2 February 2010
Epping Forest’s best hidden secret features on national
television
London’s one and only deer sanctuary at the City of London’s
Epping Forest will be featured on BBC 2 Natural World: Wild Places
of Essex – scheduled to be shown next Wednesday 10 February at
8.00pm.
Based on Robert Macfarlane’s internationally best-selling book
The Wild Places (Granta, 2007) the programme will ask where and how
the wild survives in our contemporary landscape – and argues for
its vital importance in our lives. It also seeks to discover
whether Essex deserves its notorious stereotypes and dismal press
as Britain’s badlands.
In the programme, Robert is seen walking through Epping Forest,
a wild wood in the reds and golds of Autumn. He sees the fallow
deer rut and is struck by the fact that their bellows can be heard
within earshot of the M25.
Robert Macfarlane said: “It’s juxtapositions like these that
fascinate me. Watching the deer leap and buck on the forest edge,
puts me in mind of gazelle or springbok out on the Serengeti.”
Mrs Barbara Newman, Chairman of the City of London’s Epping
Forest Committee said: ‘Epping Forest, well-served by public
transport, is the gateway between London and the unique charm of
the Essex countryside. The Deer Sanctuary is the Forest’s best-kept
secret and we hope that this programme will showcase the wonderful
conservation works that have been taking place behind the
scenes.’
Ends
Notes for editors
The Epping Forest Deer Sanctuary: Concern over the number of
deer being killed on the roads led the City of London Corporation
as the Conservators to establish the Deer Sanctuary in 1959 to
retain specimens of the dark coloured deer. Located to the south
west of Theydon Bois, it provides safe grazing for a herd of just
over 100 of these special animals. The only other known captive
herd of the dark form of Fallow deer is at Whipsnade.
Weekend group visits to the Deer Sanctuary can be arranged via
The Epping Forest Visitor Centre Tel 0208 508 0028
Press enquiries to Loretta Lui on 020 7332 1528