Norsey Wood is a biological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

Billericay Billericay ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Basildon, Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin and constitutes a commuter town east of Central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces. It is ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. It is also a Local Nature Reserve and a

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. The site is ancient oak woodland on acid soil which has been converted to mixed

sweet chestnut ''Castanea sativa'', the sweet chestnut, Spanish chestnut or just chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. A substantial, long-lived ...

coppice. Bluebell, bracken and bramble are dominant on the ground layer, but there are

sphagnum moss ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store wa ...

es (

sphagnum palustre ''Sphagnum palustre'' (Syn. ''Sphagnum cymbifolium''), the prairie sphagnum or blunt-leaved bogmoss, is a species of peat moss from the genus ''Sphagnum'', in the family Sphagnaceae. Like other mosses of this type it can soak up water up to the 3 ...

and

Sphagnum cuspidatum ''Sphagnum cuspidatum'', the feathery bogmoss, toothed sphagnum, or toothed peat moss, is a peat moss found commonly in Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, the eastern coast of the United States, and in Colombia. Description ''Sphagnum cuspidatum'' i ...

) in acidic flushes, and the rare

water violet ''Hottonia palustris'', also water violet or featherfoil, is an aquatic plant in the family Primulaceae. Description The plant has a stem reaching up to in height. Its basal roots are buried in the underlying mud, while other silvery, shiny r ...

in one of the four ponds. There are nine species of dragonfly. Archaeolocal features include a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

bowl barrow,

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

and Roman cemeteries, and a medieval deer bank. Norsey Wood is the likely site of the

Battle of Billericay The Battle of Billericay took place on 28 June 1381 when the boy King Richard II's soldiers defeated the Essex rebels adjacent to a wood north-east of Billericay, part of the Peasants' Revolt. This is likely to have been Norsey Wood, which maps of ...

during the

Peasants' Revolt The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black ...

of 1381, a battle the peasants lost. There is a Forest nursery school based on the outside of the woods with access to the woods for the children, toilets, a car park and a trail. There is access from Outwood Common Road, Break Egg Hill, Norsey Close, Deerbank and Norsey Road.

References

External links

The Norsey Wood Society
{{coord, 51.632, 0.436, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Essex Scheduled monuments in Essex Local Nature Reserves in Essex Billericay