William Cook

The joy of ancient woodland

  • From Spectator Life

What’s the thing that’s kept you going during these interminable lockdowns? For me, it’s been walking in my local forest, Ruislip Woods. Ruislip may be the acme of suburbia, a maze of bungalows and crazy paving – but Ruislip Woods is only a short walk away, and it’s vast.

As I’m sure you’ve discovered yourself these last few months, there’s nothing quite like a walk in the woods to alleviate the lockdown blues. It feels great to go somewhere entirely unaffected by Coronavirus, a place where this pesky pandemic seems utterly inconsequential.

A forest is a precious place in any part of the country, but to me Ruislip Woods feels particularly special because it’s managed to survive despite being entirely within London. Wandering around this wooded wilderness you’d never guess you were only a few miles away from bustling London suburbs like Northwood, Eastcote and Pinner.

At 305 hectares, Ruislip Woods is the biggest forest in London (Epping Forest is larger, but much of it is in Essex). It’s the last remnant of a huge forest which once stretched all the way from London to Nottingham and, incredibly, it’s virtually unchanged since medieval times.

Ruislip Woods owes its survival to its Norman owner, Ernulf de Hesdin, who was granted Ruislip Manor and the valuable woodland around it by William the Conqueror, in return for supporting his invasion of England. In 1096, Ernulf was implicated in a plot against William’s successor (his son, William Rufus) whereupon he wisely left the country, to join the First Crusade. He died in 1097, in the Holy Land, and left all his lands to the monastery of Bec, in his native Normandy. In 1451, Henry VI seized this estate from these Norman monks, and gave it to King’s College Cambridge. In 1931, King’s College sold the woods to the local council, on the condition that they would not be used for building.

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