Haven for wildlife: National Trust-owned Selsdon Wood is classified as a nature reserve, and that’s a status the Friends group works hard to maintain
THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR: This year’s annual residents’ fair was where KEN TOWL found out more about the need for volunteers
Meet and greet: Friends of Selsdon Woods (from left) Jim Dunning, Linda Morris and David Debenham
Jim Dunning is the first of the Friends of Selsdon Wood that I meet at one of their recent events. The long-standing residents’ association is hosting its annual fair, and they have chosen to hold it in a glade by the ancient woodland.
Jim is a big man and he doesn’t look out of shape, which is impressive considering he retired 17 years ago when he was 65.
He keeps active by volunteering as a Friend of Selsdon Wood. He is on their committee and he also turns up on the first Sunday of every month to “do everything we can to preserve the wood”.
This can include dealing with invasive species, maintaining fences and benches, clearing paths to keep the wood accessible to visitors, and, dealing with small tree falls.
Jim enjoys this sort of work. Not all of the work is fun, though.
Cyclists can cause problems. Selsdon Woods are National Trust property, leased to Croydon Council and, whereas the National Trust’s 1965 by-law (enabled by the National Trust Act) prohibits the riding of all “conveyances”, Croydon Council does not.
Bear necessity: even fallen trees are put to good use in Selsdon Wood
It turns out some cyclists are racing (and often dangerously) along trails used by walkers, presenting a danger to these and, when we have had any rain, churning up muddy paths.
Equally annoying are the poo-baggers.
These are the dog-walkers who have taken the trouble to buy and carry little plastic bags for when fido does its business. They have endured the horror of putting the bag over one hand like an over-sized, primitive prophylactic, and scooped up the warm dog waste that their beloved pet has seen fit to deposit. They have thn carefully tied up the bag. All they need to do now is either carry it or lower it daintily into any vacant pocket.
But no. The poo-bagger hangs the sealed package in a tree, like some perverse Christmas anti-decoration.
Plastic pollution plus excrement. This really is an enigma wrapped inside a riddle.
Nature reserve: the Friends group likes to log all wildlife sighting, such as lizards
As Jim explains, if using any of the bins provided for the purpose really is too much trouble, then it would be far better to flick the unwanted bagged material into the bushes with a stick. The creation of unattractive tree ornaments is a distant third. It is a distant third because someone else, almost certainly a Friend of Selsdon Wood, will have the job of removing it and doing what the poo-bagger should have done in the first place.
The Friends of Selsdon Wood have traced the history of the area to the Domesday Book. They say that “Selsdon” is derived from Anglo-Saxon meaning Seli’s Hill, or Seli’s “dene” or home. “We do not know who Seli was or when he lived, but possibly he may have been a Jute, as in the very earliest days Selsdon was part of Kent. In those days Kent was divided in to lathes or districts … sometime in the 7th or 8th Centuries, the eastern half of this lathe was either conquered or purchased by Surrey, and this included Selsdon.”
The Croydon entry in the Domesday Book states that Archbishop Lanfranc, William the Conqueror’s Archbishop, held Croydon, including Selsdon.
There are other references to Selsdon in a few medieval document, such as Robert de Sanford, a Knight Templar in 1247 and in 1395 William Doo and his wife Matilda acquired some land in Selsdon.
Selsdon Wood was once part of the Selsdon Park estate. From at least the 16th Century, Selsdon was largely divided between two farms, Selsdon Farm in the north (now Selsdon Park Hotel) and Ballards Farm in the south.
Public appeal: Selsdon Wood was bought with money from a series of appeals and donations to save it from being used for housing
The estate comprising Selsdon Park, Selsdon Farm and Selsdon Wood was purchased by William Coles in 1809 but when he became bankrupt a year later it was sold to George Smith. Amith was an MP, a banker and a director of the East India Company. It was Smith who transformed the farmhouse into the mansion now known as the Selsdon Park Hotel, and made many changes to the estate building two lodges, a new farm and cottages. He also landscaped the park and re-routed the Farleigh Road to the east.
Selsdon Wood would have been used by the estate for game bird shooting.
Just after World War I, the estate was broken up in a series of sales, some of it given to retired servicemen, some for housing. It was just over 100 years ago, in 1924, that the first appeal was made to buy Selsdon Wood as bird sanctuary.
“It was not easy to raise the interest and funds needed and a lot of publicity was necessary to promote the campaign,” the Friends website says.
“Letters were sent to the local and national press and an appeal brochure was produced, enclosing a donation slip. Organised guided tours of the Wood were advertised and donations came in from all sources.”
All’s fair: the 2026 Selsdon RA annual event, where the Friends of Selsdon Wood, in their hi-viz vests, were on the lookout for volunteers
By 1935, and several appeals later, a group of 5 philanthropists, calling themselves the Selsdon Wood Preservation Society, agreed to buy 126 acres of the most heavily wooded section on the north-east of the site, which would be handed over to the National Trust, with the Corporation of Croydon and the Urban District Council of Coulsdon and Purley jointly holding the wood on a 999-year lease and “undertaking responsibility for its maintenance”.
The Selsdon Residents’ Association has just celebrated its centenary, and at their 2026 fair, Jim introduced me to Linda Morris and David Debenham, respectively the secretary and chair of the Friends of Selsdon Wood.
They are keen to welcome new volunteers to learn to help with coppicing and other maintenance tasks. They direct me to the volunteers section of their website where you can learn more about volunteering opportunities. Most months, they meet on the first and last(-ish) Sunday of the month. They meet at 10am (“promptly”) in the car park off Old Farleigh Road and finish at “lunchtime”. It is on the route of the 433 bus.
They also organise a series of walks in the woods throughout the year. They’ve just staged a bat walk in the woods, and coming up on September 19 they have an autumn and winter trees walk, and on October 24 they are staging a “fungus hunt”. Details of their walks can also be found on their website.
From what I have seen, they are a friendly bunch of people, which is what you would expect Friends to be, I suppose.
Their next volunteer work session is Sunday September 27. The Sunday focus allows for even those who have not retired to lend a hand. Indeed, Linda and David are open to talking to local employers about organising workplace volunteer and team-building sessions. Accompanied minors are welcome, too.
Selsdon Wood is a treasure and in these days when councils limit themselves to their statutory duties, when austerity has become normalised, the sad truth is that if we want to have nice things, we need to look after them. So, cyclists, please dismount, and poo-baggers, you know what to do.
Everybody else, if you go down in the woods one Sunday, you’re sure of a big welcome.
- Ken Towl is making visits to Croydon’s many Friends groups, and the green spaces that are in their care
More Friends: Woodland wonderland that’s hidden behind Selsdon’s suburbia
More Friends: Thanks to the magic of Merlin there’s more to see in Croham Hurst
More Friends: Friends on a mission in Selhurst’s neglected Whitehorse Rec
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