WOODLAND MANAGEMENT IN THE LOWER WYE VALLEY 4 INTRODUCTION

6 WOODLAND CHARACTERISTICS How much woodland Ancient woodland Ownership Types of semi-natural woodland Designations

12 ORIGINS AND PAST MANAGEMENT Outline of woodland history in the lower Wye Valley Wood pastures Coppices Broadleaved high forest Conifer plantations Recent restorations Secondary woodland Woodland composition Farmland trees

18 WOODLAND ARCHAEOLOGY Ancient earthworks Industrial relicts Tracks in woods Farming remains in woods Earthworks of tradtional woodland use and management Recreation Earthworks and natural features as information about woodland history

21 NATURAL FEATURES Mixed deciduous woodland Other habitats Geological and geomorphological features

24 FLORA AND FAUNA The two faces of Wye Valley woodlands: dense woodlands at Symonda Yat contrasted with scatt ered woodland around Capler Camp Habitats Ground vegetation and common plants Woodland plants Bryophytes, lichens and fungi Woodland fauna Special protection for species

31 TRENDS AND THREATS Deer Grey squirrels Wild boar Chemicals Climate change

36 MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND OPTIONS General policy Sustainability Key features of woodland management Specialised aspects New woodland Trees outside woodland Conclusion

42 NOTES, REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

43 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND FURTHER INFORMATION

44 REFERENCE MAP

Compiled by George Peterken • Design by Tony Eggar Published by (?) • © Wye Valley AONB 2007

