Greenoak Journal: April 2011

Goldilocks buttercups Woodthorpe holloway

Goldilocks buttercups Woodthorpe holloway, originally uploaded by goldsally.

A little buttercup of damp woodland edges. Found these in the old holloway near Woodthorpe.

Violets and wood anemones, Gillfield Wood

Violets and wood anemones, Gillfield Wood, originally uploaded by goldsally.

A good year for violets.

Bluebells, whitecoal kiln, Gillfield

Bluebells, whitecoal kiln, Gillfield, originally uploaded by goldsally.

Whitecoal - an entirely different material to charcoal - was used to smelt lead. And the woods round here are full of the archaeological remains of the kilns used to make the whitecoal. Here's one - the pit behind the bluebells. For years people thought they were bomb craters.

Bluebells Gillfield

Bluebells Gillfield, originally uploaded by goldsally.

Many Totley people go to the more famous Ecclesall woods to see the bluebells, not realising that the woods right here are full of them...

Flora of Gillfield Wood

Wood anemones, Gillfield, originally uploaded by goldsally.

Gillfield, mostly chopped down and replanted in the 1960's with American Oak and Larch, is truly an ancient wood - ie documented before 1600. Its very flowers help to tell us this - right now its full of wood anemones, bluebells, dog mercury, violets. We (the newly formed Friends of Gillfield Wood) are to learn about surveying the wood's plants at a special session in the woods on May 1st.