Ruislip: What is it good for ......?

Keen fans of the Ruislip Woods National Nature Reserve will know that the 's' is important.
Ruislip Woods comprises four separate woods each with their own distinctive characteristics;
Park Wood, (now with an array of leaky dams providing Natural Flood Management to our southern boundary neighbours),
Copse Wood, (to the west of Ruislip Lido),
Mad Bess Wood, (to the west of Ducks Hill Road),
and Bayhurst Wood, (to the west of Breaksprear Road North).

Park Wood was sold by Kings' College Cambridge in 1931,
with the £28,100 cost paid 25% by the RNUDC, (Ruislip Northwood Urban District Council) and 75% by the MCC, (Middlesex County Council).
Copse Wood, (all that remains of the much larger Ruislip Common Wood), was expected to be further developped for housing but in 1936, 155 acres was bought by the MCC and the LCC, (London County Council), for £23,250, due to the LCC starting a 'Green Belt Loans Scheme' in 1935.
For reasons not clearly documented, some 30 acres of Copse Wood remained in private hands.

These 30 acres have not been actively managed, and rumour has it that the LB Hillingdon has long been trying to negotiate the purchase of this tract of land from the descendents of the 1930's owner.

Until this month!
The official press release is here.

Ruislip Woods became an NNR in 1997, so this gives us 15+ months to get a management plan agreed and implemented to have these 30 acres incorporated into the NNR for our 25th anniversary.

The green triangle underneath 'Map 1' is the 30 acres of woodland.

1 Attachment