It was home to several veteran trees, such as large English oaks that can be generally found along roads, where they once served as boundary trees
South London was once covered by a massive woodland, which influenced lots of areas’ names. The ironically named Great North Wood spanned from what is now New Cross to Crystal Palace and then south-east towards Elmers End, and west towards Norbury and Selhurst.
Many of us may not know, but it is the origin of area names like Brockley, Norwood, Honor Oak, and Forest Hill. Makes sense, when you think about it.
The area has been known as Norwood or North Wood since at least the 16th century, which is believed to distinguish it from the Weald to the south of Croydon.
For centuries, it was a heavily managed working forest and its oak trees supplied fuel for ancient industries, oak bark for the leather-making industry in Bermondsey.
It was home to several veteran trees, such as large English oaks that can be generally found along roads, where they once served as boundary trees, usually to identify parishes.
You can find quite a few veteran oaks standing along Wood Vale near Horniman Museum & Gardens, and along Streatham Common North.
Similarly, a few small streams flow through the Great North Wood, including the Norbury Brook (flowing west into the River Wandle), the Chaffinch Brook in Elmers End (flowing north into the Pool River), and the Ambrook in Sydenham Hill Wood (flowing north into the underground River Effra).
There are still bodies of water in the form of ponds, including Beulah Hill Pond, Dewy Pond, Dulwich Mill Pond, and Dacres Wood Pond, and the stretch of the old Croydon Canal in Betts Park.
Sadly, from the 1830s onwards, the southern part of our great city’s huge expansion meant most of the woodland was covered by suburban neighbourhoods.
But some of it is still seen in green spaces, including Dulwich & Sydenham Hill Woods and Biggin Wood, as well as recent woodland that has developed on cleared land, such as on One Tree Hill and New Cross Gate Cutting.
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