2 3 over the last two hundred years. Whereas Gilpin because the social, economic, biological and policy INTRODUCTION and the other Wye tourists appreciated, like us, the context in which management choices are made dramatic ruins of Goodrich and Chepstow castles is constantly changing, detailed prescriptions can ‘The banks [of the lower Wye] for the most part rise abruptly from and the abbey at Tintern, they also revelled in only be temporary. the edge of the water, and are clothed with forests, or broken into cliff s. the bustle and spectacle of the iron works at New In some places they approach so near, that the river occupies the whole Weir and Tintern. Likewise, they did not see the This booklet describes the main features of the intermediate space, and nothing is seen but wood, rocks, and water; tall and apparently natural woods that line much woods; summarises how their present condition in others, they alternately recede, and the eye catches an occasional of the valley today, but accepted the numerous developed; identifi es the features of importance; glimpse of hamlets, ruins, and detached buildings, partly seated on the patches of felled woodland and welcomed the characterises present trends and threats; and margins of the stream, and partly scatt ered in the rising grounds. The distance and perspective that the smoke rising reviews opportunities and options for management. general character of the scenery, however, is wildness and solitude; from numerous charcoal-burners’ hearths lent to The focus is on the woodlands within the current and if we except the populous district of Monmouth, no river perhaps the rugged scenery all around. boundary of the Wye Valley AONB and the Wye fl ows for so long a course through well cultivated country, the banks of Valley woodlands Special Area of Conservation which exhibit so few habitations’. William Coxe, 1801 (1.1). However, as the opening quotatation (SAC) at its core, but mention is made of woods illustrates, some Wye tourists were clearly struck nearby where these are clearly part of the same by the wildness of the scenery in general and the natural group as the woods of the AONB itself. For well over two centuries, visitors to the Lower woods in particular, and this ‘natural’ perspective The general aim is to provide a review of current Wye Valley have been struck by the amount and contributed more to modern sensibilities than conditions and understandings that will be of diversity of the woodlands. From Goodrich south Gilpin’s acceptance of industry and development enduring value to those who must balance the to Chepstow, both banks of the gorge are covered in - even to the extent of following Coxe in excluding various needs and pressures that determine how mature mixtures of oak, beech, ash, lime and many Monmouth from the Area of Outstanding Natural we manage these woods. other tree species, whilst even in the less-wooded Beauty (AONB). Today, we appreciate the woods landscape of southern Herefordshire visitors are for their apparent naturalness and require that rarely out of sight of Haugh Wood and Fownhope forestry operations impinge as litt le as practicable Park on the Woolhope Dome, or the steep woods on the view, or at least respect the natural clinging to the slopes over the bends of the Wye at confi guration of the land. Capler and Ballingham. Even on the plateaux to the th east and the west woodland remains prominent, Since the mid-19 century the woods have especially on the fringes of the Forest of Dean and Tintern Abbey from Devil’s Pulpit also been appreciated for their wildlife and around Trellech. natural features. In particular, the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club frequently searched the This landscape fi rst became famous for its woods for interesting plants, animals and fungi, and investigated the geology of its rocks and land natural beauty and a focus for early tourism in the Redbrook from Highbury second half of the Eighteenth century, along with forms. This tradition has since developed into Snowdonia, the Lake District and the Highlands of the modern appreciation of biodiversity and the Scotland. Visitors joined the Wye Tour, a two-day concern for wildlife conservation, that generates journey by boat from Ross to Chepstow, during nature reserves, designations and special measures which they cast appreciative eyes over the rugged for Horseshoe bats, dormice, fritillary butt erfl ies scenery, scrambled over the ruins of Goodrich castle and other rare and vulnerable species that depend and Tintern Abbey, climbed to viewpoints from the on the woods for their survival. Indeed, the core Kymin and the Wyndcliff , and wrote their diaries. woods of the Lower Wye Valley are now regarded Those with an artistic bent also produced sketches as one of the most important concentrations of and watercolours according to picturesque rules Gilpin sketch of Wye Gorge ancient, semi-natural woodland in Britain. drawn up by that famous arbiter of taste, William Gilpin, the vicar of Boldre in the New Forest, who The woods, however, are not just objects to look at, places to visit and enjoy, and habitats for wildlife. took the Tour in 1770 and twelve years later published Staunton his “Observations on the River Wye …” (1.2). For millennia they yielded fi rewood, fencing, building materials and other woodland products, Gilpin, like modern visitors, regarded the woods and even in today’s depressed market for home- as key elements in the landscape. He thought the grown timber, they remain sources of hardwood key ‘circumstances’ of the Wye Valley scenery were and soft wood. Woodland managers must therefore ‘the loft y banks of the river and its mazy course’, satisfy many diff erent needs, some of which work and identifi ed its four ‘ornaments’ as the ground together, but others of which require choices to (i.e., land forms), rocks, woods and buildings, and be made. The outcome in any particular wood is this largely sums up the modern appreciation of generally a compromise that tries to balance one ‘natural beauty’. Closer reading, however, soon need against another, neither a nature reserve nor a reveals that att itudes have changed substantially Wyndcliff from Lover’s Leap, G E Madeley c. 1840 timber factory, but something in between. Inevitably, Woodshuts, near Prior’s Frome

