Dr. Orton explores the history of woodland in Britain and explains how we started our own native wood!
Woods are a huge part of the history of the British isles, but Britain has lost a lot of her native woodland and there is now a national effort to restore our lost tree cover! We do have pre-existing areas of woodland at Orton Academy (click the link to meet some of the animals we've captured on our wildlife camera), but in 2022, we decided to plant a native woodland from scratch on one of our fields.
Why We Need Trees
Trees are important for biodiversity, providing habitat, food and shelter for moths, birds, dormice, butterflies, fungi and mammals such as foxes, badgers, bunnies, bats, deer, squirrels and mustelids. An oak tree can provide food and shelter for 2300 different species of living things some of which are only found on oak. In addition, native woodlands support specialist species that have evolved close relationships with these trees.
Trees also help with farming: they shelter livestock, improve soil health and prevent soil erosion. Agroforestry uses trees to enhance the functionality and sustainability of farmland.
Finally, not only do trees sequester carbon, they also make our atmosphere better for humans, providing oxygen and filtering pollutants from the air. They also release phytoncides, which strengthen our immune, hormonal, circulatory and nervous systems.
The Wildwood
At the time of the last ice age, Britain was partly covered by huge sheets of ice. So much water was locked up in the ice that the sea level was much lower and Britain was joined to continental Europe. As the climate warmed, the ice sheets began to retreat north, allowing Southern Britain to support a tree-less tundra or arctic grassland.
Around eleven thousand years ago, the ice sheets had retreated from northern Britain, although we were still joined to the continent. Plants, humans and other animals began to colonise the land.
Trees began to appear in the south-east: first birch, then pine, aspen and hazel. These pioneer species changed the environment, allowing elm, oak and small leaved lime to establish. Trees and forest spread across Britain.
Around six thousand years ago, Britain was covered with the wildwood, a vast, tangled forest offering a wealth of habitats for plants and animals. The sea level had risen, making Britain an island. What we now call native trees are species that arrived after the ice age and before Britain’s separation from Europe.
The End of the Wildwood
According to botanist and landscape historian Oliver Rackham, the wildwood was cleared in Britain for cultivation from as early as the Neolithic period. This continued throughout the Bronze Age, when this clearing extended into high altitudes.
Some parts of the wildwood were turned into managed woodland; even in the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods, much of the landscape is as we would recognise it now. By the time the Doomsday Book was written, at least five-sixth of the woods had disappeared.
In medieval England, farming took place in open fields, with individuals or tenant farmers cultivating scattered strips of land. Agricultural land became to be enclosed from as early as the 12th century, meaning that holdings were consolidated into individually owned or rented fields. This was especially common during the Tudor period.
These enclosures initially happened via informal agreements, until in the seventeenth century people began to obtain authorisation for enclosure through Acts of Parliament. Parliamentary enclosure became the norm by the 1750s, which increased productivity but also brought great change to the landscape through the increase in hedging.
Our Natural Heritage
It’s impossible to get back the woodlands in Leicestershire as they once were. According to W. G. Hoskins, ash and elm were once known as the “great trees of the midlands,” but these have declined and are not currently being sold widely due to the problems of ash dieback and Dutch elm disease.
It’s estimated that Dutch elm disease accounted for a reduction of more than half of all trees in Leicestershire between 1980 and 1998. Today, woodland cover across the whole of Leicestershire is still just 6% (compared to an average of 10%across England).
There are efforts to change this: 30 years of tree planting in the National Forest has increased tree cover in this area from 6% to 22%. That’s why it’s important to plant a good mix of native species: this can enhance biodiversity, as well as increasing resilience to pests and disease.
We decided to plant a native broadleaved woodland, which is characterised by mainly needleless trees with broad leaves. Most of these trees are deciduous, so there is an annual pattern of trees losing and gaining leaves. This benefits biodiversity, as it allows the woodland floor and understorey to accommodate a wide variety of living things.
Our Native Wood
Tree planting season is generally October to March or April when the tree is dormant and therefore likely to be damaged. Cell-grown trees (grown in a compost plug or cell, as opposed to bare-root trees which are lifted out of the ground) can be planted at any time of the year. It’s also worth checking whether subsidised tree packs or grants for tree planting are available.
When the trees arrived, we stored them in a container filled with earth in a sheltered place until we were ready to plant. The field we planned to use for the wood was already free of overly-long grass, with two small oak trees already established.
In our first year, we planted small groups of mixed trees, with each tree being two metres away from its neighbours. At first, we experimented by planting the trees by making a hole first with a bore hole auger, but cell grown trees are so small and the ground so soft that we soon found we didn’t need this.
We made holes in the soil so that each tree sat with its roots at least two inches below ground level. We filled in the hole around the tree with soil and added a stake, tree guard and mulch to each tree.
In April 2022, we planted 105 trees: a mix of fifteen hawthorn, fifteen silver birch, fifteen hazel, thirty rowan, fifteen dogwood and fifteen wild cherry.
We wanted to create a wood that gave some colour all year-round. The yellow of the catkins of the hazel trees, the silver-white bark of the silver birch with its golden autumn leaves, white flowers of the hawthorn, white flowers and red berries of the rowan, white flowers and black berries of the dogwood and the colourful fruits and blossom of the wild cherry provide colour as well as food for wildlife.
In February 2023, we planted another 105 trees: a mix of fifteen silver birch, thirty rowan, fifteen wild cherry, fifteen English oak, fifteen field maple and fifteen grey willow. Many of these trees are used in woodwork: silver birch for furniture, rowan for craftwork, wild cherry wood for furniture and firewood, grey willow for weaving baskets or decorative wreaths, English oak as hardwood timber for flooring or fuel and field maple for wood-turning, carving and musical instruments.
For us, though, the wood will be reserved for wildlife. In November 2023, we planted another 105 trees of the same mix.
We felt the wood needed some evergreen, so in February 2024, we planted thirty holly and thirty yew trees. Yew (with its evergreen, needle-like leaves) is also included in broadleaved woodland.
Nothing except ivy grows in the shade of an established yew tree, but it is excellent for wildlife. Its fruit, which like other parts of the tree is poisonous to humans, is eaten by birds and mammals. Its leaves are eaten by caterpillars of the satin beauty moth and provide shelter for wildlife.
Holly is also great for wildlife as it gives year-round cover and its female trees have clusters of scarlet red berries that ripen from October onwards, often staying throughout the winter.
This year, we were keen to make sure that we continued adding more native species, so we’ve ordered fifteen elder, fifteen rowan, fifteen hazel, thirty blackthorn, fifteen crab apple and fifteen dog rose trees. We might get some more holly trees later in the season, too!
Some of these trees have edible properties, when properly prepared: elder flowers can be used to make elderflower cordial in May and June, rowan berries can be used to make jams and jellies and hazelnuts can be harvested in September and October. Blackthorn trees produce purple fruits called sloes, which can be used to make sloe gin, cordial and jam. Crab apples can be used to make jelly. Dog rose trees produce rose hips, which can be used to make syrups, jellies and teas.
Come back soon to find out more about the animals that live in our existing woodland!
Find Out More
If you’re interested in conservation and wildlife, we have a blog series on British wildlife and a series on the people and wildlife of South Asia, from the altitudes of the Himalayas to the dense mangrove forests of Bangladesh!
We also offer online private tuition in our interdisciplinary course, Culture and Conservation, in which you can explore the links between our natural and cultural heritage and study wildlife and cultures from across the world! This is a template of a possible study route and can be combined, adapted, or designed from scratch to suit your interests and goals.
Dr. Orton will work with you to design a course of private tutorials tailored to your needs, ability and schedule. Click the link to find out what it’s like to work with her and contact us to find out more!
Do More
For those who would like to take action to preserve our wild spaces, there’s plenty you can do. Even if you don’t have a big garden, there are plenty of things you can do to help biodiversity in your area. Why not put up a solitary bee nesting box or insect home, create a woodpile as a habitat for small creatures or leave small areas of your garden to go wild?
Think about your own area and how you can protect vulnerable but important parts of your own environment. You might even want to start your own project investigating the cultural importance of wildlife in your area. Dr. Orton works with independent scholars undertaking their own research for an independent project, people writing a book or simply those who have a personal interest. Click the link to find out what it’s like to work with her and contact us to get started!
Reach Out
We’d love to see what you’re doing to help wildlife in your area. Follow the Conservation highlight reel on the Orton Academy Instagram to see what we’re getting up to and tag us in to any snaps you put up!
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