Enjoyment, discovery and concerns in Haringey’s woodlands

Professor Jeff Duckett shares his observations of how this year’s record-breaking summer has affected the borough’s environment

These coppiced hornbeams in Coldfall Wood date back more than 400 years

In terms of woodland, Haringey ranks highly as one of North London’s greenest boroughs.

If you have had enough of parched grass in our parks, take a stroll and explore Haringey’s woodlands. Whenever you enter the tranquil atmosphere of Coldfall Wood, Highgate Wood, Queen’s Wood or Crouch End Open Space, there will be interesting things to experience and questions to ask regardless of the time of year.

First and foremost must be the realisation that you are in ancient woodlands, which are those woodlands that have existed continuously since at least 1600. Pollen analysis tells us that our local woodlands have not only remained much the same since the Middle Ages, but also probably stretch back some 6,000 years to when England was reforested after the last glaciation.

These woodland remnants are beyond question the most important features of London’s landscape and, as such, merit top priority for conservation.

But how do we know these woodlands are ancient? The best way to start delving into their history is by working out the age of the trees. Many of the biggest oaks are over 250 years old with a few ancient, coppiced pollards exceeding 350 years.

These may not, however, be the oldest trees. The understorey of hornbeam has been coppiced for centuries. Tracing large circular groups of coppiced trees back to the location of an original tree in the centre indicates that these could well go back to before the Norman Conquest. A row of ancient gnarled hornbeams in Coldfall Wood (see main image) grows on a bank dating back at least to medieval times.

Tree shape also provides important clues about woodland history. Those with straight unbranched trunks, referred to as standards, grew from saplings in closed woodland whereas widely-spreading lower branches are indicative of establishment in open conditions.

Management of Haringey’s woodlands as ‘standards and coppice’ was a century-old practice. The oak standards were harvested for ship timbers and then used second-hand as beams in pubs whereas the uses of the very hard wood from the hornbeams ranged from poles in agriculture and cogs for windmills, to piano hammers.

The most pertinent question to ask in 2026 is how the long, hot and dry summer might have affected the woodlands?

Browning of leaves in mid-August, particularly those of the beeches, birches and cherries, with their shallow rooting systems exacerbating water stress, heralds the early onset of autumn, and similarly late summer, rather than autumnal fruit maturation. This year there are very few acorns, whereas the beeches are laden with fruits.

This can be explained in terms of the extreme weather. English and sessile oaks, both common in Haringey’s woodlands, are northern trees, whereas beech has a southern European distribution from Sicily to its northern natural limit in the Chilterns.

Almost leafless holly with berries changing colour in August

Even more striking was the summer maturation of rowan berries and a change of colour to holly berries in late August. This usually occurs in October. In addition, the loss of most of the leaves, on many of our hollies, is a clear indication that our only evergreen flowering tree is under considerable stress.

What then does the future hold for our woodlands in our warming climate? This year the trees have put on very little new growth and, as a consequence, many will not lay down the buds for next year’s flowers and fruits. Next year is looking to be a very barren year for many of London’s trees and all the more so when El Niño wreaks its havoc.

If you happen to see the stump of a tree felled this summer, look at the latest growth ring. This will be very narrow, just as they were in post 535 and 1883, following eruptions of Mount Krakatoa. Enormous outpourings of ash blotted out the sun across the northern hemisphere to the extent that the trees barely managed to survive.

Although this summer has demonstrated the resilience of our ancient woodlands, the compelling evidence for the stress they have
experienced should be added to the arguments for curbing the rise in greenhouse gases. Haringey simply cannot afford to lose its ancient woodlands.

Professor Jeff Duckett is emeritus professor of botany at Queen Mary University and a recipient of the Linnean Society Medal for Botany.

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