Two ancient landscapes

Crocuses from the crusades, and stunted oaks haunted by the hound of the Baskervilles?

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It was a dank grey morning when we visited the Inkpen Crocus field, so not great for photography, beside which, we were on the way to Devon so couldn’t linger too long.

 

I can’t do better than quote from Nicola Chester

Country diary: This is the field where spring arrives first

 

Inkpen, West Berkshire: Its display of crocuses is the largest in the country, and it has a venerable history – but what kind of history, nobody quite knows

 

There is a small boggy valley of old pasture at the centre of the village, a Wildlife Trust nature reserve that is remarkable for what has preserved it: a non-native flower more aligned with municipal parks.

 

Inkpen crocus field is where spring happens first. A rare example of unimproved, unploughed meadow (the sort we’ve lost 97% of, since this column existed), situated between houses and farmland. It’s rich in wildflowers such as heath spotted-orchid, devil’s-bit scabious, meadow saxifrage, betony and pignut, and with thick old hedgerows and a spring-fed brook in its fold, it’s often the first place I see bumblebees and brimstone butterflies.

 

But it’s the 400,000 wild crocuses I’ve come to greet. Poking above grass that’s been winter-grazed by cattle, their purple centres are filled with egg-yolk yellow, pollen-covered stamens. It is the largest display of wild spring crocuses in Britain, and became a nature reserve in 1912, when such rough meadows were abundant.

 

How they came to be here is a mystery. One theory is that they were brought back from the Crusades in the 12th century by the Knights Templar, as a cheap or mistaken form of saffron. Certainly, the Knights Templar settled in this out-of-the-way spot. Sir Roger de Ingpen, a veteran of the Crusades, founded our little flint church and is buried there, and there is a hamlet nearby named Templeton.

 

This may be a case of “the wrong crocuses”, however. Crocus vernus are not the autumn-flowering, saffron-producing Crocus sativus. Perhaps knights, or locals, weren’t immune to scams. Perhaps these flowers are really the result of centuries-old cottage garden waste.

 

Either way, this incongruous field of crocuses, neither lawn nor entirely a wildflower meadow, has survived because of them, and for so much more – the barn owl that hunts voles here, stoats that run over it and, today, a little sun after nearly 50 days of rain. It is a strange, gleeful and defiant nature reserve; the ordinary out of place and time, extraordinary either way, with its tentative history.

 

A warm southerly wind comes off the downs, stirs the lit cups into a dance, and tumbles a brimstone butterfly into being.

 

Worth going on-line to read the comments, and the debate over whether or not the Knights Templar legend is credible, and how crocuses and other plants might spread across a meadow.

 

More about the crocus field on the BBOWT website including

The Crocus Field at Inkpen, a Rothschild Reserve.

 

In May 1912, the banker and expert naturalist Charles Rothschild founded the Society for Promotion of Nature Reserves – the organisation that would become the Wildlife Trusts. His vision was to identify and protect the best places for wildlife, and these became known as Rothschild Reserves. The delights of the beautiful wildflower meadow in Berkshire were noted by botanist George Claridge Druce when he visited the site. He described the crocus field as ‘old pasture’ well known for remarkable displays of Crocus vernus. Inkpen Crocus Field became reserve 274 on the list of Rothschild Reserves.

 

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On the way back from Devon, we crossed Dartmoor to visit Wistman’s Wood, in the West Dart Valley.

 

Wistman’s Wood is one of Britain’s last remaining ancient temperate rainforests and one of three remote high-altitude oakwoods on Dartmoor in Devon, England. The first written document to mention Wistman’s Wood dates to the 17th century, while more recent tree-ring studies show that individual trees could be many hundreds of years old. [Wikipedia]

Wistman’s Wood is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and managed by Natural England. It is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. [why]

We found out about Wistman’s Wood by reading Guy Shrubsole’s “The Lost Rainforests of Britain” (published 2022). He tries to work out how old it is (ancient), and why it is special. He suggest that it might be the inspiration for Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles.

 

More surprisingly, by looking at maps and old photos, he estimates that the woods have doubled in size over the last 100 years. That’s not saying much, they are still smaller than the Oval cricket ground and a tiny percentage of the ancient rainforests that used to cover much of the west of Britain.

The woods are a fragile place and the lichens and mosses are easily damaged. Signs explain this and ask people to walk round the woods, not through them. It seems that not everyone can read.

 

Sheep are also discouraged becasue they tend to eat any green shoots that struggle to grow. However, cattle are “good”

 

Looking north to the next section of the wood

 

And looking south, along the West Dart Valley back to Two Bridges and the car.

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