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Other plants we saw: yellow
archangel, dog’s mercury, wood speedwell, wood spuge,
pignut and dog violet. The wood rises up the north
facing scarp toward the Bolstone/Little Dewchurch parish
boundary from where a spring emerges from limestone strata
depositing calcium carbonate known as ‘tufa’. This spring
is long reputed to have curative powers especially for the
eyes and supplies Sherwood’s water. The woodland stands
are
mainly young ash, hazel, birch, willow with occasional wych elm and field maple and alder along the stream from
the spring. The 1953 Forestry Commission census describes
the wood as ‘hazel 80%; ash 10%; lime alder willow birch
and cherry 10%’ and ‘a few scattered standards mainly of
ash. Coppice worked. Age 1-15 years’. Secreted just below
the spring is a well preserved rectangular moated site
whose origin is a mystery. Along the scarp we examined a
large flat area of blackened soil which is where the
charcoal burners of former centuries tended their
dome-shaped piles of coppice poles carefully smouldering
for days until only the charcoal was left. A forgotten
itinerant society, the charcoal burners and their families
lived and worked most of their lives in the woods. We
discussed more recent issues of the future of woodlands in
time of energy shortages, globalisation and damage to new
growth by deer and grey squirrels. Also the irony of
leaving large areas of unmanaged but potentially
productive woodlands while subsidies are focussed upon the
intensive cultivation of exotic ‘energy crops’ on farmland |
