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Coldfall Wood

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Coldfall Wood

Coldfall Wood is an ancient woodland in Muswell Hill, North London. It covers an area of approximately 14 hectares (35 acres) and is surrounded by St Pancras and Islington Cemetery, the East Finchley public allotments, and the residential streets Creighton Avenue and Barrenger Road. It is the site of the discoveries which first led to the recognition that glaciation had once reached southern England. It was declared a local nature reserve in 2013, and is also a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1.

The London Borough of Haringey contains four ancient woods: Highgate Wood, Queen's Wood, Coldfall Wood, and Bluebell Wood. All are shown on John Rocque's 1754 Map of Middlesex.[citation needed]

Until the early 20th century Coldfall Wood was more than twice its current size, reaching south to the properties bordering Fortis Green. The southern section was felled and partially excavated for gravel, before being used for residential development and the sites of Tollington and William Grimshaw schools (later Fortismere School). Tollington first rented and felled part of the wood for a sports field in the 1920s and subsequently moved to a new building on the site. William Grimshaw was built later to the north.

Coldfall Wood was purchased in 1930 by Hornsey Council and the remaining section is now owned and managed by its successor, the London Borough of Haringey. It is bounded to the north by St Pancras and Islington Cemetery and Muswell Hill Sports Ground (formerly Finchley Common). Its western boundary is the boundary line between the London Boroughs of Barnet and Haringey. This western boundary and its northern boundaries are demarcated by the remains of an ancient woodbank with a ditch on the outer side. This would have prevented grazing animals from the surrounding Finchley Common and Horseshoe Farm (as they then were) from entering the wood and destroying the young coppice.

Coldfall Wood has been examined in some detail by Silvertown (1978), who used historical sources to show that the woodlands are likely to be of primary origin (i.e. continuously present since prehistoric times).

In March 2011, the Friends of Coldfall Wood launched an online interactive map that included historical maps of the area overlaid on a modern streetmap, showing how the wood has dwindled in size since 1864.

Like the other local ancient woodlands in the area, the wood is dominated by oak standards, but the understorey is much less diverse and consists of almost pure stands of multi-stemmed, overgrown hornbeam coppice. Beech, hazel, mountain ash and wild service tree are all rare, though there are some fine specimens of the last species.

Little light penetrates to the woodland floor in the most wooded places and large areas of the wood are devoid of either shrub, field or ground layers of vegetation. Consequently, parts of the wood can present a dark and gloomy appearance in the summer months. Nevertheless, in the few glade areas, caused by the collapse of an occasional canopy tree, or by more recent coppicing, the flora is of considerable interest. Pill sedge hangs on in its only known Haringey site, and tiny populations of cow-wheat, slender St John's wort, wood anemone, and heath speedwell manage to survive, though they seldom flower.

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