The Forest

The Forest

The Forest is the area of mixed woodland lying between 'The Drift', the railway, 'The Highlands' and the last four properties from The Drift along Ockham Road North.  It was   bought in 2002 with funds raised by a public appeal organised by the Horsley Countryside Preservation Society and was placed under the ownership the East Horsley Parish Council for an agreed 999 year lease to Surrey Wildlife Trust, the managing body. A survey of the area shortly after purchase recorded nearly 180 plant species including a large number of bluebells in the western part of the woodland. In the period since then, over 50 species of bird have been seen in, or hunting above, the woodland. This includes woodpeckers, nuthatches, treecreepers, tawny owls and sparrowhawks and at least one Hobby!  Roe deer, foxes and bats can be seen here and you may even spot the diminutive muntjac.

The Forest is particularly good for amphibians including the common toad and great crested newt, making it a regionally important site. In Medieval times this woodland was known as ‘The Thornleys’, which relates to the blackthorn, hawthorn and other trees and shrubs that grew here. Thorn woods were important as sources of dead hedging, widely used on the open fields of the time. On a map of 1793 the area is shown as being part of the open Horsley Common, suggesting the trees had been cleared. By 1816, the date of the first Ordnance Survey one inch map, it is once again shown as woodland. Despite this chequered history the site is included in the Surrey Inventory of Ancient Woodland.

Woodland like this used to be managed to supply large timber (standards) and smaller poles. The poles were produced by coppicing (cutting the trees close to the ground so that they grew lots of upright stems). Such management also allowed light to reach the woodland floor, which in turn encouraged flowers and a wide variety of other plants and wildlife.   Although there is evidence of forestry operation in the 1920s and later, this woodland had been neglected for a very long time. This means that although there are lots of fallen trees and dead wood - a rich habitat for fungi, insects and birds - it has become very thick and dark, discouraging flowers and species like butterflies.

Management plans include the reinstatement of coppicing in parts of the wood as well as creating open glades. This will increase the amount of light reaching the woodland floor and, in time, the number of plants and animal species found here. Invasive, non-native species, like laurel and rhododendron, which suppress native plants and are a very poor wildlife habitat, have been cleared. Sycamore trees, which are also very invasive and of limited value to wildlife, will be thinned out.  In the last year a new pond has been created which should encourage the amphibians to stay on the Forest side of the Drift and not to cross to the former breeding ponds on the golf course.  Early signs are good.