Norsey Wood Deer Bank EarthCache
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Norsey wood is a local nature reserve, open from 9.00 till dusk. Please check the entrance board for daily closing times as these vary during the year.
Norsey Wood has been designated an ancient monument and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
The wood has been part of the geography of Billericay for over 400 years, and the landscapes and features within the wood reflect this.
Much of the woodland covers a high plateau of well drained pebbly gravels, overlaying sands, loams and clays. Impermeable London Clay occurs in the valley bottoms to the south-west, where spring lines and flushes create permanently damp habitats. The conditions vary from dry heath on the plateau, through fertile slopes, to acidic bog in the valleys.
The feature of this Earthcache is the boundary bank to the wood - Known as a "deer bank"
This medieval boundary structure surrounded the wood until housing development affected the northern boundary in the 1930's.
The Deer Bank would have been about 2 meters high, with a deep ditch on one side when it was constructed.
To visit the deer bank, start at the visitor center and walk on the easy access path in an anti clockwise diection. It becomes visible on the left as soon as the entrance gate from Break Egg Hill is reached. This particular part of the Deerbank is a later construction than the original and is superimposed on the older one. If the path is followed beyond where the Easy Access Trail turns off to the right and down the slope, the bank divides in two and the northern of the two divides again, indicating three phases of construction. Two of these banks (the most southerly) possess obvious external ditches; one has evidence of an internal ditch as well (the path follows this ditch going uphill from the Larch plantation. The side on which the ditch is found is the side where the deer or cattle would have been. With a paling fence on top, the bank with its deep ditch would have been a formidable barrier for the animals to leap.
To claim the earthcache, you need to take a photo of yourself in front of the bank, and also email me the estimated height of the bank from one of the ditches.
Enjoy the rest of the walk!
Additional Hints
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