Broxbourne Woods NNR.

Eight adjoining ancient woods make up Hertfordshire's only National Nature Reserve, with some of the most characterful hornbeams in the county.

The far end of Wormley Wood feels like the middle of nowhere. It is not: this is the edge of north London, and that contradiction is why I have been coming back to Broxbourne Woods since 2017.

The reserve is really eight adjoining ancient woods: Wormley, Nut Wood, Bencroft, Broxbourne Wood, Danemead, Hoddesdonpark, Broad Riding and Thunderfield Grove. Together they form Hertfordshire's only National Nature Reserve. Ermine Street, the Roman road, runs through the reserve with old pollards lining it, and hornbeam has been coppiced here for well over three hundred years, back to the estates of Sir William Cecil, Elizabeth I's chief minister. The cutting never stopped shaping the place: multi-stemmed coppice stools and knuckled pollards are what a photographer meets here, and they are the reason to come.

My favourites are Hoddesdonpark Wood and Wormley Wood. They hold the most characterful trees and feel the most remote. But all eight repay attention, and the reserve rewards the photographer who treats it as one big wood with eight moods.

Every wood has its own way in. Bencroft Wood has east and west car parks, both at EN10 7QN, off White Stubbs Lane and about 500 to 600 metres apart; the west one is also your access for Wormley Wood. Broxbourne Wood, one wood within the wider reserve rather than another name for it, has east and west car parks at EN10 7QR and SG13 8NZ. For Hoddesdonpark Wood, use Danemead car park at EN11 8GG on Cock Lane, or come in from the far end near Elbow Lane on Lord Street - there is space for a few cars in front of a cantilever gate at 51 45 45.4 N, 0 02 40.5 W (approximate GPS).

By public transport, Bayford station is walkable to Broxbourne Wood. Broxbourne station is a long walk, a couple of miles at least and most of it along country lanes, so treat it as a last resort.

The reserve is open at all hours, which makes it one of the easiest ancient woods in the county for first light and last light. Parts of the reserve are board walked; keep to the boardwalks there, because the habitats around them are fragile.

Bencroft and Broxbourne Wood are the busiest woods, being closest to the main car parks. Go deeper and the reserve empties out quickly.

Fog, rain and snow. The fog lingers here, especially in winter, so unlike some woods you are not racing it. Rain is as productive as anywhere I shoot: overcast, wet days are my most reliable conditions at Broxbourne. And after snowfall the remote parts stay untouched for days.

Like every wood I know well, I visit in all conditions and adjust what I photograph to the weather and the light. This is a challenging reserve to photograph, and patience is rewarded: the more time you spend banking compositions, the more opportunities you have when the conditions turn incredible. I have written more about fog work in photographing woodland in fog.

The edges of the woods are worth exploring when low sun rakes across, but my most productive time here is rain or flat overcast.

The coppice. Broxbourne's signature is the multi-stemmed hornbeam stool rather than the single trunk, and it changes how you work. Rather than hunting one clean subject, I look for patterns and shapes in the coppiced areas, or for an interesting tree I can anchor an image around. Dense areas like Hoddesdonpark Wood force this on you, and it is a discipline worth learning.

Characterful individual trees. The old pollards, the sessile oaks of Hoddesdonpark and the veterans along the ancient wood banks make strong anchors. Wormley Wood holds the best of them.

Standing water and reflections. There is standing water in parts of the reserve. Some of it is ponds, though I daren't call all of it that, because some dries up in summer. When it is there, it creates short-lived opportunities for reflections. And in autumn, a stream in one of the woods floods and puts trees standing in water, which is a subject you would not expect this close to London. I will leave which wood that is for the keen explorer to find.

Wood anemones. Some of the best displays I have seen in Hertfordshire, arriving in early spring and at their best in mid April. The finest area I know is around the medieval moat in Hoddesdonpark Wood.

Wildlife, in passing. Wormley Wood is home to the Purple Emperor butterfly, which will interest nature photographers in July, though I rarely photograph butterflies myself. The NNR Trail is waymarked with white admiral discs, and that butterfly is here too.

The elevation. Gentle by national standards, but genuinely undulating for the edge of north London. Slopes give you what flat woods never do: the chance to put rising ground behind a subject instead of sky. If you have fought the sky problem at Hainault Forest, this is the antidote.

Hornbeam. The defining tree, here in two forms: coppice stools, multi-stemmed and pattern-rich, and pollards, single-trunked and knuckled, including old trees along Ermine Street and the ancient wood banks. Autumn turns the canopies yellow; rain darkens the trunks and does the forms a favour.

Sessile oak. Hoddesdonpark Wood in particular holds them, taller-feeling and straighter than the hornbeams around them, good for structure in an otherwise dense wood.

Silver birch. Genuinely worth seeking here. The pale trunks read in even contrast against the darker mass of the wood, especially in winter and in fog.

Beyond those three the mix is the standard composition of ancient woodland in the south east, and the interest is in the forms the management left, not the species list. Parts of the reserve are also PAWS, plantations on ancient woodland sites, and slow restoration work is underway in these areas, returning them to something closer to the woods around them.

Winter. The season Broxbourne quietly excels at. Fog lingers here, especially in winter, rather than burning off. And after snow, the more remote parts of the reserve stay untouched for days, which is close to unheard of this near London.

Spring. The wood anemones, early in the season and at their best in mid April. Around the moat, early morning mist drifts in from the adjacent fields while the flowers are out, and that combination is the spring picture here.

High summer. Full canopy and deep shade. The season for the wood edges, and for checking what standing water has survived.

Autumn. Mid October through to mid November. The longer window than Hainault is down to the mix of trees and the undulating ground: parts of the reserve turn and drop faster than others, so there is nearly always somewhere at its peak. When conditions are right I am out here once or twice a week through the window. For reading the seasons generally, see the best time for woodland photography.

Sessile oak and pollarded hornbeam, and dense enough that pattern and shape matter more than single subjects. At its edge sits the medieval moat, a Scheduled Ancient Monument that once held a park keeper's lodge, and the wood anemones around it in April are the best I have seen in Hertfordshire.

The most characterful trees in the reserve, and the strongest feeling of remoteness. The far end of Wormley is the middle of nowhere, twenty miles from Charing Cross. Ponds and standing water gather here, giving you reflections when the weather has been wet.

The arrival woods, closest to the main car parks and the busiest, though busy here is relative. Broxbourne Wood holds the sculpture trail, with its carved oak figures. Both are worth working, especially their edges in low raking sun, before you go deeper into the reserve.

A nature reserve within the reserve, boardwalked in parts, and honestly the most challenging of the woods to photograph. Worth a visit all the same. There are pictures here; you just have to look harder.

The story of why woods like these matter, and how few survive, is in What Is Ancient Woodland?. For a wood that makes the opposite demands of you, flat where this is undulating, fleeting fog where this lingers, see the Hainault Forest guide. The rest of the series is at location guides.