Selsdon Wood is a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and is classified as Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland (ASNW). Within in it there are a number of Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS). This page contains further information about the following PAWS:

The Jubilee Plantation

The Centenary Plantation

The Maruje Dale Plantation

Other special areas in the wood include the Gorses, Linden Glade, a stand of Oak by David's Crook and the Addington Border.

Scroll down to find more about these and other features of the wood such as 

a couple of Ordnance Survey Trigonometrical (Trig) points

and our much photographed carved bear.

The Jubilee Plantation

In 1977 the Croydon Girl Guide Association sponsored the purchase of 400 oaks and beeches to be planted in commemoration of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. The area was to be called ‘Jubilee Plantation’.

Plans for this were announced in the minutes of the Joint Committee of Management of the Selsdon Wood Nature Reserve by the Chief Officer of the Parks Dept in his annual report concerning Selsdon Wood (dated 20 Dec 1977).

The Joint Committee of Management of the Selsdon Wood Nature Reserve then visited the Wood on 10 May 1978 when they viewed the new plantation. (The planting was thus carried out sometime in the intervening period but as yet we have been unable to ascertain any of the details.)

Over the next 35 years this area became rather neglected and so the Friends of Selsdon Wood agreed to work with the Council’s Community Partnership Officer and Forestry Adviser to implement the Management & Action Plan for the plantation.

The Friends found that the original planting had been overwhelmed by large trees like sycamore. The ground was littered with dead trees and branches. Smaller shrubs like elder and holly could not survive to give cover and food for birds. This situation was addressed in 2011 A number of the large trees were removed and the Friends, with Council support, planted 260 trees and bushes comprising: wild service, field maple, elder, silver birch, hazel, wild cherry, spindle, guelder rose, blackthorn, and dogwood (see entry for 9th March 2011 on the Workdays page). The Friends are now trying to keep these free from the potentially overwhelming growth of Old Man's Beard and other unwanted plants. Sections of the rest of the plot will be coppiced and pollarded to establish a bird friendly bushy understorey. The new stock fence, erected by the Council in 2011, is giving some protection to the new growth - see the photograph taken in 2011.

Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee

In 2012 the FSW were approached by a representative of the Brownies/Guides, who said that they again had some trees to plant - this time to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Sixty trees were provided by the Woodland Trust, one for each of Her Majesty's 60-year reign and space was found for them in the Jubilee Plantation. The trees comprised 10 Birch; 10 Cherry; 2 Holly; 10 Rose; 10 Rowan; 6 Hazel; 10 Hawthorn; and 2 Dogwood.

The original date for planting (February 11th 2012) had to be cancelled as the ground was covered with snow but the event was rearranged for Saturday 3rd March and the FSW spent a number of days working on the preparation of the plot - see right. Four sections were mapped out in the southwestern corner of the plantation and 15 holes were dug in each section, and marked with a stake labelled with the name of the tree to be planted there.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, two dozen Rainbows (aged 5-7), Brownies (aged 7-11) and Guides (aged 10-14) met a number of Friends at 2pm in the car park. The girls came equipped with their own trowels, spades and gloves and were accompanied by Jo Wheeler, coordinator for the Brownies and Rainbows, and several supportive parents. After a group photograph in front of the Selsdon Wood Bear - see below left -  David Malins introduced the project and allocated the young trees (whips), which had been pre-sorted into four buckets, one for each of the four groups of girls.

The Centenary Plantation was created in 1983 to commemorate the centenary of Croydon Council. One hundred English Oaks and Birch trees were planted with the intention that the Birch would be felled when the Oak had matured - see photograph below left taken in 1986.  

The scheme was originated by Croydon Councillor, Dudley Mead and was paid for by public subscription by Selsdon residents. In Selsdon library there is a book containing the names of all who subscribed (£5 per tree - quite a lot in 1983). 

Four of the trees along the edge of the field can be seen to be larger than the others. These were planted as heavy standards and were about 10 years old at the time of planting. The others were much younger whips that took quite some time to become established.

Maruje Dale Plantation

A wooden plaque can be seen on a pine tree buried in a plantation on the left of Greenhill Way, just after entering the wood from Green Hill.

Mrs Chris Alexander, a local resident, informed the Friends that the wooden plaque was linked to her husband, Gordon Alexander. In the late 70s, early 80s he was responsible for running a Youth Opportunities Scheme in Selsdon Wood while employed in the Croydon Council Parks department. He has since retired. The name of the plantation was made up from the names of the young people who took part. During their training they covered coppicing and maintenance work and they were taught how to make benches and bird boxes with the wood. New trees were also planted - mainly beech. Gordon Alexander has provided us with some photographs from the time.

In 2011 many of the benches are still in use but the legs and joints of some show advanced signs of rot. A few have been renovated by the Friends by cutting down old guide posts.

Photographs show work underway in 1970/80 and the Maruje Dale plaque.

We have been puzzling over the reason for the hundreds of Gorse plants that sprang up when the Larch plantation was felled. We know from an 1800 map that the area bounded by East Gorse, West Gorse and Farleigh Border used to be called Broad Field and may have been used for arable crops. Then the 1898 Ordnance Survey shows that the plot was covered in scrub. The same 1898 map shows chalk pits and Limekiln Shaw in nearby Farley (Farleigh). Before the coal trade developed, Gorse was of great value – a fuel for bakers, brickmakers, lime-burners and farmer’s wives. Many farms had their ‘vuzz’ break. The Vuzz was cut and faggoted and used to fire bread ovens. In addition, crushing the spines made it suitable for winter feed for stock. It is possible that the Gorse in Selsdon Wood was grown to fire limekilns.

Linden Glade gains its name from the 5 Lime trees planted in a semicircle around the edge of the glade - probably around 1980. The Lime (known in earlier times as Linden) was part of the ancient Wild Wood and Limes were coppiced up to the Middle Ages to provide timber for building, furniture, carving, firewood and rope-making. Monks kept their hives beneath the trees for the rich pale honey and the flowers were used to produce herbal medicines and tea. In more modern times the wood has been used for guitars and wind instruments. When explorers brought back hemp for ropemaking the tree fell into decline, being replaced by the more productive hazel which abounds in Selsdon Wood today. One of our Limes has been pollarded in a gale and the resulting long stems must be typical of what was used for rope making. .

Linden Glade houses the Memorial Bird Pool presented by Col. H.S. Wood, I.M.S.and Mrs Wood, of Kensington at the time of the opening of the wood as a public Nature Reserve in 1930. (See the History page for details.) There was a water supply to the bird pool but this was cut off some years ago as it was too expensive to maintain. The pond filled with mud and fell into disrepair but was restored by a project undertaken by FSW in 2016. See the Projects page for details.

A small memorial stone is set there with the following inscription:

These are the things we prize and hold of dearest worth:

The light of the sapphire skies, Peace of the silent hills.

Shelter of the forests, comfort of the grass,

Music of birds, murmur of little rills,

                                                                 Henry Van Dyke

We dearly loved the birds - Be kind to them

Photographs show Linden Glade in February 2017 and Autumn 2011.

This group of Oaks was planted in 1986 to mark the opening of the National Trust Nature Reserve (see the History page). A plaque was placed to mark these