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(NB: We shall be on holiday until Sept 4th 2005. Please accept our apologies if this delays your orders. If you are ready to order now, we will deal with it promptly on our return.)
Contents Preface 1 Introduction to Woodland 2 Woodland from Pre-history to the End of the Roman Occupation 3 Anglo Saxon and Viking Woodland 4 Domesday Woodland 5 Medieval Woodland Areas 6 Leicestershire and Rutland in the Middle Ages 7 The Three Forests Leicester Forest Leighfield Forest Charnwood Forest 8 Woodland from 1530 to 1720 9 Woodland from 1720 to 1914 10. Woodland 1914 to the Present Day 11. Woodland Wildlife 12. Classifying Woodlands 13. Six Woodlands Cloud, Pasture and Asplin Woods, Breedon Buddon Wood Burbage and Sheepy Woods Prior's Coppice Skeffington and Tilton Woods Southwood 14. Modern Woodland Management 15. Evaluating Woodlands 16. The Future of Leicestershire and Rutland Woodland
Appendix One: Access to the Woods Appendix Two: National Vegetation Classification Appendix three: Names of plants mentioned in the text References Bibliography Index
List of Figures
Page Figure 8 `Cornard Wood' by Gainsborough 9 1.1 Oak Poles being split. 9 1.2 Gate made from split oak timbers 10 1.3 IPMs of William de Ferrers. 11 1.4 Changes between five elements of the medieval landscape 12 1.5 Ridges and furrows crossing a woodland path 13 1.6 Coppice and pollard growth patterns 14 1.7 Ancient coppiced ash tree at Stockerston. 14 1.8 Timber framed house at Diseworth 15 1.9 The result of 25 years of natural regeneration at Ulverscroft 16 1.10 Pale Sedge: Carex pallescens 17 2.1 Neolithic stone axes 18 2.2 Crop marks of Bronze age features 19 2.3 Iron age hill fort at Borough Hill: aerial photo. 20 2.4 Map of Roman sites in LeicS and Rutland 22 3.1 Map: Anglo-Saxon & Viking place names 23 3.2 Map: an Anglo-Saxon estate at Market Bosworth 24 3.3 Map of Leofric's wood, Claybrooke 25 3.4 Swithland Wood: aerial photograph 27 4.1 Map of woodland in Domesday Book: 1086 28 4.2 The Outwoods, Loughborough: aerial photo. 29 4.3 Domesday Entry for Oakham 31 5.1 The Forest: Manwood's definition 32 5.2 Medieval hunt: 14th C. picture 33 5.3 Beasts of the Forest 34 5.4 Resources of a medieval wood 37 6.1 Launde, (Big & Park Woods): aerial photo. 38 6.2 An early coal pit in Southwood 39 6.3 Site of former village of Hamilton: aerial photo. 40 6.4 Map of medieval woods in documentary sources 42 6.5 Boundary pollard 43 7.1 Ancient oak at the Gynsills, Anstey 44 7.2 Grant of woodland to Abbey of Leicester, 1252 45 7.3 Woods belonging to Dutchy of Lancaster, 1606 45 7.4 Spoil and waste in Leicester Forest, 1606 46 7.5 Map of the medieval woodlands of Leic Forest 49 7.6 Henry Hastings, Forester of Leighfield 50 7.7 Map of Leighfield Forest woodland in 1566 52 7.8 Speed's map of Rutland, 1611 53 7.9 Of the extortion of Peter Neville, 1269 56 7.10 Map of the colonisation of Charnwood 59 7.11 Map: medieval woodlands of Charnwood Forest 60 7.12 Gisborne's Gorse, Charnwood Lodge 61 7.13 Bradgate Park aerial photograph 63 8.1 Thomas Grey's purchase of Langley Priory, 1543 64 8.2 Ancient oak at Groby 65 8.3 Survey of his majesty's woods and timber, 1608 66 8.4 Leicestershire Crown woods and forests, 1608 67 8.5 Pit prop unearthed at Coleorton 69 9.1 Graph of inclosures in Leicestershire, 1730-1849 70 9.2 The great landowners of Leics and Rutland 71 9.3 Map of Keythorpe Hall and Park in 1884 72 9.4 Belvoir Castle and Woods: aerial photograph 72 9.5 Tree planting in Charnwood by Greys of Groby 73 9.6 Charges for work at Staunton Harold, 1726 74 9.7 Burley Wood, Rutland: aerial photograph 75 9.8 Map of the Monday Country of the Quorn Hunt
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78 10.1 Opencast mining, Coleorton, 1989: aerial photo. 79 10.2 Woodland in Leics and Rutland, 1947-49 81 10.3 Conifer plantation at Burley Wood. 82 10.4 Motorway in Leicestershire 83 10.5 Elm tree suffering from Dutch elm desease. 84 10.6 Derelict coppice woodland 85 10.7 Leics woods managed for nature conservation 86 10.8 Map of the National Forest 89 11.1 Woodland flowers 90 11.2 Flowering plants ass. with ancient woodland 91 11.3 Woodland Animals 92 11.4 Mammals & birds killed at Burley, 1807-16 93 11.5 Burley Wood: different species identified 94 11.6 The threat from deer 95 11.7 Map: distr. of bird species within Prior's Coppice 96 11.8 Lost butterflies 97 11.9 Scolytus bark beetle 98 11.10 Incidence of spider species 99 12.1 Map of woodland types in Leics and Rutland 100 12.2 Ash woodland 102 12.3 Oak woodland 103 12.4 Alder woodland 105 13.1 Maps: Cloud, Pasture & Asplin Woods, Breedon 107 13.2 Wood anemones in Pasture Wood, Breedon 108 13.3 Breedon Quarry and Cloud Wood aerial photo. 110 13.4 Buddon Wood before quarrying commenced 111 13.5 Map of Buddon Wood and Barrow Park 112 13.6 The battle for Buddon Wood 112 13.7 Buddon Wood in 1978 aerial photograph 113 13.8 Buddon Wood in 1989 aerial photograph 116 13.9 Map of Sheepy Wood and Burbage Wood 118 13.10 Map of Prior's Coppice in its historical context 120 13.11 Map of woodland in Skeffington Parish, c.1600 120 13.12 Map: woodland in Skeffington & Tilton c.1840 121 13.13 Map of woodland in Skeffington and Tilton 1990 122 13.14 Skeffington and Tilton Woods: aerial photograph 123 13.15 Skeffington Wood after coppicing in 1981 124 13.16 Southwood - aerial photograph 126 13.17 Map of Southwood in 1735 127 13.18 Map of Southwood 128 13.19 Map of woodland types in Southwood. 129 14.1 A ride in Skeffington Wood 130 14.2 Prior's Coppice, medieval woodland m’ment 131 14.3 Hard shield-fern 132 15.1 Ancient perimeter wood bank at Oakley Wood 133 15.2 Leics woods in order of importance for nat.cons. 134 15.3 Flora scores of Cambridgeshire and Leicestershire woods 134 15.4 Discovering woodlands 135 15.5 Woodland archaeology 136 15.6 Woodland names 139 16.1 Woodland at Cathill, Charnwood 140 16.2 Woodlands which are Sites of Special Scientific Interest 160 Map of adminstrative areas and OS grid areas.
