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Historic fungus site revisited
Field Mycology Volume 2(1), January 2001
HISTORIC FUNGUS SITE REVISITED Ted Blackwell 7 Ashley Walk, Orleton, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 4HD
T
he place where foraying first began in 1868 was revisited in August 2000 by the Herefordshire Fungus Survey Group. Holme Lacy deer park near Hereford has a place in the history of mycology and may be justly claimed as the archetypal foray site. In the questing spirit of their predecessors the Herefordshire FSG recently re-enacted the historic visit of the celebrated Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club of Hereford which occurred 133 years ago. In 1868 the Woolhope Club arranged a special meeting to Holme Lacy deer park, with the novel objective not previously amongst its varied interests, to look for fungi. Its initiator Dr. Henry Graves Bull, a former Club President, dubbed it “a foray amongst the funguses” and the term ‘foray’ immediately caught-on, and today is traditionally employed throughout the Englishspeaking world to mean a fungus field meeting. That experimental Holme Lacy foray seems to be the first recorded scientific meeting specifically to search for fungi, and was indeed a seminal episode. The occasion having been an instant success the Hereford forays became an annual event of the Woolhope Club for years to come, and as their fame spread, mycologists from various parts of Britain and abroad gathered at Hereford to foray and compare notes. An active day in the field was followed by the reading of scientific papers, but not before a lavish evening dinner held at the Green Dragon Hotel in Hereford, at which edible fungi gathered during the foray were included in the fare. Interest in mycology rapidly spread to other parts of Britain and when, following Dr. Bull’s death, the Hereford forays ceased after 1892, the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union took up foraying in its own territory, and set up a Mycological Committee in anticipation
that its annual forays would take the place of the Hereford forays. Three years later a decision was taken to launch a completely new society ‘for the study of mycology in all its branches’. The following year, 1896, saw the inaugural meeting of this new society, the BMS. Thus a trail begun at Holme Lacy deer park led in due course to the formation of the BMS. The horse-drawn coaches of yesteryear and the park deer have long gone.The former stately home of the Stanhope family is now part of the Holme Lacy College estate. But much of the deer park remains, and in the year 2000 the Herefordshire Fungus Survey Group, fittingly conscious of the venue’s historic role in their predecessors’ pioneering lead, assembled at Holme Lacy again in August to record fungi on the venerable deer park trees which range in age up to 600 years. The Woolhope Club’s Transactions which report that very first foray speak of “vegetable beefsteak” (Fistulina hepatica) in quantity on the ancient oaks, “one grand specimen of which would, with the accessories of Hydnum for oyster sauce have made a dish for a dozen aldermen”. Their species list included Hypholoma fasciculare, Coprinus micaceus, Collybia fusipes, Agaricus campestris and Marasmius oreades, all of which were again recorded by HFSG along with many additional species. Amongst the latter, perhaps the most spectacular, was a truly elegant triple-tuft of Volvariella bombycina sprouting from a rotting horse-chestnut log. Photographs of this historic meeting and those who took part can be seen on page 2.
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HISTORIC FUNGUS SITE REVISITED Ted Blackwell 7 Ashley Walk, Orleton, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 4HD
T
he place where foraying first began in 1868 was revisited in August 2000 by the Herefordshire Fungus Survey Group. Holme Lacy deer park near Hereford has a place in the history of mycology and may be justly claimed as the archetypal foray site. In the questing spirit of their predecessors the Herefordshire FSG recently re-enacted the historic visit of the celebrated Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club of Hereford which occurred 133 years ago. In 1868 the Woolhope Club arranged a special meeting to Holme Lacy deer park, with the novel objective not previously amongst its varied interests, to look for fungi. Its initiator Dr. Henry Graves Bull, a former Club President, dubbed it “a foray amongst the funguses” and the term ‘foray’ immediately caught-on, and today is traditionally employed throughout the Englishspeaking world to mean a fungus field meeting. That experimental Holme Lacy foray seems to be the first recorded scientific meeting specifically to search for fungi, and was indeed a seminal episode. The occasion having been an instant success the Hereford forays became an annual event of the Woolhope Club for years to come, and as their fame spread, mycologists from various parts of Britain and abroad gathered at Hereford to foray and compare notes. An active day in the field was followed by the reading of scientific papers, but not before a lavish evening dinner held at the Green Dragon Hotel in Hereford, at which edible fungi gathered during the foray were included in the fare. Interest in mycology rapidly spread to other parts of Britain and when, following Dr. Bull’s death, the Hereford forays ceased after 1892, the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union took up foraying in its own territory, and set up a Mycological Committee in anticipation
that its annual forays would take the place of the Hereford forays. Three years later a decision was taken to launch a completely new society ‘for the study of mycology in all its branches’. The following year, 1896, saw the inaugural meeting of this new society, the BMS. Thus a trail begun at Holme Lacy deer park led in due course to the formation of the BMS. The horse-drawn coaches of yesteryear and the park deer have long gone.The former stately home of the Stanhope family is now part of the Holme Lacy College estate. But much of the deer park remains, and in the year 2000 the Herefordshire Fungus Survey Group, fittingly conscious of the venue’s historic role in their predecessors’ pioneering lead, assembled at Holme Lacy again in August to record fungi on the venerable deer park trees which range in age up to 600 years. The Woolhope Club’s Transactions which report that very first foray speak of “vegetable beefsteak” (Fistulina hepatica) in quantity on the ancient oaks, “one grand specimen of which would, with the accessories of Hydnum for oyster sauce have made a dish for a dozen aldermen”. Their species list included Hypholoma fasciculare, Coprinus micaceus, Collybia fusipes, Agaricus campestris and Marasmius oreades, all of which were again recorded by HFSG along with many additional species. Amongst the latter, perhaps the most spectacular, was a truly elegant triple-tuft of Volvariella bombycina sprouting from a rotting horse-chestnut log. Photographs of this historic meeting and those who took part can be seen on page 2.
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