History of woodlands | Helenelizabethartist

A history of UK woodland

A history of UK woodland

H Kuumbi (2023)

The development of Britain’s Woodlands: an example of succession

The last truly natural woodland (i.e. without human disturbance) to develop in Britain followed the last glacial retreat. When looking at our native vegetation today, we consider those that colonised Britain from around 11,000BC as these have ecological continuity with today’s woodland. In this post glacial period a climax vegetation of continuous forest, the wildwood, developed from tundra and heath through a series of waves of colonisation from Europe until the land bridge stop further species migrating north (Thomas 2000).

We can build an idea about the vegetation and environment of the past using pollen records, however there are some things to consider about using this method; i.e. trees that spread by suckering more than seed, trees that are managed by coppice/pollarding producing less pollen, where the pollen is likely to be preserved (i.e. waterlogged).

During the Devensian glacial period the ice sheet ended around Manchester, woodland did not survive in Britain but shrubs such as juniper and willow grew on tundra with lichens and low lying species such as bilberry - similar to the vegetation we see in Greenland today. There were short periods of warmer climate but not significant enough for deciduous woodland to develop.

As the UK entered the current interglacial, the Juniper declined, a heath like landscape became colonised by birch forests then other wind dispersed, pioneer species – Scots pines and Aspen. By 7000BC the climate had warmed enough for hazel to advanced, and this was the followed by oak, elm, lime, alder and then later ash, beech and hornbeam. The order in which species arrived, and then became dominant within the forest reflects the changing climate as well as their ability to disperse and colonise – for example there was a wetter, holly is not drought tolerant so its presence around 4,500BC suggest a wetter climate.

After the separation from mainland Europe the climate entered a warmer but wetter period – the Atlantic period, and oak and alder became more widespread and dominant whilst other species became more localised. The later arriving species took longer to become abundant as had to establish themselves in landscapes with existing continuous forests.

From the Neolithic period forwards humans had an impact on the tree scape of Britain; as well as introducing species that were useful to them, their management of wood resources and agricultural practices altered both the coverage of woodlands and the species make up within it. For example, when woodland was grubbed out and later recolonised some species such as beech favoured better in secondary woodlands whereas limes were unlikely to recolonise. Trees that required soils better suited to arable farming declined more species able to colonise poor soils and high ground.

Peterken, (1981) describes the process of vegetation development from bare ground to the natural climax vegetation of Atlantic forest- a point at which there is a stable equilibrium by natural control, as the climate warmed. The pollen records can reveal the pattern of succession that occurred and the different vegetation assemblages:

1) Pre-boreal , 8500 BC – 7500BC open vegetation, tundra colonised by hardy species such as Juniper, woodland cover increases Birch and Pine colonise

2) Boreal – 7500BC-5500 BC forest cover complete, birch and pine forest with hazel, warmer climate has enabled elm and oak to colonise

3) Atlantic 5500BC- 3000BC alder, oak, elm and lime dominant canopy species as pine and birch decrease, except in far north where birch and pine woodland remains.

In the period after this, the impact of clearance by Neolithic and bronze age farmers are a factor into the changes in woodland coverage and composition. There is a change in the dominance of species, for example a with a rapid decline in Elm, and an increase Alder, Oak and Lime (Peterken 1981). There were also regional and localised differences in the climax vegetation and the type of woodland present, producing a mosaic of woodland cover.

Woodland cover in the UK since 1600

Woodland covers 3.25 million hectares of the UK and represents 13% of the total land area; this is split unevenly between the countries woodland covering 10% of total land area in England, 15% in Wales, 19% in Scotland and 9% in Northern Ireland (Forest Research, 2023). The total woodland cover in the UK showed a continued decline from the seventeenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, woodland cover then increased steadily and gradually over the course of the twentieth century but this rate of increased slowed in recent decades (Forest Research,2018). Statistics show that in England, there was a decline from 8% of woodland cover in the seventeenth century to just 5.2% in 1905 at its lowest.

Total land area covered by woodland (%)

Date England UK Ancient woodland coverage

17th century 8 % X

1905 5.2% 4.7

2018 10 % 13.1 2.5%

Statistics from Forest Research (2018)

However, this increase in woodland cover does not reveal the whole story; changes in the type of woodland also occurred during this time period; approximately 49.5% of British woodlands are dominated by native tree species and 48% are by non-natives whereas in the seventeenth century woodland cover would have been almost entirely dominated by native species . In the decades following the second world war many native woodlands were converted to plantations, therefore not every clearance of an ancient woodland resulted in the loss of woodland cover but it did change the type of woodland present often from a mixed native broad-leaf wood to an even-aged, single species conifers forest in with that a loss in biodiversity (Rackham, 2001).

