High Elms Country Park Local Nature Reserve

How to Get There..

High Elms Trail High Elms Country Park can be reached using the following bus
routes:

R1 Green St. Green to St. Paul’s Cray via Chelsfield, Orpington and St. Mary
Cray
R5 (Mon-Sat) Petts Wood Stn to Halstead via Orpington, Green St. Green
and Cudham/Pratts Bottom
R8 (Mon-Sat) Orpington to Biggin Hill via Green St. Green, Shire Lane
and Downe
R11 Green St. Green to Sidcup via Orpington, St. Mary Cray, St.
Paul’s Cray and Footscray
146 (Mon-Sat) Bromley North Station to Downe via Hayes and
Keston
261 Green St. Green to Lewisham via Farnborough, Bromley,
Grove Park and Lee
358 Orpington to Crystal Palace via Green St. Green,
Farnborough, Bromley, Eden Park, Beckenham, Penge
and Anerley
402 (Mon-Sat) Bromley North to Tunbridge Wells via
Farnborough, Green St. Green, Knockholt, Sevenoaks,
Hildenborough and Tonbridge

Trains: Nearest Station: Orpington.

Correct at time of going to press. Latest information from Traveline: 020 7222 1234

BEECHE (Bromley Environmental Education Centre at High Elms)

Whilst at High Elms, why not drop into the Visitor centre where there are walks leaflets, countryside
information, interactive displays and ranger staff available to assist you.
Open weekends: 11.00am - 4.00pm and school holidays: Mon, Wed, Fri 1.30pm - 4.00pm.
Rooms available for hire on request. The Green Roof Cafe is open from 10am daily.

Bromley Countryside Service

For up to date information about Bromley’s Countryside, including accessibility and nature trails,
or if you are interested in High Elms Country Park and would like to become more involved A Wildspace Project
in the Local Nature Reserve, contact Bromley Countryside Service on 01689 862815, email supported by English Nature
and the New Opportunities Fund
countrysideandparks@[Link] or see [Link].
EMERGENCY PHONE: 020 8464 4848

The Wildspace Project Promotes Local Nature Reserves for Local People.
What to see at High Elms
Much of the 200 acres of High Elms Country Park is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest because the chalky A John Lubbock
soil supports species- rich grassland where rare orchids (1834-1913): Fellow
of the Royal Society
J
B
grow, and its ancient woodland is home to endangered
dormice. Some of the plants and animals you will be (proposed by
M
able to see on the way around the nature trail
indicated by posts, (tick the circles). Others may be
Charles Darwin).
SOME OF THE THINGS HE WORKED ON AT HIGH ELMS K
anywhere in the park and are shown in some of the
pictures opposite. How many can you spot?
Score: 10-20 Wild, 20-30 Amazing
L
Animal, over 30 Dynamic Dormouse!
SEE HOW MANY DIFFERENT CONIFER
Looking back to the past TREES YOU CAN FIND N
William the Conqueror gave land here to Bishop Odo of
Bayeux in 1067, and for centuries it was sheep grazed, D D Conifer trees from around the world were planted by the
Lubbock family in the parkland. How many different ones can
but when ancient woodland was cleared for pasture, you spot? The cones stay on the trees for a long time and are
some was left for fuel and timber and some kept as
hedgerows, now within woodland again. In 1808 the
B
Queen Yellow Meadow Ant from his book, 'Ants, Bees and
good clues.

J Douglas Fir from North America; note little bract scales

Wasps', which describes research into the lives of ants and
estate was sold to a banking family called Lubbock and in
1842 a new house was completed for John William Lubbock,
C observations of the same ant colonies which lived between showing between cone scales.
sheets of glass for many years at High Elms.
K
C
a mathematician and astronomer. The same year Charles Darwin Wellingtonia: Feel the thick spongy bark, fire
moved to nearby Downe and the two men became friends. Darwin Bee Orchid- Lubbock researched the relationship of this resistant as it doesn't contain resin. May live
plant's structure with insects. to 3500 years old in its native California.

