Denham Woods

These irreplaceable ancient woodlands have a long history and are possibly a relict of the natural vegetation from the end of the last ice age. Northmoor Hill Wood and Wyatts Covert are first recorded on a 1590’s map as part of ‘Wyat Wood’. The boundary of the wood has stayed roughly the same although there have been some losses e.g. where Wyatts Covert residential park and Caravan Club now stand. The first reference to Caps Wood is in the 1377 Denham Manor Court Roll as “a grove called Cappes”. The wood is present on the 1590’s map labelled as ‘Great Capes’ and is broadly the same shape as today. This map and other historic maps show a track running around the west and north connecting Amersham Road to Broken Gate Lane, this is thought to have been one of the alternative routes used on the London to Oxford coaching route when Red Hill became too rutted and impassable (the other alternative route was along Blacksmiths Lane). During the C20th the fields bordering the east and south sides of the wood were gradually replaced by houses and other buildings, however the major change was the construction of the A413 in the 1970’s that cut the wood in two. As a nod to history we refer to the larger area near Broken Gate Lane as ‘Great Caps’ and the area near Amersham Road as ‘Little Caps’.