The Selborne Society was founded in 1885 to commemorate the eighteenth century
naturalist Gilbert White of Selborne
in Hampshire. It was originally a national organisation, founded to continue
the traditions of this pioneer of environmental study by correspondence between
members about their observations of natural history.
Today's Selborne Society was originally the Brent Valley branch of the national
Society, and continues the work of its founders, observing and recording wildlife
in part of west London and managing and conserving Perivale Wood Local Nature
Reserve as the Gilbert White Memorial.
Perivale Wood is a 27 acre (11 hectare) area of ancient
oak woodland in west London. It is bounded to the north by the Grand Union canal,
to the south by a railway embankment and houses, to the west by industrial units
and to the east by houses and recreational open space.
Photograph from Google Earth
The
Reserve includes a rich variety of habitats:
18 acres (7.3 ha) of ancient mixed oak woodland
5 acres (2 ha) of grazed pasture land
2 acres (0.8 ha) of damp scrub
2 acres (0.8 ha) of relatively recently disturbed land, which has a very
different vegetation from the rest of the wood.
There are also three ponds and two small streams
as well as the hedgerows that we now think of as enclosing the wood, but
which would originally have enclosed the pasture land.
The
Reserve includes a rich variety of habitats: