Donkey Woods Leaflet Front Cover A4.Indd
Ecology If you want to learn more Donkey Wood & The River Crane passes through a about green spaces on the River patchwork of open spaces each with Crane please visit: Brazil Mill Wood its own distinct ecology. Many of the FORCE Green Spaces on the spaces have high environmental value Email [email protected] or visit www.force.org.uk River Crane
and include woodland, wet woodland, Facebook “f” Logo CMYK / .eps Facebook “f” Logo CMYK / .eps meadow and heathland. Friends of the River Crane Environment Hounslow Heath @FriendsRivCrane The surviving area of the once Hounslow Council extensive Hounslow Heath includes Telephone 0845 456 2796 an environmentally diverse mixture Visit www.hounslow.gov.uk of heathland, acid grassland and some scrub. The site includes a visitor’s Crane Valley Partnership www.cranevalley.org.uk/contact centre and nature trails.
Wet Woodland Other leafl ets in this series: The riverside path passes areas of Crane Park to Hounslow Heath mixed woodland and scrub which Dragonfl y Trail (Crane Park) includes ash, willow, sycamore and The Lower Crane Valley some oak. In Donkey Wood there is an area of wet woodland. Here, alder trees grow in the wetter conditions, where the river regularly fl oods over its banks. This alder is managed by the ancient practice of coppicing. The Friends of the River Crane Environment shoots of the alder are harvested on a regular basis and the tree then regrows from the stool. The harvested wood is This leafl et was funded by GLA Big Green Fund used in woodland management. through a project with the Crane Valley Partnership design, photography & illustration - paulsmithadi.co.uk With thanks to the Hounslow Local Studies Library for permission to use the historic images © Friends of the River Crane Environment (FORCE) 2015 Registered Company No. 8383410 Registered Charity No. 1108542 HEATHROW Cranford Park & A30 Great South West Road Grand Union Canal Donkey Wood & 423 482 203 Brazil Mill Wood 203
482 Green Spaces along Hatton Cross 0.7m the River Crane Hounslow West 1.0m
Heathrow Balancing Ponds
Causeway
Boardwalk Green Lane Water Meadows
ane Cr
er Blast Mounds
Riv
B last Mounds Donkey Wood
Upper Duke of Northum River Gdns berland’ 116 s R 635 iver
Mill 235 Way Bab ge W er Brid Mill Stone et Woodland 116 117 Baber Bridge Green Lane
235 635 Hounslow West 0.8m A244 A315 Staines Road 117
Beeston Way Golf Course Hounslow Heath Brazil Mill Wood Information Centre
Firing Wall Pond
H26 Viola Ave
Frampton Road
Carlton Ave Ri Feltham 0.75m v er
Cra Heathland n footpath e 0.5 H26 Sparrow Farm river walk Drive Hounslow Heath London Loop
board walk Paradise Wood distance in kilometres approximate Meadows 0.5 mill site Cygnet Ave
open space distance in miles approximate Feltham Marshalling 235 bus stop Yards Cavalry Tunnel tube station South East Wood national rail Entrance
parking Godfr Way A314 Hanworth Road ey 111
110 Crane Environment v1.0 2015 © Friends of the River river fl ow Hanworth Park & De Brome Pevensey Road Nature Reserve, Hounslow 1.0m Playing Fields Little Park & Crane Park HEATHROW Cranford Park & A30 Great South West Road Grand Union Canal Donkey Wood & 423 482 203 Brazil Mill Wood 203
482 Green Spaces along Hatton Cross 0.7m the River Crane Hounslow West 1.0m
Heathrow Balancing Ponds
Causeway
Boardwalk Green Lane Water Meadows
ane Cr
er Blast Mounds
Riv
B last Mounds Donkey Wood
Upper Duke of Northum River Gdns berland’ 116 s R 635 iver
Mill 235 Way Bab ge W er Brid Mill Stone et Woodland 116 117 Baber Bridge Green Lane
235 635 Hounslow West 0.8m A244 A315 Staines Road 117
Beeston Way Golf Course Hounslow Heath Brazil Mill Wood Information Centre
Firing Wall Pond
H26 Viola Ave
Frampton Road
Carlton Ave Ri Feltham 0.75m v er
Cra Heathland n footpath e 0.5 H26 Sparrow Farm river walk Drive Hounslow Heath London Loop
board walk Paradise Wood distance in kilometres approximate Meadows 0.5 mill site Cygnet Ave
open space distance in miles approximate Feltham Marshalling 235 bus stop Yards Cavalry Tunnel tube station South East Wood national rail Entrance
parking Godfr Way A314 Hanworth Road ey 111
110 Crane Environment v1.0 2015 © Friends of the River river fl ow Hanworth Park & De Brome Pevensey Road Nature Reserve, Hounslow 1.0m Playing Fields Little Park & Crane Park The River The Mills This area has a rich industrial history and In this stretch the River Crane has diverse remnants of this past can be seen in habitats bordering the river channel. structures along the river. The Bedfont The river was altered to provide water Powder Mills, built in 1635 as a sword mill, power to mills for industrial processes from soon converted to the manufacture of the 13th century. In the 16th century the gunpowder. In 1833 Curtis and Harvey upper Duke of Northumberland’s River was leased the Bedfont Powder Mills from the constructed to supplement water power in Duke of Northumberland. Since 1820 they the river. had manufactured gunpowder downstream This man-made river continues to link the at the Hounslow Gunpowder Mills. The River Colne to the River Crane, enriching mills continued in use until 1926. the river with water from a chalk fed stream. There was a second mill near Baber Bridge, The Roman road between Brentford and described from the 18th century as “Brazil Staines would have crossed the River Crane Mill”. Brazil wood was processed into a red in the area of Baber Bridge. pigment used as a dye. By the 19th Century it was known as ‘The North Feltham Cartridge Factory’.
Links Upstream & Downstream It is possible to follow the River Crane both
upstream and downstream from Donkey Gunpowder Mill by Joseph Lancaster, 1912 Wood. Upstream and beyond Heathrow Airport is Cranford Park, the Grand Union Canal and Minet Park. Downstream there is a continuous linear path through Feltham Marshalling Yards, Pevensey Nature Reserve and Crane Park. Bedfont Gunpowder Mill, Hounslow Heath Not attributed, c1870