Moss Valley Woods SSSI (eastern section)

 ancient, Site of Special Scientific Interest - SSSI (UK)

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The Moss Valley lies to the east of the Pennines, just south of Sheffield and has an
underlying geology of shales and sandstones from the lower Coal Measures. The
valley is low-lying and rural with an altitude ranging from 45 m to 200 m. The
River Moss and its tributaries drain the valley, the headwaters rising on the
outskirts of Sheffield and flowing east to join the River Rother just beyond the
valley. Much of the valley has remained wooded over the years; a high proportion
of these woods being classified as ancient.
Two of these woodlands, Whinacre Wood and Brownstorth Wood are ancient and
semi-natural with largely undisturbed ground floras and relatively unmodified
canopies.
Whinacre Wood is a dry oak woodland, characterised not only by the large
proportion of oak in the canopy layer, but also by a ground flora of bluebell
Hyacinthoides non-scripta and creeping soft-grass Holcus mollis with patches of
bracken Pteridium aquilinum and bramble Rubus fruticosus. Much of the oak
would appear to be the natural hybrid between English oak Quercus robur and
sessile oak Q. petraea; which is Q. x rosacea. Whinacre Wood is a fine example of
an oak woodland where the canopy has had very little modification over the years
and the ground flora has suffered very little from disturbance.
Brownstorth Wood contains several different woodland plant communities. Oak
woodland (the oak again being largely Q. x rosacea), with bluebell, creeping softgrass
and bramble, forms a large proportion of the site, with the wetter areas
containing tufted hair-grass Deschampsia cespitosa and stands of ferns such as male
fern Dryopteris filix-mas and lady fern Athyrium filix-femina. There is a good mix
of canopy species in this wood, with significant numbers of ash Fraxinus excelsior,
elm Ulmus sp. rowan Sorbus aucuparia and birch Betula pendula and B. pubescens
in addition to the oak.
The understorey is mainly holly Ilex aquifolium with some hawthorn Crataegus
monogyna and there is a large block of coppiced hazel Corylus avellana; an
important habitat for breeding birds.
The ground flora is species-rich, many of the plants being ancient woodland
indicators such as yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon which is abundant,
and wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella and sweet woodruff Galium odoratum which
cover extensive areas. Bluebell, dog’s mercury Mercurialis perennis and
honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum are also abundant, while ramsons Allium
ursinum carpets the ground in the wetter parts. Wood anemone Anemone nemorosa
and wood melick Melica uniflora are found occasionally. Alder Alnus glutinosa is
the dominant tree growing alongside the streams and is found together with stands
of ramsons, tufted hairgrass, opposite-leaved golden saxifrage Chrysosplenium
oppositifolium, remote sedge Carex remota and townhall clock Adoxa
moschatellina.
The dead and dying timber is invaluable for many species of beetle and two
hoverfly species which are ancient woodland indicators: Sphegina elegans and
Criorhina berberina have been recorded from Whinacre Wood. The white-letter
hairstreak butterfly Strymonidia w-album breeds on the elms in Brownstorth
Wood. This species is at the northern edge of its range here and is rare and
declining in the region.