History of Revesby Wood

We’ve been doing a lot of work in Revesby Wood since we restarted the group in 2022.

Revesby Wood is a bit special. As well as being a valuable extension of the Wandle green corridor from Poulter Park to Middleton Open Space, it’s also been a continued woodland space on maps since at least 1620. This suggests it could be classed as Ancient Woodland, although it’s been cut back and replanted over time.

Ancient woodland

Revesby Wood first appears as woodland on a map in around 1620 and seems to have remained as woodland ever since. It shows up on John Rocque’s map of Surrey in about 1760. Then again in the Mitcham Grove House (opens a map) estate sale of 1828, an 1848 tithe map, and subsequent Ordnance Survey maps.

In 1828 the wood was sold as part of the land attached to Batt’s farm (opens on St Helier Memories website) which was part of the Mitcham Grove estate. Later that year various timber trees on the farm were offered for sale, including 123 oaks which were probably from the wood.

Woodland in Revesby Wood

Clearance and replanting with young trees in the 1990s gave us the Revesby Wood we know today. Lots of blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel and cherry plum which put on beautiful pink and white blossom displays every spring. These younger trees are interspersed with birch, ash and maple trees. All under a canopy of mature oaks, with some younger ones too!

We run woodland days in Revesby Wood every so often. Let us know if you’d like to get involved.

Who lives in Revesby Wood?

The scrub and mature trees are home to lots of birds, like our ubiquitous green ring-necked parakeets. But we also hear song thrushes, robins, chiffchaffs, wood peckers, gold finches, goldcrests, jays, wrens, black caps and house sparrows. House sparrows and song thrushes are particularly in decline so it’s lovely to hear them in the trees. High overhead we often see sparrow hawks, kestrels and the occasional bigger bird of prey circling. And at night we hear the tawny owl make its rounds.

You can spot many beautiful butterflies in Revesby Wood. But it’s most notably home to the rare Brown Hairstreak butterflies, who lay their eggs in the Blackthorn bushes.

We also see hedgehogs snuffling through the undergrowth. Our local safer neighborhood police team made this poster for us after a sighting last year!

Fly tipping

Sadly over the years, it’s became a dumping ground for fly tippers. We’ve spent a lot of time removing commercial and household waste so we can start managing the space as a woodland. But we need your help.

You can get involved by reporting fly tips to the council.

Volunteer to help protect habitats in Revesby Wood

Our next woodland management and litter pick day is on Tues 4 February.

10am – 3pm, meet at Revesby Wood, Green Wrythe Lane entrance of Revesby Wood SM5 1JJ

Wear sturdy clothes and shoes. We’ll be tree thinning and litter picking to create and improve habitat. This should be a fun community day working with the tree wardens to manage our historic patch of woodland for hedgehogs, birds and other wildlife. Come for as little or as much time as you can. If you’re coming for a long day remember a packed lunch!

Email dawn.fielding@sutton.gov.uk to book and for more info

References

• The information in this blog was mainly taken from the Management Plan for St Helier Open Space, Middleton Open Space, Revesby Wood, Poulter Park. Historical research in the report is by John Phillips.
• We also used our own bird sightings and recordings and learnt lots from the fab St Helier Memories website.

If you have any memories or knowledge about Revesby Wood, or Poulter Park we’d love to hear from you!