Influences on woodland cover: Where did all the trees go?

Industry has been blamed for the loss of woodland cover; with the vast supplies of oak into the naval fleets, the demands of the tanning industry, the large amounts of charcoal required for smelting metals. However, a closer look suggests that these did not necessarily result in loss of woodland cover and in some cases supported the continuation of woodland, although altered their composition and structure through the management practices and favouring of species.

Large amounts of good-sized oaks were required by the growing British navy (Condry 1974), and at sources suggest that these were felled for ship building at a staggering scale; for example a tudor warship similar to the Mary rose would have required 600 large oak trees, equivalent to 40 acres of woodland. Later in eighteenth century, to construct a 110 gun warship would have required 4,000 oaks. Many ships had a sea life of only around 12 years yet required large, old trees – for example the Victory contains oaks estimated to be around 400 years old when felled. Keeping up with the demand as the navy expanded would have inevitably lead to deforestation and a scarcity of old growth (Tidswell, 2003).

However, in the late seventeenth century there was a rise in government anxiety about the depletion of timber resources and being able to be self-sufficient in the supply of naval timber (Havins 1976). This resulted in a number of policies for the perseveration and replanting of forests to ensure a future timber supply, one such example being an act passed in 1688 with the purpose to ‘Increase and preservation of timber in the New forest and the county of Southhampton’, this act was followed up by the enclosure and removal of common rights of areas of land for the purpose planting oaks (Havin’s 1976). As a result, woodland under threat of clearance was preserved.

Another industry that required a supply of oak was the tanning industry. There was a high demand for leather from 1780 until 1850 and this increased the need for oak for tanning; the demand from at this time was greater than that for ship builders, and therefore the value of underwood oak, as it was the bark that was required rather than timber, increased (Rackham 2001). The increase in the value of oak encouraged landowners to grow oak woods, and is likely to have saved a good portion of woodland during this period from being grubbed out for arable use (Rackham 2001).

The mining industry has also been blamed for the loss of tree cover in Britain, however the extent of its impact varies between regions and to some extent, the opinion of the author. Trees would have been felled to supply the iron and tin industries both a supply of charcoal for smelting, and for props and beams within the mines. From the fifteenth to seventeenth century wood charcoal was the principle fuel for smelting, until 1702 when mineral coal began to replace it (Rackham 2019). Iron smelting areas were often based within forests where wood for charcoal was of ready supply.

Havins demonstrated the impact of the iron smelting industry on woodlands in England; stating that by the late seventeenth century in the Weald only a fragment of the local wood remained. He blames the dramatic decline on private landowners selling timber to the iron industry without adopting policies of replanting, these types of policy seemed to have had protected some areas of the Royal Forest (Havins, 1976). Havins (1976) also identifies Morfe Forest, near Bridgenorth, as a casualty of the iron industry which disappeared over two centuries and describes large areas of Staffordshire as ‘devastated’ by the industry.

Borlase (1758) claimed that in Cornwall, the lack of woodland cover was because of the tin industry which had ‘consumed and diminished our woods with charking’. Rackham estimates that the Cornish Tin trade at its peak would use 15,000 tons of wood a year, a figure he believes to be within the capacity of local woodlands to produce (Rackham, 2019). In addition, wood for charcoal would likely be obtained through the coppicing of underwood, therefore cleared areas would regenerate and woodland coverage would not be lost.

Although wood and timber demanding industries have been blamed for Britain’s loss of woodland cover through their tree felling practices, the requirement for wood makes woodlands a valued resource which has promoted their continuation through the adoption of replanting policies, protection and the use of management techniques such as coppicing underwood. This would have maintained woodland cover or enabled the woodland to recolonise. Woodland are the climax vegetation in much of the UK, leave land alone without intervention and woodland will be the eventual result. Therefore, it is not the clearance of trees by these industries alone that has driven the loss in woodland cover, but with subsequent conversion of the land afterwards.

The process of clearing woodland to create land for agriculture has is known as ‘grubbing out’. By the seventeenth century much of Britain’s forests had already been grubbed out and woodland converted to arable fields or pasture (Rackham 2011). However, the conversion of woodland to agricultural land was at this point a continuation of a process that had occurred since the arrival of the first settler’s millennia before. The grazing of animals and ploughing of fields prevented the regeneration of woodland on land cleared for farming. It is estimated that by around 500 BC probably half of England had already ceased to be wildwood and this decline continued forward through the centuries (Condry, 1974).