4 5 Symonds Yat Rock have a grandstand view of one WOODLAND CHARACTERISTICS example at Coppet Hill, where a small plantation and extensive scrub woodlands now occupy much How much woodland? woodlands. In fact, nearly 40% of all woodland is of what until recently was open common pasture. either dominated by conifers or has a substantial fraction of conifers mixed with broadleaves. Woodland occupies about 26% of all land Ancient woodland Broom Spurge Laurel within the AONB, i.e. it extends to about 8440 ha Conifers were far less prominent immediately of woodland of all types, including scrub and aft er the Second World War, when the woods were Although the patt ern of Wye Valley woodland has parkland. For comparison the national average is mainly mixtures of oaks and other native deciduous always changed in detail, the broad distribution of 11%. Its distribution is far from even: the Gorge trees, but they were extensively planted thereaft er woodland has remained astonishingly unchanged. and Highmeadow (where woodland occupies 48% and reached a peak in the 1980s, since when many Search back in old maps, ancient estate documents, of all land) (2.1), Trellech Plateau (34%) and the have been replaced by broadleaves. parish archives, the surviving land management core of the Woolhope Dome are all particularly records of the medieval monasteries, and much Holly Wayfaring Tree well-wooded, whereas the Herefordshire lowlands Some woods have else, and one fi nds more or less the same woods, (14%) and the plateau between the Gorge and the been destroyed, such oft en with the same name, running back through Dean (13%) have less, and the Wye fl oodplain as the core of Bolstone history until the records peter out. above Goodrich has very litt le indeed. In addition, Wood, which was the extensive Buckholt Woods come down to the cleared for agriculture, In fact, an unusually high proportion of the Wye at Monmouth, but lie outside the AONB. and the portions of the Coppet Hill AONB woodlands are ancient, i.e., the woods have former Highmeadow existed in some form continuously since at least estate woods near Scowles that have vanished Large-leaved Lime Wild Service THE EXTENT OF WOODLAND IN THE LOWER 1600, and in many cases may well have existed into Stowfi eld limestone quarry. Conversely, new continuously for several thousand years. This does WYE VALLEY AONB woodland has developed, principally by natural Total area of all woodland (in hectares) 8440 not mean they have been untouched. Indeed, they of which: invasion by trees and shrubs into neglected survive partly because timber and small wood was Broadleaved woodland 4440 commons and abandoned small fi elds. Visitors to harvested throughout their history. Thus, most Conifer woodland 2806 of the larger woods are predominantly ancient, Mixed broadleaves and conifer woodland 534 Felled woodland 78 and the chain of woods down the sides of the Young trees 455 gorge would have been even more familiar to our Scrub 130 medieval predecessors than they are to modern Alder residents and visitors. Hazel Ancient woodland Semi-natural (ASNW) 2499 The ancient woods are generally richer in wildlife MAIN Plantations (PAWS) 3686 and historical associations than recently originated, TREE SPECIES Sites of Special Scientifi c Interest 2267 secondary woods, so, during the 1980s, the Nature Wye Valley Woods SAC 916 Conservancy Council compiled an inventory of Managed by the Forestry Commission 5082 all those over 2 ha. Historical research is always incomplete, so the results remain provisional, 1 hectare = 2.47 acres but the latest estimate gives 6185 ha of ancient Source: Forestry Commission woodland for the AONB (Table). Aft er excluding Beech 1886 scrub and parkland, this indicates that about 75% of all the woodland in the AONB is medieval Woodland destruction near Bolstone Woodland occupies the great majority of woodland that has remained part of the landscape Pedunculate Oak the steep sides of the gorge, and much of the 2002 for at least 400 years. Expressed another way, some immediate surroundings. In fact, in walking from 19% of the AONB is occupied by ancient woodland, Goodrich to the outskirts of Chepstow one need which is the highest proportion of all the 40 AONBs hardly leave woodland, save for a couple of river in England and Wales. crossings and a short, furtive traverse along tree- lined hedges. In these circumstances it is almost Where did these medieval woods come from? meaningless to think in terms of individual woods, Some were recorded in Domesday Book in 1086, Small-leaved Lime except perhaps as historical units, and in this sense and a very few even earlier, but further back is Sessile Oak the AONB includes some very large individual all archaeology and speculation. However, recent ancient woods, notably Haugh Wood, the former studies of peat deposits bordering the Severn have Hadnock Wood (now part of Highmeadow Woods) revealed that woodland survived throughout the and Chepstow Park Wood. prehistoric millennia as mixtures of hazel, lime, oak, elm, ash and a few beech (2.2), in fact, much The woods are mixed in the forestry sense that the same composition as the ancient woods we Ash they contain both broadleaved and coniferous inherited from the Middle Ages. Archaeological

