Woolly munchers: the London Wildlife Trust uses a flock of sheep to help manage the grasslands at Hutchinson’s Bank (PS)

Our latest wildlife amble for Inside Croydon readers took place this week, with MOIRA O’DONNELL showing the way across a part of the North Downs with rare flora and fauna, and all just a tram ride away
Photos by AUSTEN COOPER and PHIL SWALLOW

Guided walk: the pathways across Hutchinson’s Bank now have QR codes to direct and inform walkers who don’t have the benefit of Moira O’Donnell to lead the way

It rained in Croydon on Thursday.

It was all so very brief, all over within just a few minutes, as the forecasters had forecast. It would not affect, nor deter, the interested ramblers who had signed up for one of iC’s occasional forays into the hills, woods and valleys around Croydon.

But the rain, or lack of it through this spring, would be noticed throughout our Midsummer’s dream walk, all wonderfully led by the marvellous Moira O’Donnell.

Moira doesn’t like to be described as an “expert”, but as an “enthusiast”. She is, in fact, an enthusiastic expert, having been studying with zeal the plants and butterflies of Hutchinson’s Bank for a good many years.

Something to see in every step: our small band of enthusiasts led on our walk through Hutchinson’s Bank by an enthusiastic expert (AC)

She arrived, beaming as ever, on the platform at New Addington tram stop at the appointed time for our evening amble, equipped with a small pile of reference books under her arm.

Moira was ready to lead us into a piece of, for many, relatively undiscovered natural beauty, a Site of Special Scientific Interest which would awe our merry little band of ramblers from beginning to end. 

Hutchinson’s Bank sits in a narrow, dry valley between New Addington and Featherbed Lane. It is a long, narrow strip, almost 35 acres, about three-quarters of a mile long by 300 yards wide, mainly chalk on the upper slopes and clay-with-flints along the valley bottom.

Marbled white: Hutchinson’s Bank is noted for its ‘high diversity of lepidoptera’ (PS)

This chalk downland is a rare habitat, one that is as important for its species and biodiversity as the rainforests of the Amazon, and yet which is under just as much threat. The land is owned by Croydon Council.

Fortunately, though, for almost 40 years the Bank has been under the care of the London Wildlife Trust, who lease it from the council.

The entrance where Moira led us into the nature reserve is next to the Fisher’s Farm recycling centre. Right from the off, it seemed that with every step, there was something new or unusual to see, observe and discover. “Careful where you put your feet,” Moira said more than once.

Hutchinson’s Bank is renowned for its “high diversity of lepidoptera”: butterflies and moths to you and me, nearly 30 species of the former, including grizzled skippers, dingy skippers, the small blue, green hairstreaks, brown hairstreaks, the dark green fritillary and even the Glanville fritillary.

Lots of small scabious: once you knew what you were looking for, the colourful flowers could be spotted everywhere (PS)

Moira frowned a little at mention of the Glanville fritillary. There were whispers, apparently, of the unspeakable: someone introducing nature to a nature reserve. This is just not the done thing.

“Hutchinson’s Bank is not a butterfly garden,” Mathew Frith, of the London Wildlife Trust, has said, “and we will never manage it as such.

“The introduction of a few species in recent years is worrying, as they are unlikely to be a testament to our management.”

The LWT, according to Frith, wants to manage Hutchinson’s and other nearby chalk downland habitats – “a suite of nature reserves” – “as part of a nature recovery network that can provide the conditions for natural dispersal and colonisation”.

But the Glanvilles are here now, and people travel from far and wide to see them. We wouldn’t see any – even before the end of June, it is late in the year for Glanvilles, who tend to take wing in April and through May. But last winter had been so mild, the spring so warm and dry, this year the Glanvilles were out and gone even earlier.

Three rare orchids: Hutchinson’s Bank offers the right habitat for pyramidal orchids (AC)

As we progressed around the reserve, there were signs of flora that had flowered and gone over already. Tree blossom had long gone, but the seeds left behind by the blooms on the hawthorn and blackthorn all seemed small, dry, shrivelled even.

There is yellow rattle here, a rare parasitic plant that is a vital part of creating the rich, grassland habitat of the downlands. On Hutchinson’s Bank, there’s yellow rattle aplenty.

Hot and dry: rare bee orchids appeared to have flowered and gone over for this year (PS)

Once you sort of knew what to look for, there was wild marjoram seemingly wherever you gazed, along the pathways in the hedgerows, including perched on top of a couple of yellow ants’ nests.

We were shown bird’s foot trefoil and kidney vetch, some wild thyme and lots of small scabious.

There are three rare orchids to be found on Hutchinson’s Bank: the pyramidal, the (not so) common spotted and the bee orchid. Remarkably, thanks to Moira’s keen eye, we would see them all during our walk.

Indeed, after Moira pointed out a pyramidal on the side of our path within the first few minutes of our amble, it became almost too easy to see these striking pinkish-purple flowers reaching skywards. The not-so-common spotted was harder to find, and the bee orchids we did find in one field, near a chalk scrape (created to provide the right breeding conditions for small blue butterflies), had mostly finished their flowering for the year.

Parched: Hutchinson’s Bank’s chalky meadows are turning brown before the end of June (AC)

According to the Downlands Trust, one of the bodies who helped save Hutchinson’s Bank almost half a century ago, the land here had always been “poor farming land, over several centuries the main crop was rabbit meat and pelt”. Myxomatosis put a cruel end to that in the 1950s and 1960s. We never saw any sign of a rabbit.

“The landowner lived overlooking the Bank, the farmhouse on the site now occupied by Croydon’s recycling and waste centre.

Dried fruits: some of the tree berries and seed pods look dried, and small (AC)

“Croydon Council had bought the estate in the 1930s. Most of Hutchinson’s Bank was scheduled for the construction of 120 private houses and Farleigh Dean Crescent, the first eight, were completed as World War II began.”

According to a survey of the botany of Hutchinson’s Bank conducted in 1988, soon after the London Wildlife Trust had taken the lease on the land, it has the second-richest selection of calcicolous fauna – chalk-loving plants – in the whole of Greater London. Had world war not intervened, what is now subject to various protections, including Green Belt status, might be underneath dozens of private houses.

“These remarkable species-rich sites have achieved a nationwide recognition and each year attract visitors from all parts of our country with Hutchinson’s Bank and Chapel Bank attracting the greatest interest,” say the grandees of the Trust, with good cause.

With the shouts and squeals of delight echoing across the valley from Scouts doing scouting-type things in Frylands Wood, Moira led the way as we slowly started to head back, up towards New Addington and our point of arrival.

There, in the middle of the uphill path, was a gouged hole with bits of chalk scattered around. “Badger,” Moira advised. “Nothing else would have the power to dig through the chalk like that.”

Heading for home: our guided amble took almost two hours, and we were all back in central Croydon before dark (PS)

One of our group mentioned how clear of litter the whole place seemed to be, beyond one or two discarded tins or plastic bottles closer to the entrance. “Perhaps people do respect what we have here?” they said.

“The volunteers do a lot of work, too,” Moira said, knowingly.

Burned-out cars have to be cleared on occasion, and there’s been a good deal of expense on renewing the fencing for the sheep’s paddocks. At some point towards the end of summer, the meadows will need to be mown. Perhaps, like a couple of years ago, the managers will call in a pair of shire horses to pull the mower for this annual task.

The London Wildlife Trust is always seeking new volunteers, as well as donations.

Thanks to Moira O’Donnell and our Midsummer’s dream walk, Inside Croydon and its generous readers will be making a significant donation to the Trust to help with their essential work.

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