Joydens Wood

Joyden's Wood is one of over 1,000 woodlands in the UK looked after by the Woodland Trust. The first records of a wood on this site go back to 1600 AD making it an Ancient Woodland site.

Location

Joyden's Wood is located on the boundary between the London Borough of Bexley in south east London and the Dartford borough of Kent (the majority of it is in the Dartford borough of Kent). Locally, the wood is surrounded by the settlements of Joydens Wood, Old Bexley, North Cray, Wilmington and Swanley.

Wildlife

As in all woodland, wildlife thrives here. The most notable though is the rare Great Crested Newt that has been found in the area. There are 9 ponds throughout the wood each of which is a habitat for all three British newts:

• The Great Crested Newt
• The Smooth Newt
• The Palmate Newt

Archaeology

Joyden's Wood is home to some fascinating ancient monuments. Faesten Dic, ‘the strong dike’ was built 1500 years ago by Saxon settlers and runs for over a kilometre through the forest. Furthermore, there have been traces of settlements found in the forest that are over 2,000 years old and deneholes have been found. During the Second World War, two RAF Hawker Hurricane fighters crashed in the wood and some of the hollows you can see in the wood are bomb craters.

The Estate

Joydens Wood estate, officially an urban village, and normally spelt without an apostrophe, is home to several thousand people, with local infant and junior schools. Buses frequently pass through the estate and are run by Arriva. The B12 bus is contracted by TfL which runs from Joydens Wood to Erith via Bexleyheath. Its local train stations are Bexley and Dartford. There are two small shopping parades, which among other amenities include a post office, butcher, library and petrol station.

Community groups that meet at the Joydens Wood Community Centre in Birchwood Drive include a pre-school, a Women's Institute and a table tennis club.

St Barnabas Church in Tile Kiln Lane has a multi-purpose building used both by the church and by various community groups. The scouts and guides have an excellent hall; there is also a Freeholders' Association.

Local authority administration of the estate is split between London Borough of Bexley (west) and the Dartford Borough Council (east; falling within the parish of Wilmington).

External links

• Joyden's Wood Section of the Woodland Trust Website

• Wilmington Parish Council
• Joyden's Wood Junior School
• Arriva Buses
• St Barnabas Church, Joydens Wood

The Community

The joydens Wood community are well, dressed, polite and posh