6 7 remains show that parts of the ancient woods have Trusts have several woodland reserves, notably Types of semi-natural woodland been cleared and restored, but even so there are Lea and Pagets on the Woolhope Dome, Croes good grounds for believing that much of the ancient Robert on the Trellech plateau, and Lancaut in the The semi-natural woods along the gorge are woodland is directly descended from primaeval gorge. Natural England owns Highbury Wood dominated by beech, oaks, limes and ash. Wych woodland, albeit used and modifi ed (2.3). near Redbrook and parts of the Hudnalls near elm was also prominent, but in the 1970s disease Brockweir, and has long-standing interests in killed almost all the large elms, and now this The principal secondary woods originated Forestry Commission woods of Lady Park in the th species is largely confi ned to the underwood. during the 19 century. The most extensive were upper gorge. Likewise the Countryside Council for Other species are conspicuous in small patches, planted on the heathlands between Trellech and Wales and Forestry Commission (Wales) manage the notably the groups of wild cherry that produce the Wye where, until recently, they took the form of Blackcliff and Wyndcliff woods in the lower gorge. startling patches of white blossom in spring, extensive conifer plantations, permeated by regular, and the dark yews that congregate around the wide rides and forest roads. Around Staunton, The privately-owned woods fall roughly into limestone outcrops. ordinary farmland was planted as extensions to three broad types of ownership: the woods of the Highmeadow estate. Otherwise, The mix of species in the gorge woodlands is Beech-holly woodlands - Hudnalls • secondary woods are mostly small expansions Forestry Estates, such as Harewood End, almost unknown elsewhere in Britain. A basic set onto farmland, particularly onto small fi elds in and Troy and Bigsweir. Characteristically, such of beech, sessile oak, pedunculate oak and small- around the gorge and close to other large woods. estates have a history of sustained timber leaved lime with an underwood of hazel, grows in growing and today hold a mixed patchwork a variety of combinations, whose exact composition Ownership of mature and young plantations, mixed was determined partly by how the woods were with some semi-natural woodland. treated in the past. These species are joined on • Farm-owned woods, oft en left as unmanaged, strongly acid soils by birch, rowan, holly and yew; The Forestry Commission manages the principal native woodland, but sometimes important Oak-lime former coppice, Sessile oak on limestone, woodlands. To the east of the Wye this includes most on moist, deep soils by ash, wild cherry and wych Cadora Woods Fownhope Park Wood as game coverts. elm; and on dry, alkaline soils by fi eld maple, large- of the woodland along the Limestone portions of the • Small ownerships. These oft en form part of gorge, the hinterland of large woods around Staunton, leaved lime, wild cherry, holly and yew. On the most a land holding acquired with a house, or, extreme limestone crags, woodland is reduced to a much of Tidenham Chase, Bishopswood, and Haugh less oft en, a small wood bought as a ‘hobby’. Wood and its satellite woods. To the west of the form of scrub that includes whitebeams, dogwood, They seem to be concentrated around the spindle and wild roses. Wye the extensive Tintern Crown Woods became dispersed sett lements along the gorge at part of the Forestry Commission estate in 1924, and Leys Hill, Doward, Kymin, Whitebrook, have remained with the FC ever since, though they Away from the gorge, the semi-natural woods Alder swamp, Bigsweir Llandogo, Brockweir and Tintern. Recently are more conventional. The Tintern woods are are now formally controlled by the Welsh Assembly in Monmouthshire, forestry companies have Government through Forestry Commission (Wales). largely mixtures of beech and oaks with few limes, bought woods in order to split them up and or just birch with sessile oak. The Herefordshire sell on to individual ‘hobby’ owners. Several woods have been acquired by woods are commonly dominated by ash or oaks, diversifi ed with wych elm, maple, hazel and conservation organisations. County Naturalist Mixed Beech woodland, groups of limes, but containing few beech. The core Beech-oak mixture on Howle Hill Coldwell Rocks of Haugh Wood is essentially birch-oak woodland on strongly acid soils. Wild Service tree Diversity in the Wye Valley’s leaves in the litter of a The patches of ‘wet’, alder-dominated woodland semi-natural woods Herefordshire wood amongst these ‘dry’ woods are oft en forgott en. Alder is usually associated with swampy hollows, springs, river banks and stream sides, where it is oft en the dominant tree in a mixture with tree Wooded islands by Carey Wood Lime woodland, Hudnalls Bud-break in the upper gorge highlights the variety of The irregular distribution of small-leaved lime stands out tree species in the native woods in the woods above Bigsweir Bridge willows, ash and pedunculate oak, but it also grows in a mixture with ash, wych elm, hazel and other species on apparently dry slopes, where water moves in the sub-soil. Wet alder woods may once have been common on the Wye fl oodplain, but they were largely cleared in prehistory, and now they survive mainly around the Mork Brook, Hudnalls, Whitebrook, Pentaloe Brook and other small tributaries, and as a reconstituted alder wood on former fl oodplain marshland at Coughton. The apparently-dry woodland containing alder is quite common on the lower slopes of the gorge woods growing on sandstone. Mixed woodland on the Seven Sisters and Little Doward

