Background Information:

The photos below were taken on 1st September 2002, and 27 September 2015. They show a 360 degree rotation from a point in the middle of the wood.

In 2002 it was only 10 years or so since an overzealous clearance of the undergrowth by LB Merton contractors had left the ground beneath the trees a hardpan wasteland, over which all rainfull drained as surface water without being absorvbed by the ground, leaving the oaktrees badle exposed, and with a disastrous drop in the biodiversity of the wood. By 2002, the Friends, with the enthusiastic support of LBM, had managed to get some regrowth started, but it was still limited. However the repopulation of the bird and bat life in the wood was sufficiently marked for us to be able to gain Site of Special Scientific Interest designation to prevent such an event re-occurring.

The 20 noughts were a period of benign neglect.

The 2015 pictures show the dramatic regrowth since then, to the extent that the Friends must now consider re-activation to control that growth for the benefit of all wood users.

Before Selley started building, the view SE would have seen golfers through the trees. The boundary behingd the West, NorthWest and Northern images is the historic boundary of the Parishes of Merton and Morden, and, before that, between the Brixton and Croydon Hundreds.

The old peoples home, lying across the Western corner is built on the site of the original spring which provided an occasional stream down the ancient boundary. Construction has altered that, so that the water now comes up in a number of smaller spots throughout that side of the wood.

Photos of CherryWood: