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At the end of the Mesolithic era there is evidence of the beginnings of agriculture. The sudden decline of elm around 4,000 BC, which occurred throughout Europe, is thought to be not due to clearance, but to elm disease. There was an increase in agricultural weeds, such as plantain and stinging nettle, together with archaeological evidence of Neolithic settlement. In some areas, such as East Anglia, the chalklands and the Somerset Levels, population increased dramatically, and virtually all the wildwood was cleared. Clearance increased during the Bronze Age (2400-750BC) to its probable height in the early Iron Age. Oliver Rackham (1990) estimates that about half of England had ceased to be wildwood by 500BC. Much of the remaining woods were managed by coppicing. Neolithic man had discovered that the regrowth from a stump is more useful than the original tree. During the Iron Age, the Celtic peoples developed woodworking to a fine art, as shown by remains of houses, boats, wheels and other artefacts. The management of woodland by coppicing was hugely important for about the next two millennia, producing material for buildings, roads, fences, carts, and the fuel for heating, cooking, metalworking and pottery. Coppicing is discussed further in the next section. Since Roman times there has been a sharp distinction between wooded and non-wooded areas of Britain. The Domesday Book (1086) is evidence that every wood in England belonged to some person or some community, and had an economic value. Many woods were 'exclaves' owned by communities some miles away. The fact that it was worth transporting the woodland produce over some distance indicates their value, and that ownership had been established long previously. In 1086 only about 15% of England was woodland or wood-pasture, 35% was arable, 30% pasture, 1% hay meadow and the remaining 20% was mountain, moor, heath, fen or urban land. The Domesday landscape was more like modern day France than the untamed woodland of folklore. Nearly all woods were highly managed, as coppices or wood-pastures. The nearest natural remnants of woodlands are those on inaccessible steep slopes. These fragments can teach us about the persistence of vestigial forest under extreme conditions, but they cannot reveal widespread or characteristic features of the ancient natural woodland. The produce of English woodlands was mainly underwood for fuel and other uses, with small oaks used for domestic building. Typical medieval timber-framed houses were built mainly of oaks less than 18" diameter. Large timbers were in short supply, and were reserved for the great ecclesiastical buildings. The builders of Ely Cathedral in the 13th century had to use smaller roof timbers than planned, and the pine poles for the scaffolding were imported from Norway. Thin oak boards or wainscot for domestic building were imported from Central Europe. Even from its low proportion of 15% in 1086, woodland cover shrank further to 10% by 1350, due to population increase. The Black Death of 1349 brought this to a sudden stop, and any woods surviving in 1350 had a good chance of surviving the next 500 years. Throughout history, nearly all clearance of woodland has been for agriculture. Industry tended to sustain woodland rather than destroy it. Up until the industrial revolution, industries relied on coppice woodland for fuel. To quote Rackham (1990), 'the survival of almost any large tract of woodland suggests that there has been an industry to protect it against the claims of farmers'. Such areas included The Weald, the coastal fringes of the Lake District, the Forest of Dean and the Merthyr and Ebbw Valleys. It was the agricultural areas of East Anglia, the Midlands, lowland Scotland and elsewhere where woodlands almost completely disappeared. All content copyright © 1986-2008 BTCV Ltd. Registered charity No. 261009 |
