Fletchers

Fletchers Thorns smelt damp and earthy; the smell of winters decay and the return to soil for natures glory. Nearby the low branches of trees and shrubs have become home to lichens, the ground sodden leaf litter and mosses, hidden below fallen bracken, brown and crisp at the end of its season. How clear the wood looked, an Oak plantation planted in 1829, regularly spaced maturing trees below which holly and self seeded Oaks and other species have burgeoned. The name 'Fletchers Thorns' may refer to the use of Black Thorn by bowyers to produce arrows; a few Black Thorns remain, although none look suitable for arrow making, it could be though, that prior to the plantation, Thorns flourished on this site. Walking with ease I remembered trying to navigate my way through these woods when the bracken was chest high, higher in places, obscuring your path, providing perfect cover for obstacles; shallow ditches, fallen boughs and natures barbed wire...brambles. As the slope of the enclosure descended the woodland became wetter, criss crossed by ditches, old tracks and occasional water courses, down to a stream.

Fletcher Water, the lower section of Black Water, itself a later section of Bratley Water which emerges from the high Central heathlands, runs along one fringe of the enclosure. A broad and on the whole shallow stream, with some deeper bends and pits in the river bed caused by water negotiating obstructions of fallen trees and conglomerations of woodland detritus. Deep in the forest, meandering slowly, the atmosphere here is damp, lush ferns, splendid examples, grow along the stream banks and cover the boughs of dislodged trees which now over hang the waters; giving a tropical even primeval feel.

The cold bit today, not the coldest day we've had, but the damp in the air, added to the chill wind, scoured any exposed skin when you broke the cover of trees; which I did, leaving Fletcher Thorns to cross the lawns of Fletcher Green and Ober Heath.