8 9 valley sides on limestone, enjoys special protection WOODLAND COMMUNITIES IN THE LOWER WYE VALLEY under European legislation, and on this basis many of the Wye gorge woods have been included within Woodland Community Character within the Lower Wye Valley woods a Special Area for Conservation (see below), and Grey sallow – marsh bedstraw W1 Sallow scrub in wet hollows and fringes of ditches and watercourses have attracted European funding under the LIFE – woodland Nature programme as the Ravine Woodlife Project. Hairy birch – Purple moor-grass W4 Birch woodland on bogs woodland Alder – Greater tussock-sedge W5 Alder woods on fen peat woodland Designations Alder woodland with some ash and tree willows, usually on mineral soils on W6 Alder – Stinging nettle woodland floodplains The importance of the woods for nature Alder – Ash – yellow pimpernel Ash, wych elm, hazel, alder woodland on mineral soils, usually on conservation is recognised by two designations. W7 woodland lower slopes Several woods have been scheduled since the Ash – Field maple – Dog’s mercury Ash, maple, hazel, wych elm woodland, usually with lime and oak, on W8 1950s as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) woodland limestone and other deep, base-rich soils (2.5). These are recognised as nationally important Ash – Rowan – Dog’s mercury Ash, wych elm, lime, hazel woodland, usually with oak, usually on thin soils W9 woodland over limestone as good examples of particular semi-natural Pedunculate oak – Bracken – Bramble Oak-hazel woodland, often with ash, on moderately acid soils, usually woodland types, or habitats for particular rare W10 woodland derived from sandstone and vulnerable species. W12 Beech – Dog’s mercury woodland Woodland with beech on limestone W13 Yew woodland Yew woodland, usually on dry sites over limestone During the 1990s, the richest woods were W14 Beech – Bramble woodland Woodland with beech on sandstone and other moderately acid soils listed as part of the Wye Valley Woods Special W15 Beech – Wavy hair-grass woodland Woodland with beech on strongly acid soils over Quartz Conglomerate Area for Conservation (SAC) (2.6) as examples of Oak – Birch – Wavy hair-grass Tilio-Acerion woodlands. This woodland type is W16 Birch-oak woodland on strongly acid soils, usually near heathland woodland uncommon and localised in Europe as a whole, and is generally rich in wild species. In fact, the Wye After Rodwell (1991) (2.2). Principal communities in bold. woods also contain a second SAC for the Greater and Lesser Horseshoe bats: the Lower Wye supports This diverse array of woodland types is formally some of the largest colonies of these rare European expressed as communities recognised in the species, and several of the places they use are caves National Vegetation Classification (2.4) [Box]. The and mineshafts in the woods. The River Wye is also majority of the woods fall within the ash-oak types a SAC, mostly for its fish species, but also for otter (W8, W10) and the beech types (W12, W14), all of which make good use of the wooded bank sides. which are found more in the English midlands, East Anglia and south-east England.

Unfortunately, the distinctive character of the Wye Gorge is masked by the National Vegetation Classification. Partly this is because the Wye runs through the borderland between the wet, cool ‘uplands’ of the north and west, and the warm dry ‘lowlands’ of the south and east, so the valley’s woodland communities tend to be atypical versions of types that are defined elsewhere. Partly, too, it is due to the co-occurrence of abundant lime and beech, which is virtually unknown elsewhere in Britain.