Modern agriculture is largely a consequence of the 1947 Agriculture Act, which sought to attain self-sufficiency in food production (Robinson 2002), the act resulted in many woodlands that had continuity with medieval times being felled and the land converted to agricultural use or plantation. Rackham (2001) estimated that almost one half of existing ancient woodland cover was lost in the three decades following the second world war. This was a sudden loss was in contrast to the slow decline that had occurred over the several centuries preceding, however not every clearance of an ancient woodland resulted in the loss of woodland cover. During this time there is a slow increase in total woodland cover, as a result of the creation of conifer plantations which masked the further grubbing out of native woodlands for agriculture.

Afforestation: putting trees back but changing the face of our woodlands

Before Tudor times, there is little evidence for the planting of areas of trees – i.e. creating new stands or woodland, however into the seventeenth century the belief that woods were in decline lead to new ideas about the plantation and propagation of woodlands. This was first seen by the introduction of law and policy about royal forest then in the eighteenth century new woodland was created by private landowners on their estates and manors (Seymour, 1988).

Rackham (2001) identifies Arthur Standish’s publications, and his influence on John Evelyn as the beginning of ‘English forestry’ and the upsurge in tree planting. Evelyn published his work ‘Sylva’ four times between 1776-1812, demonstrating its influence and significance, in it he encouraged landowners to join the universal cause of tree-planting stating ‘nothing less than a universal plantation of all sorts of trees will supply and well encounter the defect’ (p. 92 Rackham 2001).. Political and social factors drove the tree planting trend; it held patriotic associations in showing support to the navy, and was symbolic of status – for example oaks were associated with the restoration and their imagery linked to royalty (Seymour 1998). Fir trees were used as nurse trees but the oaks and broadleaves were more celebrated; stands of trees became a key element in landscaped gardens for their aesthetic value (Seymour 1998). The new woodland planted at this time was for commercial, symbolic and ornamental purposes.

The earliest plantations created additional woodland cover, and tried to imitate existing woods with a mixture of trees (Rackham 2001). However, another influence that Evelyn’s work had was the planting of trees for timber, which he claimed was in shorter supply, and this resulted in plantation of one or two species favouring trees for timber (Rackham 2001).

There was a tradition in plantations throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to plant single species stands, and the fashion for different timber species changed – i.e beech, hornbeam and European larch (Rackham 2001). The composition of woodland cover changed as well as the area; for example, Elm was widely planted from 1650 as it had important uses in the countryside, as well as creating new woodland it invaded existing woods, increasing its abundance (Rackham 2001). Sweet Chestnut is another example, a naturalised tree imported with Romans, was widely planted from the seventeenth century (Rackham 2001).

The trend in the Georgian period for tree-planting was predominantly broadleaves, however the assimilation of forestry practice to German techniques in the Victorian era established a commitment to plantations and conifers (Rackham 2001). Another major change during the period was that forestry was thought of as a financial operation; with trees as investments on which an economic return could be calculated (Rackham 2001). Existing woods, as well as moorland and farmland were converted to conifer plantations. This was a practice that continued into the twentieth century. Around a third of ancient woodland was replanted with crop trees, which required the clearing of the existing woodland first in a manner that would prevent regrowth and competition with the planted species (Rackham 2001). The clearance of these woodlands for afforestation did not result in a reduction of woodland cover but it did change type of woodland present resulting in a huge loss of biodiversity.

In 1919, following the first world war, woodland cover in the UK reached an all-time low of just 5% and there was a severe shortage of home-grown timber. The forestry act 1919 was introduced to address the concerns surrounding timber shortages and through this act, the Forestry commission was established. As well as taking responsibility for existing Crown Woods, the forestry commission bought and for afforestation and the creation of plantations – totalling over 900,000 acres by the mid-1930s (Foresty England 2019). In 1926 planting of the largest man-made forest in western Europe began in Northumberland, creating the Kielder Forest. To date, the Forestry Commission has planted 2 million acres of trees (Forestry England 2019), the majority of new forests have been conifer plantations for fast growing timber such as Sitka Spruce and Larch, and includes broadleaf woodland.

Numerous influences upon our woodlands over the last four centuries, it is important to understand that these changes have impacted not just the area of overall woodland cover but also the composition and type of woodland present as well. Woodland cover had continued decline from the 1600s due to the combined pressures of different industries and the conversion of woodland sites to over land uses, however it has increased in the last one hundred years, driven by concerns for timber shortages and environmental concerns.

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