Promoting awareness of the archaeology and history of north Devon
Promoting awareness of the archaeology and history of north Devon
What Happened in the Woods? - Judith Cannell (Newsletter No 13 2007)
During the last winter Dr Judith Cannell was one of our speakers. She outlined the procedures of woodland archaeology and showed how members of a local archaeological society might add to the understanding of woodland exploitation in the past.
Firewood, charcoal, bark and timber; these are products supplied from English woodland in past centuries. People managed woodland to nurture such production and also (in many places) to provide grazing for their livestock.
The main management techniques were:
Coppicing, in which trees were cut near the ground, leaving a stump or 'stool', from which new shoots or 'poles' grew. This technique was applied in enclosed woods, from which livestock were excluded.
Pollarding, in which trees were cut 2 - 5 metres above the ground, so as to place new growth out of the reach of livestock. Again, new shoots grew and were cut in due course. This technique was applied in wood pastures, where livestock grazed unenclosed woods (often adjacent to moorland) without damaging trees' new growth.
Allowing trees to reach their full size as standards, when they were felled for timber. Past woodland management has left traces for consideration by both archaeologists and historians:
Archaeological features, such as old coppice and pollard trees, boundary features, tracks and charcoal platforms. These can show what was being done and where.
Documentary evidence, especially tithe maps and the records of large estates. These can show who was in charge and the social/economic structures involved.
My research into the archaeology of woodland exploitation around Exmoor left some questions about North Devon's woods unanswered. First of all: Where were North Devon's wood pastures?
Domesday Book recorded large numbers of cattle and horses in North Devon, suggesting that areas now within the parishes of Lynton and Brendon may have operated an economy specialising in livestock. Animals grazed the open moor - but did they also roam adjacent woods under a system of wood pasture? If such was the practice, how widespread was it in North Devon?
It is useful that pollard trees, the sign of old wood pastures, can be very long lived. It would be a productive exercise for local groups to find and record the location of old pollards and so show where former wood pastures existed.
There is one piece of evidence suggesting that some woods in North Devon may have been enclosed in the recent past. That evidence relates to their size. When looking at the distribution of wood size over the whole Exmoor area, I found that most parishes had a large number of small woods, a few very large woods, but none at all of intermediate size. In only eight parishes were there woods of intermediate size and three of these - Countisbury, Martinhoe and Trentishoe - lay on the North Devon side of Exmoor.
The size distribution pattern in other parts of Exmoor was probably generated in the postmedieval period (from about 1500), when woods were enclosed to provide coppice for industrial use and/or as a cash crop. The odd pattern in the coastal parishes of North Devon, on the other hand, suggests a different history, with enclosure occurring later, or perhaps with some other local factors coming into play. Did wood pastures last longer here - and, if so, why?
Did North Devon's coppices supply rural industry? This is the second big question. In many places, coppices produced raw materials and fuel for rural industry. Relevant physical evidence in woodland includes the platforms on which wood was stacked to produce charcoal, which powered the furnaces and forges of pre-modern iron production. Dr. Gill Juleft's project at the University of Exeter has identified many iron smelting sites on and around Exmoor and they are often close to, or even in, woods containing charcoal platforms. North Devon, of course, had its own medieval metal industries and it would be useful to locate charcoal platforms in nearby woods, as they can show the extent to which local resources were pulled into the production chain.
Another rural industry, which is often overlooked, was leather production, which consumed tons of oak bark (used in the tanning process) especially in the post medieval period, when it was transported significant distances. Bark stripping often accompanied timber or coppice production but unfortunately leaves little archaeological trace of its own. I found documentary evidence of bark stripping in Bremridge Wood (near South Molton) with the bark being transported to Barnstaple but I do not know of any other research into bark-stripping in the woods of North Devon. There is plenty of room for documentary research here. Tithe maps might show where tanneries existed in the 19th century, while estate and port records might refer to bark being produced or transported to more distant destinations through ports.
I hope this short summary encourages you to start woodland
survey (with wood owners' permission) and to do some documentary research.
My book outlines methods of research in more detail and I have given a
copy to the Society for your use. The evidence is out there waiting to
be explored!
Cannell, J. A. 2005: The Archaeology of Woodland Exploitation in the Greater
Exmoor Area in the Historic Period. Archaeopress, Oxford.