The local combination of beech, both native oaks and both native limes, all as naturally-occurring dominants, has more in common with some mixed deciduous woodlands in Continental Europe. There such woods are formally known as ‘Tilio- Acerion’ woodlands, a name that expresses the consistent presence of limes and maples (including Map of SSSIs and SACs sycamore) and the failure of beech to become Pierce Wood, opposite Wintour’s Leap Areas marked in dark green are SSSIs and SACs - dominant. This, a localised and generally species- Mixed deciduous woods growing next to salt marsh by the tidal these include the whole of the River Wye. rich type that is particularly associated with steep reach of the Wye, an unusual feature in British woodlands

10 11 ORIGINS AND PAST MANAGEMENT Wood pastures These are the remnants of the wooded waste The structure, composition and distribution of the STAGES IN THE HISTORY OF WYE VALLEY (stage II) that survived into historical times. woods we see today have been shaped by millennia WOODLANDS Originally, they were the unclaimed lands, used in of exploitation and management. Even Mesolithic common, and generally situated on ground that was people made some inroads into the original, natural I. Original natural woodland. infertile, diffi cult to cultivate, or simply too far from woodland cover, and, from the agricultural revolution places where people had sett led. Wood-pastures of of the Neolithic onwards, the impacts of people have This is the woodland that covered most of the district until this kind were whitt led away by legal enclosure, been overwhelming. The main clearances took place about 5000 years ago. It developed over a period of 6000 years as the species with which we are now familiar returned illegal assarting and by squatt ers, who sett led on in prehistoric times, and by the time of the Norman to Britain after the last ice age. Mesolithic people certainly had the unclaimed land if they had nowhere else to Conquest, the main features of the woodland patt ern some infl uence on its condition, but on the whole its structure live. Despite att empts to regulate their exploitation, we have today were established (3.1). Throughout and composition was determined by natural factors. commons were eventually overgrazed to the point the historical period, the gorge and its surroundings, where their tree cover vanished. together with the Woolhope Dome, have remained very well wooded, whilst the Wye above Goodrich In medieval times, two great wood-pastures and the surrounding Old Red Sandstone country surrounded the gorge, the Forest of Dean to the has retained scatt ered woods. east and Wyeswood on the Trellech plateau to the west, the core of an irregular tract of wood-pasture Outline of woodland history then extended from north of Monmouth south to Wentwood. Medieval descriptions of the Dean (3.2) show it to be a mosaic of dense groves, tall forest in the Lower Wye valley Lady Park Wood and open woodland with ancient trees irregularly The complexities of this history can be understood distributed amongst extensive glades. Patches of II. Extensive usage of the wooded waste. by recognising four stages, which in the panel (right) coppiced woodland intermingled with open groves, are listed in the sequence by which they fi rst appeared From the late Mesolithic period onwards (c. 5,500 years ago), and both were grazed as commons by deer and in the Lower Wye Valley. These stages undoubtedly woodland was increasingly cleared for habitations, pasture domestic stock. By the 17th century, grazing must simplify the long-term history of the region’s woods, and cultivation. Tracts of woodland remained, principally have been seriously inhibiting regrowth, for parts Holme Lacy Park, 1886 - 2002. Parts of the parkland have been ploughed, with associated but they provide a framework for understanding in the ‘uplands’, i.e. not in the Wye fl oodplain or along the of these wood-pastures Severnside fl ats, and were probably was used as extensive loss of parkland trees. In addition, plantations have been the diff erent types of woodland we have today and wooded rangelands, i.e., as wooded pastures that furnished had been enclosed as established in both the woods and the park, and some for assessing their signifi cance. Most ancient woods timber, small wood, leaf-fodder, pasture and wild deer and coppices and in the Dean hedges and boundary trees have gone. have passed through stages I and II to III, many have cattle. We assume that such woodland was essentially used much of the ground continued on to IV, and some of the latt er are reverting in common by the whole population. was later enclosed to was further diminished because “there was common protect young timber grazing all year”. Parks, too, could include enclosed to III. However, any historian of the countryside will III. Enclosed woods, traditionally managed. quickly appreciate that there were many detailed plantations. By the coppices, as at Fownhope Park whose “coppice was variations on the theme – so much so, that the history From at least early medieval (i.e., immediate post-Roman) 19th century, most of worth 5s” in 1375 and which was presumably the of each individual wood is