Recent news

Join us for a morning of Easter adventure from 10:00am to 12:30pm starting at Petts Wood Recreation Ground Car Park on Easter Saturday, 4 April!

For just £3, pick up your question sheet and set off on a fun, family-friendly trail through the recreation ground and surrounding woodland. Follow the short route, solve the clues, and answer the questions as you go.

Every completed sheet earns a delicious Easter egg prize — so keep your eyes peeled and your pencils ready!

Perfect for children (with a little help from a grown-up), this interactive trail is a fantastic way to explore nature and discover more about the wildlife and plants in our local area while enjoying some fresh spring air. 

Come along whatever the weather, get exploring, and make this Easter one to remember! 🌼🥚🌿

Crofton and Sparrow Woods once included the lovely Elm among its woodland trees. Dutch Elm disease saw them all off, apart from a couple of young saplings holding on behind the playground.

So we applied to the London Elm Project for help. Through them we have received three lovely young Elm trees of different disease resistant varieties. 

As you can see the Group is ready and willing to plant them out. Once we have got permission from idverde’s tree team they will be planted around the recreation ground.

Finally we will start seeing Elms again. Summer watering volunteers keenly sought!

We are delighted to announce the plans for Spring annd Summer 2026 work for the Tuesday morning Work Group in the lovely Crofton and Sparrow Woods. 

The prime focus for 2026 is to tackle as many alien species as we can - mostly garden escapees. 

As the bird nesting season gets underway, woodland work is necessarily limited to avoid disturbance, so we will start working closer to paths where nests are rarer. 

Why not come and join us?

Saturday 31 January 2026 

Saturday 28 February 2026  

Saturday 28 March 2026  

at 10.00am

Meet at the woodland end of the pedestrian entrance from Broadcroft Road. Suitable for all ages and physical abilities – bring secateurs, loppers and a spade of you have them. Join us to enjoy the outdoors and battle the bramble to retain our last bit of ex-arable grassland.

The Candlesnuff fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon) is showing well on dead wood on the woodland floor at the moment.

So-named because it looks a bit like the candlewax from a snuffed out candle.

It has anti-viral properties and is said to be active against tumours. Don't eat it though - it is very tough, and you might get your identification wrong and eat something poisonous!

A BIG thank you to the ETR Environmental fund who agreed our bid for funding of bat and bird boxes. 

Crofton and Sparrow Woods is a Site of Special Scientific Interest as it is a rare wet woodland habitat in London supporting a wide range of plants, animals and birds as well as butterflies and moths. 

But time has not been kind to the area. Conserving that biodiversity is a real challenge as the land has been largely unmanaged since the war with the consequence of increased young woodland and much less ex-arable areas, as well as climate change to the rainfall patterns. The loss of the mix of habitat has shown a significant decrease in the variety of birds seen over the past 50 years and bats were identified as an underperforming group in the woods by an RSPB senior ecologist earlier this year.

Providing suitable habitat for birds such as the Nuthatch, and our three species of bat, are essential to maintain the remaining diversity of the wildlife as well as the food chain. We sought bat boxes in order to create artificial “veteran tree features” in the woodland. There are relatively few of the very old, declining oaks that provide them - they are missing in this woodland possibly due to overharvesting in the 18th/19th centuries. 

We are also developing an interpretation board dedicated to the birds and bats of Crofton Woods.        

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW, ALL THE PLACES FOR THIS EVENT HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD. 

Come and join the fun for only £42 and support a great cause. 

Pre-booking essential 

Date & Time: 6 December 2025 2.30pm to 5pm 

Location: GEA Hall, 36, Woodhurst Avenue, Petts Wood, BR5 1AR   

All ages welcome 

Limited places available 

Email: friendscroftonandsparrowwoods@gmail.com 

Good news! Bromley Council has allocated £27000 to their Capital Programme for a Crofton and Sparrow Woods Waterbody improvement scheme. This project will be grant funded by Water Environment Improvement Fund (WEIF).

This will fund a study on the water catchment throughout the woods.

Group Member Andy has tracked down the Council paper which shares the details that are available to us.  https://cds.bromley.gov.uk/documents/s50124741/Capital%20Programme%20Monitoring%20EXEC%20Q1%202025-26.pdf?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR6f3bwj01oq24Db7xHYMd1gmTgeRtTe_FbKm3QuJ03arssU0CWDXhJU6qdPdA_aem_PsXBO-wpbxsmkWRx-Fhr2w

Our main concern has been the sewage channelled into the western branch of the Kyd Brook when it rains hard, and residents along the eastern branch are rightly concerned about flooding. Also, although the woodland is very muddy in winter, it is very dry indeed in summer, so more water in the ground than whizzing fast down artifically straightened water courses might solve several issues as once.

Got to be good news that the issue is being looked at. 

Here's a photo of sewage in the stream!

It is a great time to get out into the woods and enjoy the start of Autumn. Simon Mott's recent photos show what is emerging now in Crofton Woods.

Fancy offering a couple of hours a fortnight to support your local wild space? Then why not come along on alternate Tuesday mornings and join our Work Group. 

Equipment and instruction provided. Both energetic work and light tasks avalable. 

A great way to get fresh air, meet local people and learn about woodland management. Here is our programme - the first session of the season is on 2 September.

Contact friendscroftonandsparrowwoods@gmail.com to join our mailing list and get location reminders.

The RSPB's Luke Blanchard had a clear sighting of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in late July. This bird used to be a well known resident of the woods, but hasn't been seen for years beyond one suspected sighting, so it is very exciting to have a report from a good birder of a clear sighting. (He didn't have time to get a photo, so the ones here are David's from Herzogovinia!)

Rumour has it that the spread of Ash dieback has lead to a lot of standing dead wood which the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker likes, so they are being seen more often in the UK.

Whatever the reason, we are delighted to ba able to share the news. We also had a reliable report of a Willow Warbler heard in August.

An eagle-eyed walker reported to us that they had seen a caterpillar nest on an oak treee in Sparrow Wood. Checking on line it is confirmed as Oak Processionary Moth - we knew we had it in the London Borough of Bromley, but this is the first reported sighting in Crofton and Sparrow Woods. 

The caterpllars are covered in small hairs which can cause health risks in humans. To minimise health risks:

• Do not touch or approach oak processionary moth caterpillars or their nests.
• Do not let children or animals touch or approach the caterpillars or nests.
• Do not try and remove the caterpillars or nest yourself.
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