Dulwich Wood, together with the adjacent

Sydenham Hill Wood Sydenham Hill Wood is a ten-hectare wood on the northern slopes of the Norwood Ridge in the London Borough of Southwark. It is designated as a Local Nature Reserve and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation. With the adjacent ...

, is the largest extant part of the ancient

Great North Wood The Great North Wood was a natural oak woodland that started south-east of central London and scaled the Norwood Ridge. At its full extent, the wood's boundaries stretched almost as far as Croydon and as far north as Camberwell. It had occa ...

in the

London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas ...

.London Wildlife Trust
about Sydenham Hill Wood & Cox's Walk The two woods were separated after the relocation of

The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...

in 1854 and the creation of the high level line in 1865. The wood is privately ownedlondon-footprints.co.uk
/ref> and managed by the

Dulwich Estate The Dulwich Estate, previously the Estates Governors of Alleyn's College of God's Gift at Dulwich, is a registered charity in England, one of the successors to the historic charity Edward Alleyn's College of God's Gift that was founded in 1619. It ...

.Based on post by local historian Steve Grindlay t
Sydenham Town Forum
Topic: Old Sydenham Hill

History

In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

the Manor of Dulwich belonged to

Bermondsey Abbey Bermondsey Abbey was an English Benedictine monastery. Most widely known as being founded in the 11th century, it had a precursor mentioned in the early eighth century, and was centred on what is now Bermondsey Square, the site of Bermonds ...

, having been given to the abbey in 1127 by King

Henry I Henry I may refer to: 876–1366 * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry I the Long, Margrave of the No ...

.The Story of Dulwich by Mary Boast, 1990, London Borough of Southwark When

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

dissolved the monasteries in 1542 he had the Dulwich Estate surveyed. The

Court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...

of King

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

paid frequent visits to Dulwich and its woods to hunt deer.Peckham and Dulwich, Old and New London: Volume 6 (1878), pp. 286-303.
/ref> By 1605

Edward Alleyn Edward "Ned" Alleyn (; 1 September 156621 November 1626) was an English actor who was a major figure of the Elizabethan theatre and founder of the College of God's Gift in Dulwich. Early life Alleyn was born on 1 September 1566 in Bishopsga ...

was a wealthy man and for £5,000 (a large amount in those days), was able to buy the Manor of Dulwich from the Calton family, who had owned it since the dissolution of the monasteries. Alleyn managed the woods in a business-like way, dividing them into ten

coppice Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeated ...

s, one coppice to be felled each year when the trees were ten years old. Peckarman's Wood, now a housing estate, was one of these coppices. In 1738 a man named Samuel Bentyman was murdered in Dulwich Wood. In 1803 Samuel Matthews, known as the Dulwich Hermit, met with a similar fate. The grave of Samuel Matthews is in Dulwich Old Cemetery in the heart of

Dulwich Village Dulwich Village is an affluent area of Dulwich in South London. It is located in the London Borough of Southwark. History "Dulwich Village" is also the name of the village High Street. Residents in Dulwich Village have to pay ground rent to t ...

.Historic sites in Southwark given English Heritage funding
/ref>

Access

The wood can be reached from Sydenham Hill railway station. From the station go straight, through the small car park, cross College Road and through the white gate on the opposite side of the road into Low Cross Wood Lane and on the left just ahead is a gate to Dulwich Wood. There is also an entrance by the footbridge on Cox's Walk, off the Dulwich Common road.

References

External links

*
London Wildlife Trust website
{{coord, 51.4351, -0.0740, display=title, type:landmark Ancient woods of London Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Southwark Nature reserves in the London Borough of Southwark Walking in London Forests and woodlands of London Dulwich