A RIVERSIDE WOOD AT HADLEIGH A Preliminary Survey EDITH DICKINSON
wood and wilderness adjoining the west side of the River Brett, bounded by Toppesfield Bridge on the south and by Bridge Street on the north, is included entirely in Grid Square 43/42 02/03 Sheet T M 04. An area of approximately 9 i acres on this entirely unbuilt-up side of the town has been bought recently by the Urban Council. It has apparently no designation on O.S. maps. The major part of it is damp or wet woodland according to season but may be traversed by anyone suitably shod and there is a more or less continuous trodden earth track along the river brim. On the west side it is bounded by a broken high hedge and trees with a footpath immediately outside it on the farmland. The area also contains a disused osier bed which older people remember as providing material for a flourishing local industry in furniture and baskets. THIS
The local angling club has an arrangement over a Stretch of the river bank but co-operates reasonably with walkers and naturalists and is at one with the Hadleigh Naturalists' Society in wishing to preserve the area as one of natural interest and attractiveness. Members of the latter Society have expressed these views to the Council and are making a study of the area, to which the following notes are preliminary. Birds (recorded in the area by Ivan Thorpe since September, 1971) Goldcrest, magpie, Canada goose, dabchick, kestrel, lesser spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, goldfinch, great tit, longtailed tit, blue tit, m a r s h or willow tit, bullfinch, ridge sparrow, treecreeper, robin, wren, kingfisher, chaffinch, tree and house sparrow, song t h r u s h , blackbird, starling, jay, wood pigeon, pheasant, m o o r h e n , mallard, m u t e swan, heron, pied wagtail, spotted flycatcher, greentinch, n u t h a t c h , chiffchaff, siskin.
Mammals G r e y squirrel, red squirrel Stoat Brown hare Shrew sp. Deer ?fallow
Invertebrates, etc. (identified by E. Read) Centipedes Millipede Hair w o r m Velvet mite
Lithobius forficatus Geophilus carpophagus Tachypodojulus niger Gordius sp. Allothrombium fuliginosum
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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 16, Part 1
Trees Alder Sycamore Elm Wych elm Willow, aspen Hazel Blackthorn Ivy Blackberry, raspberry, rose
Plants Rush (? Scirpus sylvaticus) Sedge Willow h e r b (? E. angustifolium and E. hirsutum) Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) Celandine (Ranunculus ficariä) Campion (Silene dioica) M a r s h marigold (Caltha palustris) Dog's mercury (Mercurialis perennis) Moschatel, " t h e T o w n Hall Clock" (Adoxa moschatellina) F e r n (probably Dryopteris filix-mas) M a n y mosses and a fungus, Daldinia contrica, " K i n g Alfred's Cakes". Some twenty-five other species of fungi were also found.
Mrs. E. Dickinson, 69 Benton Street, Hadleigh, Suffolk.