John's-wort can be found. The railway cutting up to Grove Park station has also been included within this site for the presence of pale St. John's-wort, though the species was recorded on the golf course in 2008.

Facilities

Walking route; golf