Great Wood & Dodd's Grove

Also within

Essex County

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Ancient woodland, Bracken scrub, Coppiced woodland

Geology & landscape

Landscape processes: Periglacial

Description

Description The SSSI is part of the ancient Hadleigh great Wood. It is a large area of coppice with standards oak woodland lying on periglacial sands, gravels and clays, about four miles west of Southend on Sea. It is one of the largest and best examples of ancient woodland in South Essex and the last known stronghold of the rare heath fritillary butterfly. The standard trees are mainly Sessile in the majority and pedunculate oak Quercus petraea and Quercus robur, but include variable amounts of birch Betula pendula. The coppice species are hornbeam Carpinus betulus, chestnut Castanea sativa, birch and hazel Corylus avellana. wild service tree Sorbus torminalis and rowan Sorbus aucuparia also occur and the shrub layer contains alder buckthorn Frangula alnus. Bramble Rubus fruticosus agg. and honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum are the dominant ground flora with common cow wheat Melampyrum pratense found locally. ling Calluna vulgaris and bracken Pteridium aquilinum grow in small heathy areas, with devil's bit scabious Succisa pratensis, the uncommon Slender St. John's wort Hypericum pulchrum, betony Betonica officinalis, bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta, wood anemone Anemone nemorosa, primrose Primula vulgaris and the grasses wood melick Melica uniflora and wood millet Milium effusum also occur. The orchid, broad helleborine Epipactis helleborine, uncommon in Essex, is recorded. For many years the wood was a habitat of the heath fritillary butterfly Melitaea athalia and efforts are being made to re-introduce the species.

Species mentioned

Insects to look out for

These moths, butterflies and beetles are known to feed on plants recorded at this site, and carry a notable UK conservation status — but a host-plant being present doesn't mean the insect has actually been recorded here. Treat this as "worth watching for," not a confirmed sighting.

Host-plant data: Cook et al. (2025), Traits data for the butterflies and macro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland, 2024, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology / Butterfly Conservation; and Padovani et al. (2020), Database of Insects and their Food Plants (DBIF), UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (both Open Government Licence). Contains data supplied by UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

Plant communities