D
persuaded Lubbock to buy his son, John, a microscope and as a teenager
John did some illustrations for Darwin's books. He grew up to be a
staunch Darwin supporter and published important work as an
Elephant Hawkmoth- He wrote about caterpillar L Coast Redwood (Sequoia). Another
camouflage on their foodplants, willowherb. Californian conifer, note similar bark. The
entomologist, archaeologist, and botanist as well as popularizing
tallest living thing on earth (may grow to
natural history and working in the family bank. He was also a
110m).
SOME OF THE PLANTS AND ANIMALS THAT MAKE HIGH ELMS SPECIAL M Cedar trees: upright cones like candles
social reformer, and on becoming a politician in 1870,
introduced bills including the Bank Holiday Act (1871), the
Wildbirds Protection Act (1880) and the Open Spaces Act (1896). You will not be able to see all of these. They are rare and protected. break up on tree releasing winged seeds.
He saved Avebury Stone Circle from developers and was created E
Dormouse. This one is very sleepy, they are Blue Atlas Cedar from North Africa grows
along the driveway.
Lord Avebury in 1900. In 1938 High Elms was sold to Kent nocturnal, live in the tree canopy in summer,
County Council; from 1943 some of it was leased to the Forestry and hibernate for 7 months of the year. N
Corsican Pine: tall,
Commission. In 1967 the mansion burnt down and in 1968 the
London Borough of Bromley took over the estate. F
Clouded Magpie Moth. Caterpillar eats elm grey-barked tree near the
car park.
G
How to get around H
Man Orchid: Nationally scarce
Yellow-necked Mouse: Associated with E
High Elms Trail is marked by 20 numbered posts, banded in pale
blue (see inside leaflet). It is about 3.5km (21/4mls) long and may ancient woodland, good
be muddy at times with steps as shown on the map and some climbers. Note yellow
gradients of >12%. High Elms Road has to be crossed in 2 places. collar
Please follow the Country Code, keep to the footpaths and I
G H
Green Hellebore:
remove your dog waste. Horse riding and cycling allowed on
bridleway only. Bromley Parks and Open Spaces By-laws apply.
related to buttercups,
uncommon or locally rare F F I
 H i g h E l m s Tr a i l CH
U
R O RC H
AD 4 High Elms Farm: there has been a farm here for hundreds of
years, but it has been known locally as ‘Clockhouse’ since about
1826 when a wooden tower housing a large clock was added. A

1
bell was rung to start and end the working day and at lunchtime.
You are in the formal gardens of the house where Lord Sheep farming became less profitable in the 1820s so new
Avebury grew up and where many famous people cowsheds were built (their flint walls border the golf course) and
visited including Charles Darwin, Napoleon III, an octagonal wooden granary with a space underneath which
William Booth (social reformer and founder of Car
Park allowed circulation of air, and made it more difficult for
the Salvation Army) and Prime Minister Gladstone. E u rats and mice to reach the grain. A pony gin here pumped
N BEECHE
As you walk, notice an area of butterbur on LA water from a deep well at the farm into storage tanks in
your right which flowers in early IR
E
ICE WELL 1 Short the mansion roof.
SH
20 cut and path.
spring before its large
to post 6 or cross road and take right h
leaves develop. 1
The plants here Orange Tip
are all female. 3 Butterfly

On your left an 2

WHITELANDS

Butterbur
area unmowed in
the summer allows Golf Course
Car
Park
Golf

Golf Course
WOOD FP 252

female flowers ox-eye daisies to Club House TH

and leaves OR
flower.
FP 288
19

EN
5

HAM L AN
E
AN
DL

CUD
Clock
Spindle
4
EN

BLACK LANDS Jack-by-the-hedge

Ox-eye Daisy House
6
TH

18
NOR

FP 290 On either side of the

2
path is a hedge. Look
7 for spindle and field

D
17 maple which grow

OA
SR
The ponds here were well in chalky soil.

LM
built in the 1890s. The Beneath it, Jack-by-

HE
the-hedge is the food

H IG
drawing shows algae (simple plants)
8 16 plant of orange tip
from a smaller pond, identified and


BEE
drawn under the microscope by John butterfly caterpillars.

CHY
Lubbock when he was 17. You can find 9 Golf Course

WA
algae in most ponds.

LK
10 15

3 Coltsfoot grows on thin soils close

to the old ponds.
Car
Park
11
FP 252

14
Cross the avenue of yew 12 FP 288
trees, planted in 1896 to be viewed 13 Elm leaves and
fruit
from the drawing room of the mansion.
Turn right towards golf clubhouse.
On your left is evergreen cherry laurel. Coltsfoot CUCKOO WOOD
6 Cowslip

This meadow is covered in cowslips in spring. In November

look for brightly coloured waxcap fungi in the short grass.
Physcia tenella

This was introduced by the Victorians Most will not grow where soil has been fertilised and so have
as an ornamental shrub and to provide become rare in Britain and Europe. The small trees along the
cover for gamebirds. The leaves contain hedge include English elm, some with corky bark
the poison cyanide which stops it from FP 233
FP 233 on which grow lichens such as Physcia tenella.
being eaten, but 2 small nectaries under These are made up of a fungus and an alga living
the leaf near the midrib ooze sap which together. The elm trees will die of Dutch Elm
attracts ants and wasps. The deep shade, disease when they get bigger, but new suckers
drought and poison it produces prevent will develop from the roots.
other species from growing beneath it. Cherry
Laurel Waxcap fungus
7 Toothwort grows here in spring, this
parasitic plant has no need of green
leaves: it attaches itself to the roots of
10 As you walk downhill, the grasses become
coarser as the soil beneath becomes deeper,
with added clay particles from small patches 13 This area was planted with larch in
the1940s to supply timber as part
Common Lizard
trees such as elm, from which it gets all the of clay-with-flints which have washed down slope. of the post-war effort to improve
food it needs. To your left is a patch of sweet In the summer you can smell sweet marjoram, a people’s lives. Larch are one of the few
violets, some with white flowers in April. herb often used in cooking. Look for goatsbeard conifers to shed their needles every year and
and pyramidal orchids. Butterflies like the small the slightly increased soil acidity caused by
copper drink nectar from the flowers. their breakdown suits wood sorrel. In sunny
places, if you are very quiet, you may be lucky
enough to spot a common lizard basking.

