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Blake's Wood & Lingwood Common

National Trust properties in EssexSites of Special Scientific Interest in Essex
Bluebells in Blakes Wood geograph.org.uk 314771
Bluebells in Blakes Wood geograph.org.uk 314771

Blake's Wood & Lingwood Common is a 93.2-hectare (230-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Danbury in Essex. It is owned by the National Trust and the local planning authority is Chelmsford City Council.The soils on this site are glacial sands and gravels over London clay, resulting in a mixture of woodland, heath and bog habitats. Blake's Wood is ancient woodland on a sloping site, with valleys and streams. The main trees are oak, together with other species such as hornbeam and sweet chestnut. There is a wide variety of birds, such as hawfinches and nightingales, and the underlayer is dominated by bluebells and primroses. The heath is being invaded by trees and bracken. Acid grassland is dominated by red fescue, and there are two rare moths, Deltote bankiana and Elaphria venustula.There is access from Riffhams Chase, which separates the two parts of the site, with the wood to the north and the common to the south.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Blake's Wood & Lingwood Common (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Blake's Wood & Lingwood Common
The Rye Field, Chelmsford Little Baddow

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N 51.731438 ° E 0.565309 °
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Blakes Wood

The Rye Field
CM3 4TR Chelmsford, Little Baddow
England, United Kingdom
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Bluebells in Blakes Wood geograph.org.uk 314771
Bluebells in Blakes Wood geograph.org.uk 314771
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List of local nature reserves in Essex
List of local nature reserves in Essex

Essex is a county in the east of England. It is bounded by Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Greater London to the south-west, Kent across the River Thames to the south, and the North Sea to the east. It has an area of 1,420 square miles (3,700 km2), with a coastline of 400 miles (640 km), and a population according to the 2011 census of 1,393,600. At the top level of local government are Essex County Council and two unitary authorities, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock. Under the county council, there are twelve district and borough councils.Local nature reserves (LNRs) are designated by local authorities under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The local authority must have legal control over the site, by owning or leasing it or having an agreement with the owner. LNRs are sites which have a special local interest either biologically or geologically, and local authorities have a duty to care for them. They can apply local bye-laws to manage and protect LNRs.As of August 2016 there are forty-nine local nature reserves in Essex. Nine are also Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), three are also scheduled monuments and four are managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust. The largest is Southend-on-Sea Foreshore with 1,084 hectares (2,680 acres), which is part of the Benfleet and Southend Marshes SSSI, an internationally important site for migrating birds. The smallest is Nazeing Triangle at 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres), which is a small pond and wildflower meadows surrounded on all three sides by roads.

Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation
Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation

The Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation is the canalisation of the Rivers Chelmer and Blackwater in Essex, in the east of England. The navigation runs for 13.75 miles (22.13 km) from Springfield Basin in Chelmsford to the sea lock at Heybridge Basin near Maldon. Initial plans faced spirited opposition from Maldon, which were overcome by avoiding the town and terminating at Heybridge, and the navigation opened in 1797. There were some teething problems, and the engineer John Rennie was called back on two occasions to recommend improvements. The impact of the railways was less severe than on many canals, as there was never a direct line between Chelmsford and Maldon. The sea lock at Heybridge was enlarged after the Second World War, but trade gradually declined and ceased in 1972. Unlike most canals, it was not nationalised in 1948, and remained under the control of the original company. The first leisure boats to use the navigation did so in 1973, when the Inland Waterways Association organised a rally at Chelmsford. Springfield Basin was restored in 1992, but the proprietors faced bankruptcy in 2003, and after two years of negotiation, Essex Waterways Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Inland Waterways Association, took over responsibility for management, although the proprietors retained ownership. Because Essex and Suffolk Water abstract water from the navigation to supply Hanningfield Reservoir, they have a statutory obligation to maintain the outer gates at Heybridge sea lock, to prevent salt water entering the drinking water supply. They undertook major refurbishment work at the lock during the winters of 2016/17 and 2017/18, including replacement of the outer sea gate with a new design. A long-standing ambition, first proposed in 1985, has been to provide a better destination at Chelmsford, by providing access for boats to the town centre. A proposed link from Springfield Basin has been thwarted by road building in the area, but a plan to replace the automatic weir below Chelmsford Town Centre with a new structure incorporating a navigation lock was recommended in 2020.