How humans are linked to trees and woods
People have always valued woods and the wide range of food and materials they can supply. It is well known that woods in medieval times were often intensively managed to produce coppice wood and timber, as well as for grazing (eg feed for pigs).
However, human influence on woods goes back much further than this. Even in Mesolithic times (8000 to 4000 BC) sporadic clearance of woodland with fire and axes to create glades for hunting animals seems to have been taking place. By the time Neolithic people (4000 to 2500 BC) were clearing woodlands for farming; techniques of woodland management such as coppicing were well established, as the remains of the Sweet Track and other timber trackways on the Summerset Levels demonstrates.
Consequently, nothing of the true wildwood now remains in Britain and it is our ancient semi-natural woods (those that have been in continuous existence since at least 1600AD in England and Wales and 1700AD in Scotland) that bare witness to this long association between woods and people. Evidence of this can often be seen in the trees themselves, through the survival of ancient coppice stools, pollards or a row of stubbed trees marking an old boundary. Such features show the woods were exploited for materials, as do the remains of charcoal platforms and sawpits.
However, woods often contain many more signs of how humans used the landscape. Regenerated or planted woods on old field systems of ridge and furrow or even the settlements themselves can show how land uses have changed over time, whilst some banks and ditches had administrative functions (some still do) and tell us how the land was divided into parishes, estates or even pre-Norman kingdoms (eg Offa’s Dyke). Many Scheduled Ancient Monuments (SAM) like hillforts, burial mounds and stone circles are to be found in woodland settings.
Archaeological sites and features are often preserved in woodland because their location has protected them from the destruction suffered by similar monuments in agricultural settings or through industrial or residential development. Because of their great antiquity and rarity, Scheduled Ancient Monuments enjoy legal protection from damage and interference but many unscheduled and even recent remains such as quarries, tracks, mill leats and remains from the two World Wars have great value in understanding the story of people and woods.