The Pound Wood Nature Reserve is one of three
Essex Wildlife Trust reserves in Daws Heath, Benfleet, Essex.
These pages were originally created as a resource for my students studying
conservation. Now that I have retired, the pages can have a more general aim.
Consequently I have been, with the help of those managing the reserve,
entirely re-writing these pages for the
benefit of general users. In the meantime, some of the pages on the left
are much the same as before.
My editorial work is currently focussed on the Maps and
the Charcoal pages.
Many of the pages here were originally written by Peter Marett as a resource
for local schools. These are now been incorporated into the general scheme.
Most of the photographs of the wood have been taken by the warden, David
Harris who has also provided much of the text. Many of them are now several
years old. If you are a Pound Wood visitor and have more recent photographs
of the wood, then I would be very please to hear from you.
See the About pages for contact details.
Another important source has been the book: Ancient
Woodlands: the Woods of South-East Essex, by Oliver Rackham, published
by Rochford District Council. Many of the maps have used those provided by
Rackham as a starting point.
An Aerial Photo of Pound Wood
Photograph by Edward Clack
This photograph was taken in winter 1993, before any coppicing started.
Thus there is a continuous (though leafless) canopy, except for the area
under the power lines. It also clearly shows the position of the wood with
respect to the housing to the south-west (bottom right) and beyond to the
east (top). The meadows to the north (left) were known, at the
time of this photograph, as Brett’s Meadows, and were little
used except for horse grazing. The A127 is just visible in the top left corner.