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PREFACE
It would be difficult to over-emphasize the importance of woodland in the lives of our ancestors. To the communities of pre-Industrial times woodland and its many products were a basic need in the struggle for survival. Moreover, our rich cultural heritage owes much to the presence of woodland, even if in many cases this is rooted in thefolklore of the distant past. Since the middle of the 18th century, a mere 250 years or so ago, there has taken place a fundamental change in the role of wood. Coal, oil and gas have all but replaced it as a source of heat. Cheap metals and a huge range of oil-based, `man-made' materials have become dominant in the construction industries. Plastics have been developed which both look and feel like wood and very often are designed to hide the fact that what lies beneath is no longer real wood. The economics which lie behind these changes can readily be detected on the local landscape. Some Leicestershire woods have occupied all or part of their present sites continuously for long periods. A few have survived in spite of change rather than because of it. In such cases successive generations of owners who found their woods unprofitable, put them to other purposes or simply neglected them. But by and large the development of the woodlands of Leicestershire and Rutland has reflected accurately the changing economic effects of supply and demand, grants and subsidies, import and export policies, investment, taxation, technological innovation and the like. At the same time woodland has had to compete with other forms of land use which have been subject to much the same forces. In Leicestershire and Rutland one thinks particularly of water supply, mining and quarrying, road building, railway construction and urban growth. Clearly the underlying geology, the nature of the topography and the soils together with the central position of the two counties in the island of Britain, are also major factors in the development of the landscape, especially in modern times. Yet the role of woodland in the lives of the people in the second half of the 20th century is still changing. Very few indeed make a living from growing, processing or selling wood, especially locally produced wood, but more and more of us have come to value local woodlands for other reasons. As the area of countryside yearly shrinks under a carpet of tarmac and concrete, so demand
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for access to what remains grows. Landowners and local people are called upon to share their local woodlands with ramblers, sportsmen, naturalists and others escaping from urban areas. However one may view other aspects of our rapidly changing local landscape, the authors see the position of wildlife habitats, especially woodlands, as at crisis point. There is an urgent need for radical re-assessment of what remains of our woodland heritage if future generations are to enjoy the legacy received by the present one. We have written this book as a modest contribution to the debate by offering an introduction to an understanding of the development and state of our present woodlands. The aims have been to produce a broad outline against which detailed studies may be seen in better perspective. We have not attempted to comment on all aspects of the subject. The reader will find no references to trees in gardens, in private collections, or in municipal parks. We hope these omissions will be seized upon and developed by others. Although the scope of this book includes all parts of the present (1994) county of Leicestershire we are very aware that coverage for Rutland, which at the time of writing, is a district within Leicestershire, may be considered less than satisfactory. Throughout the text when we speak of Leicestershire or of Rutland we are referring to the two counties as they existed on the eve of the 1974 local government boundary changes. References to the contrary are, we hope, clearly indicated. Common names of plant species have followed Stace's New Flora of the Britsh Isles (1991) throughout the book. The scientific names and some of the more familiar local names are included in appendix three. This book is intended for anyone with a concern for the countryside and its wildlife. Those who find the paraphernalia of notes and references annoying or unnecessary may have little need to consult the information on the last few pages. However, we have thought it worthwhile to give details of our sources and amplifications of certain points by providing the necessary sections at the close. In so doing we hope others may feel moved to continue or expand our efforts with their own research.
Anthony Squire & Michael Jeeves 1994
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Anthony Squires is a local history tutor with the University of Leicester, specialising in landscape history.
Michael Jeeves is head of Conservation with the Wildlife Trust for Leicestershire and Rutland, and is the local plant recorder for the botanical society of the British Isles
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