Oxleas Woods hark back to an England that wasn't England when it first existed

All photos: Rashmee Roshan Lall

There is a sobering aspect to wandering Oxleas Woods in southeast London as one year fades and another beckons. Oxleas is 130 acres of a woodland that is often described as “ancient” and “ancestral”.

This is not just about being poetic. The phrase “ancient woodland” has a very specific meaning in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It refers to an area that has existed continuously since 1600 and which is entitled to some consideration (if not automatic protection) when there are plans for it to be developed in any way that’s different. The idea is that woodlands weren’t deliberately planted before 1600 in this part of the world, so if one is shown to have existed before then it’s probably natural and therefore, irreplaceable as a habitat.

That is what Oxleas Woods is meant to be.

Irreplaceable.

A time capsule.

Harking back to an England that wasn’t England when it first existed.

Accounts say that some parts of the wood date back 8,000 years, to the end of th…