- Queen's Wood
Queen's Wood is a 21 hectare area of ancient woodland in
North London , abuttingHighgate Wood and lying betweenEast Finchley ,Highgate Village,Muswell Hill andCrouch End . It was originally part of the ancientForest of Middlesex which covered much of London,Hertfordshire andEssex and was mentioned in theDomesday Book and is now one of three Local Nature Reserves in theLondon Borough of Haringey . It is situated a few minutes' walk away fromHighgate tube station .Haringey contains no less than five distinct ancient woods. These areHighgate Wood , Queen's Wood,Coldfall Wood , Bluebell Wood andNorth Wood . All are shown onJohn Rocque 's1754 Map ofMiddlesex .Queen's Wood was known as Churchyard Bottom Wood (possibly because of the discovery of human bones in the west of the Wood which are presumed to have been from the burial pit for victims of the bubonic plague in
1665 ) until it was purchased from theEcclesiastical Commissioners by Hornsey Urban District Council in1898 and renamed Queen's Wood in honour of Queen Victoria.The wood is an ancient
oak -hornbeam woodland, which features English oak and occasionalbeech which provide a canopy abovecherry ,field maple ,hazel ,holly ,hornbeam , midland hawthorn,mountain ash and both species of lowlandbirch . The scarce andWild Service Tree (which is evidence of the Woods's ancient origin) is scattered throughout the wood. The Wood has has no park or playing fields (but does sport a children's adventure playground built on top of the plague pit) and has never been subjected to intensive management of the type practised at Highgate Wood and accordingly there is greater diversity of flora and fauna - Bantock (1984) found a significantly greater number of ground feeding birds present in the Wood when compared to Highgate Wood, which he attributed to the greater structural diversity and denser shrub layer present. InNovember 1990 the Wood was designated a StatutoryLocal Nature Reserve by Haringey Council.The ground
flora is particularly rich given its proximity to central London (the wood is within a six-mile radius ofCharing Cross railway station . It includes a large population of wood anemone, goldilocks buttercup and wood sorrel,yellow pimpernel and square-stemmedSt John's wort .Despite fairly high levels of disturbance, the bird life is diverse and includes all three species of
woodpecker . Over one hundred species ofspider s have been spotted and a nationally rarejewel beetle is widespread.External links
* [http://www.fqw.org.uk/ Friends of Queen's Wood]
* [http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/environment_and_transport/leisure_nature_and_conservation/nature_and_conservation_conservation/conservation_lnrs.htm#queens Haringey Council Site]
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