White Admiral
Butterfly
Larch
Wood Sorrel

14
Toothwort
Pyramidal Orchid
Sweet Violets
Small Copper The circular watering hole was
Butterfly
made for pheasants when the
park was managed as a country

8
Goatsbeard
estate. John Lubbock stopped hunting here
Hedgerows provide food, shelter and
safe passage for many different animals
from tiny minibeasts to voles, stoats and birds
11 Hazel trees in this old
picnic site are
managed by
Hazel leaves
& catkins
in 1889. On warm summer evenings you can
smell honeysuckle which attracts night-flying
insects, such as lime hawk-moths whose
such as the long-tailed tit which nest here. coppicing. This means they mouthparts are able to reach nectar deep
Look for spikey blackthorn often used as a are cut to ground level within the flower tube. Caterpillars of the
stockproof barrier, and the wayfaring tree every 8-15 years, allowed to white admiral butterfly only eat honeysuckle.
whose young twigs are so flexible that they regrow and harvested for poles and fencing. These rare butterflies have been seen in
were used to bind faggots in the past. Dormice use green hazel leaves and shred the park and seem to
honeysuckle for their summer nests. Look for be becoming more
old hazel nut shells with small round holes as you common. Please let us Lime Hawkmoth
walk through the woods, and see if you can guess which know if you see one.
small mammal ate the nut.
Honeysuckle
Back Vole

Wayfaring Tree
15 Look for artist’s fungus (Ganoderma applanatum)
on the dead part of the beech tree, it is one
of the few fungi whose fruiting body may last
Green Wood many years, each year being marked by a new ring of
Woodpecker Mouse
Long-tailed Tit Dropping growth. The big holes in the dead wood were made
Blackthorn Dormouse:
by woodpeckers, the smaller ones by minibeasts
Glaucous
Sedge note smooth including longhorn beetles, most of which live as Artists Fungus
inner rim larvae eating dead wood, only emerging as adults.
Other beetles such as cardinal beetles

9
live under the bark of dead trees

12
Chalk grassland on a sunny slope like this Pipistrelle Bat
and eat other insects.
may have as many as 40 plant species/m2 In spring before
and many different minibeasts live here. the trees
Keep to the paths, but see how many different cast much shade
plants you can see near this post. Listen for the bluebells and yellow Cardinal Beetle
laughing cackle of green woodpeckers, archangel flower near this
look for their droppings which post. Both are plants found
look like cigarette ash but in ancient woodland. Look
contain insect remains and show for holes and crevices in tree trunks,
where they have stopped for a homes for bats and birds.
meal of yellow meadow ants. Longhorn Beetle
Perforate St. John’s Wort Yellow Archangel Strangalia maculata
16 The magnificent beech trees were planted about 1840 in
memory of the 2nd baronet but many were lost during the
hurricane in 1987 so young trees have been planted to replace
20
Mosses and fungi grow on the remains of
trees blown over in 1987 which were used to
line the path. The earliest fossil mosses date
them. Beech may grow to 36m (120ft) and live for 200 years. Beech back about 300 million years and they seem
nuts produced in large numbers about every 7 years are food for mice to have changed little for much of this time. They
and birds. As you continue, look for pink campion, wild privet and are very simple plants so they do not grow very big
evergreen spurge laurel which all grow well on chalky soils. and need to live in places that are damp for at least
part of the year. Fungi are breaking down the wood,
returning nutrients to the soil. The parts you see in
autumn are the fruiting bodies which produce millions
of spores.

Just before you reach the lawns, notice the charcoal

flower
burner on the right, which uses some of the timber
harvested from the sustainably managed woodlands.
Old Man’s Beard
Spurge Laurel Wild Privet
fruit

Pink Campion

Beech
Shortc
ut to Post 4 19 Look for old man’s beard which may live
for 60 years but only grows on chalky soil.

17
Its stems can grow 17m (50ft) long as they twine
Norway maple was planted here
around other plants growing up towards the light.
in the 1940s because it is a fast
Moss Plums & Custard
growing hardwood that could
Continue to a crossroads. When you cross the (Eurhynchium praelongum)
be used for turnery or kitchen wares.
Norway Maple NE-SW path you are crossing an old racecourse
The numbers of these exotic trees are
which was put in by the 3rd Baronet. The last race
being reduced, allowing more native
meeting in 1864 attracted 40,000 people.
species to grow because these support
more wildlife. Closely related sycamore
also grows here. Below the trees are
the separate male and female
plants of dog’s mercury.
The female plants are
pollinated by midges.
Dogs Mercury
(male flower)

We hope you enjoyed the trail, come again soon.

Sycamore

18
The kissing gate dates back to when the golf course was
cattle grazed. Root plates where trees have fallen show the
underlying chalk and very thin soil, while the many yew trees
cast deep shade. Their wood is flexible and so was highly
valued in the middle ages for longbows. Yew

Illustrated by Madeleine Smith