Dr Stovin and Hadleigh Great Wood

George Horace Tetley Stovin  MRCS,  LRCP,  DA (1897-1963)

Dr Stovin was the most significant figure in the campaign for the establishment of the Nature Reserve and, without his tireless efforts and perseverance, the area would surely have been lost to  “development.”

Hadleigh, Castle Point, Essex, England, SS7 2RD, United Kingdom
Graham Cook who runs Rochford Southend (and Castle Point) branch of the Essex Wildlife Trust  (EWT)  led a History & Wildlife Walk in Hadleigh Great Wood today.  I duly subscribed and off we went from The Woodland Centre.  It was a most interesting two+ hours: the Wood suddenly seems to have regenerated to the luxuriant foliage that I recall from 2020 when venturing in during the Covid lockdown.  David from the Council (who is now the only person dealing with 70? plus open spaces with the City – and the Great Wood which is his favourite of all his work places) showed us how they catch/collect data on the dormice currently living there.

He would also like pigs and bison there to get the undergrowth under control but that’s another story.)  Graham was very interesting from both a historical and botanical point of view.

I met lots of folk with connections to volunteering/coppicing/clearing/ South Essex Nat Hist Soc from over 40 years ago/friends from the Southend Museum Service/current EWT,  and it was a very enjoyable walk…. to get back to Dr. George Horace Tetley Stovin I attach a few photos from our morning.

I hadn’t appreciated that Stovin’s inclusion of Poors Lane in his efforts with John Burrows et al to save the area from development, has saved so much of the woods from development.  The Scrub Lane estate was once Carpenter’s Wood we were told.  (I recall when it was a muddy track.)   The yellow book {Hadleigh Great Wood;  The Wildlife and History of Belfairs Nature Reserve} is “gold dust” apparently.

Comment from David:

Thanks Jan,  Very interesting.

I recollect a class visit to the Hadleigh Nature Reserve (as it was called in the Early Days ) when I was in Mrs Rand’s class, at the age of about 9. Mr Stefan was the warden. He had a cabin in the middle of the wood! He showed us a dormouse nest and, as part of the inevitable ‘Project’ I drew some Guelder Rose flowers – my first ever botanical illustration.