Norsey Wood Nature Reserve
175 acres of ancient coppiced sweet chestnut, oak and hornbeam woodland with alder carr in the wet valleys. |  |
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Norsey Wood
The Information Centre
Outwood Common Road
Billericay
Essex
CM11 1HA | | | |
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Opening times:
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Open every day.
Pedestrian access 24 hours a day.
Car park opening times:
- 1st April to 31st October – 06:00 to 20:30
- 1st November to 31st March – 06:00 – 18:30.
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Visitor Centre
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Open Saturdays and Sundays this 13:00 to 16:00, (may be closed if the ranger is required to attend at other sites.). |
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Telephone
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01277 624553 or 01268 550088 (Countryside Services)
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Fax
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01277 655761
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Billericay Station- 2 mile
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Buses: 102 NB Norsey Road
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Its association with 400 years of our history and the richness of its wildlife make this 165 acre site unique. Norsey Wood has been designated an ancient monument and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). In 1976 the site was purchased by Basildon District Council which saved it from being used for housing development.
The Exhibition Centre holds a permanent display and leaflets and booklets regarding the site's history and current state are available.
Woodland crafts are still practised and are on show on Open Days.
- Car parking
- Toilets
- Events and special activities are run throughout the year for schools and visitors
- Information / Education Centre
- Picnic areas
- Nature Trail
- Limited access for wheelchair users
- Easy access trail
- Mobility vehicle available
Much of the woodland covers a high plateau of well drained pebbly gravels, overlaying sands, loams and clays. Impermeable London Clay occurs in the valley bottoms to the south-west, where spring lines and flushes create permanently damp habitats. The conditions vary from dry heath on the plateau, through fertile slopes, to acidic bog in the valleys.
The majority Norsey Wood shows evidence of coppicing. Oak, Sweet Chestnut and Hornbeam are common on the better drained soils and Alder dominates the damper areas with Ash and Willow. Sweet Chestnut introduced by the Romans is the main commercial timber.
Coups, (newly coppiced areas) are busy with springtime wildlife, when Stitchwort, Violets and St John's Wort respond to the increased light levels, as do small areas of Heather in the permanent clearings.
Blackcaps and Wrens use the regenerating stools (cut stumps) as nest sites. Carpets of Bluebells, Wood Anemone and patches of Lily-of-the-Valley area indicators of the great age of Norsey Wood. Larch, which is a deciduous conifer was once widely planted. A stand still survives in the southern part of the wood, though the great storm of 1987 took its toll.
Wind-blown timber, alive and dead, creates valuable niches for a host of creatures, from beetles and fungi to woodpeckers.
Wet valley systems provide ideal conditions for Sphagnum mosses, ferns and pendulous sedge. In a dry, flat county like Essex such habitats are rare.
Three ponds in the northern section also contain valuable wildlife communities. Pale pink flowers of Water Violet cover the surface in early June, with Bog-Bean and Scullcap around the edges. Woodland butterflies, Brimstone, Orange-tip and Speckled Wood benefit from sunny openings in the woodland like glades and ponds, where the increase in flowers provides a rich source of nectar.
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