One Tree Hill, Honor Oak

The Oak of Honor

The view from One Tree Hill

One Tree Hill is a 7 hectare public park, local nature reserve and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1, in Honor Oak in the London Borough of Southwark.^[1] It is owned and managed by Southwark Council.^[2]

History

One Tree Hill is named after the Oak of Honor which marked the southern boundary of the Norman Honour of Gloucester. It was later owned by the Abbots of Bermondsey, until it was confiscated by the monarchy during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. According to legend, Queen Elizabeth I rested under an oak at the summit on her way to visit Lewisham in 1602. The current oak (pictured above) is the third on the site, planted in 1905.^[3]

Before the end of the eighteenth century, the East India Company built a semaphore station on the top of the hill to signal when ships were sighted in the Channel, and it was used as a beacon point by the Admiralty during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1896 the hill was fenced off by a local golf club, but this led to large scale protests and trespasses, and in 1905 the site was compulsorily purchased by the new Camberwell Borough Council. The church of St Augustine was built on the north-east side of the hill between 1872 and 1900. It is fenced off from the public park. In 1957 John Betjeman described the view from the top as "better than that from Parliament Hill".^[3] Adjacent to the hill is the Honor Oak Reservoir, the largest underground brick reservoir in the world when finished in 1909, and it remains the largest in Europe.

Ecology

The steep hill is wooded with open grassland at the top. The site has many ancient trees, but the main ones are hybrid black-poplar and London plane, the result of former landscaping. There are also wild service trees and midland hawthorns. The ground flora includes bluebells, heath grass and compact rush.^[2]^[1]

Access

There is access from Honor Oak Park and Brenchley Gardens.^[3]

References

1 2 "One Tree Hill". Greenspace Information for Greater London. 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
1 2 "One Tree Hill". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
1 2 3 "One Tree Hill". London Parks and Gardens Trust. Retrieved 15 December 2013.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to One Tree Hill.

"iGiGL data portal (map)". Greenspace Information for Greater London.
"Map of One Tree Hill". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England.

Coordinates: 51°27′05″N 0°03′05″W / 51.4515°N 0.0513°W / 51.4515; -0.0513

Local nature reserves in Greater London

Barking & Dagenham	Beam Valley Beam Valley (Environment Agency) Dagenham Village Churchyard Eastbrookend Country Park Mayesbrook Park South Parsloes Park Squatts Ripple Nature Reserve Scrattons Ecopark and extension The Chase - Barking

Barnet	Big Wood & Little Wood Brent Reservoir/Welsh Harp Coppetts Wood Glebelands Moat Mount Open Space Oak Hill Wood Rowley Green Common Scratchwood Totteridge Fields

Bexley	Crossness Danson Park Bog Garden, Welling Foots Cray Meadows Lesnes Abbey Woods

Brent	Brent Reservoir/Welsh Harp Fryent Country Park Masons Field

Bromley	High Elms Jubilee Country Park Scadbury Park

Camden	Adelaide Belsize Wood Camley Street Natural Park Westbere Copse

Croydon	Bramley Bank Foxley Wood Hutchinson's Bank Selsdon Wood South Norwood Country Park

Ealing	Blondin Park Fox Wood Grove Farm Gunnersbury Triangle Islip Manor Meadows Litten Long Wood Northolt Manor Perivale Wood

Enfield	Covert Way

Greenwich	Gilbert's Pit Maryon Park Maryon Wilson Park Oxleas/Shooters Hill Woodlands Sutcliffe Park

Hackney	Abney Park Cemetery Springfield Park

Hammersmith & Fulham	Wormwood Scrubs

Haringey	Alexandra Park Coldfall Wood Parkland Walk Queen's Wood Railway Fields

Harrow	Bentley Priory Stanmore Common Stanmore Country Park

Havering	Bedford's Park Cranham Brickfields Cranham Marsh Ingrebourne Valley Rainham Marshes The Chase - Havering The Manor

Hillingdon	Denham Country Park Frays Valley Gutteridge Wood and Meadows (Yeading Woods) Ruislip Local Nature Reserve Ten Acre Wood Yeading Brook Meadows

Hounslow	Bedfont Lakes Country Park Chiswick Eyot Cranebank Duke's Hollow Gunnersbury Triangle Hounslow Heath Isleworth Ait Kempton Pevensey Road

Islington	Barnsbury Wood Gillespie Park Parkland Walk

Kingston	Bonesgate Open Space Castle Hill Coombe Hill Wood Edith Gardens Elmbridge Open Space Ham Lands Hogsmill River Park Jubilee Wood Raeburn Open Space Rose Walk Southwood Open Space Tolworth Court Farm Fields The Wood and Richard Jefferies Bird Sanctuary

Lambeth	Streatham Common

Lewisham	Beckenham Place Park Brookmill Road Burnt Ash Pond Dacres Wood Downham Woodland Walk Sue Godfrey Nature Park

Merton	Bennett's Hole Cannon Hill Common Cherry Wood Cranmer Green Derwent Floodwash Fishpond Wood and Beverley Meads Lower Wandle Merton Park Green Walks Morden Park Myrna Close Oakleigh Way Pyl Brook Ravensbury Park Sir Joseph Hood Memorial Wood Wandle Meadow Nature Park

Redbridge	Hainault Lodge

Richmond	Barnes Common Crane Park Island Ham Common Ham Lands Lonsdale Road Reservoir (Leg of Mutton Reservoir) Oak Avenue, Hampton

Southwark	Dulwich Upper Wood Lavender Pond Nunhead Cemetery One Tree Hill Sydenham Hill Wood and Fern Bank

Sutton	Anton Crescent Wetland Belmont Pastures Cuddington Meadows Devonshire Avenue Nature Area Roundshaw Downs Ruffett and Big Woods Spencer Road Wetlands Sutton Ecology Centre Grounds The Spinney, Carshalton Wandle Valley Wetland Wilderness Island

Tower Hamlets	Ackroyd Drive Greenlink Mudchute Park and Farm Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park

Waltham Forest	Ainslie Wood

Wandsworth	Battersea Park Nature Areas

Westminster	St. John's Wood Church Grounds

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 2/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.