unique. times (6th century), and perhaps earlier, woodland became Wyeswood was treeless part of the park that became Fownhope Park Wood scarce and valuable enough to be worth enclosing. This heath, and this was by Elizabethan times. defi ned property rights and enabled the presence of grazing We must also recognize that the patt ern of woodland animals in woodland to be controlled. Most woods were enclosed as farmland, changed in detail over the millennia, and that this managed as coppices, i.e., they were repeatedly cut down and leaving fragments now Some of the wooded waste was incorporated into had important ecological consequences. The general allowed to grow up again from the stumps, but a minority were known as Cleddon Bog deer parks and retained as wood-pasture, where Speech House (Cooke 1913, 3.3) trend from the late Mesolithic clearances onwards enclosed as parklands. In the coppices enclosure enabled and Whitelye Common some pollarded oaks eventually developed into grazing animals to be excluded, thereby affording oaks and (3.4). A similar sequence of events left the eastern gigantic trees. The best surviving examples in the was towards less woodland, but at certain periods other trees a chance to regenerate. In parklands, enclosure and usually in small patches, woodland returned to confi ned deer and other stock for private use. Native trees half of Coppet Hill as enclosed woodland and the region are Kentchurch Park, in the Monnow valley, land that had previously been cleared for cultivation predominated in both forms of traditional management: most western half as open heath; on the Doward, part and Moccas Park, higher up the Wye Valley. By the or grazed out by catt le and other domesticated regenerated naturally as seedlings or from stumps, but a few was enclosed as Lords Wood coppice, and the rest 17th century, a new form of parkland developed animals. Some of the present-day woods may trace were planted, most likely from local stock. eventually became a mosaic of tiny fi elds, small as an embellishment to great Country Houses, their lineage continuously back to the pre-Neolithic IV. Modern forestry. woods and houses. designed according to the fashions of the period. natural forests, other ancient woods originated Parks at Piercefi eld, Bigsweir and Yatt on remain. as early instances of woodland restoration. Thus, From the 18th century onwards planting and the introduction Surviving archives indicate that medieval Tracts of ordinary farmland and scatt ered woods Domesday Book records in 1086 several instances of of non-native tree species became commonplace. The new woodlands in the Herefordshire part of the Wye were reconfi gured, trees were planted as groups plantations grew as dense stands to their full height (“high Valley also showed litt le distinction between wood- and scatt ered individuals, and the land was used as new woodland in the Archenfi eld district west of the forest”), and after felling they were generally regenerated Wye on land ‘ravaged’ by the Welsh. We presume that by planting, but a few plantations were coppiced (eg the pasture and coppice. However, the multiple uses, pasture – de facto wood-pasture. At Litt le Doward, this was natural regrowth, when pasture or cultivated chestnut coppices). Oak, beech and other native trees were including grazing, enclosed coppice, and large the wooded common was enclosed as a deer park ground ‘tumbled down’ to woodland, but aft er the commonly planted, sometimes exclusively, but conifers trees, would sometimes confl ict, as at Lyndenor in the 19th century: this is no longer a deer park, 18th century most of such secondary woodland was dominated early plantings on some heaths (eg Trelleck), and wood (Foy) 1369 where the coppice was worthless but impressive beech pollards and many species came to dominate all plantings in the 1960s and 1970s. deliberately created by planting. “because of the shade of trees” and the wood’s value associated with pasture woodlands remain.

12 13 Unusually, several commons in and around the Haugh Wood Coppice Compartments saplings was retained to grow into timber trees, Lower Wye remained at least partially wooded into in 1795 and some of the mature oaks were felled. Much modern times. The most extensive of these was of the wood was made into charcoal for the iron the Hudnalls, where extensive woodland survived industry; the oak bark was stripped and boated on the steep slopes aft er the rest of the wooded down the Wye for dyes and tanning leather; and a common was sett led two hundred years ago 3.5( ). good deal of material was used locally as fi rewood The woods were both grazed and cut as coppice and for fi lling ruts in roads. The whole system was Lady Park Wood Little Doward by parishioners until well into the 20th century – a a classic example of sustained yield that could Multi-stemmed trees inherited from former coppice true medieval survival - but now they have been have continued for ever, but it ceased in the 1920s, management. The lime cluster (below left) is a single allowed to grow into tall forest. Several other small aft er which most of the wood was converted to individual, probably much older than the boundary pollard commons remain in Hewelsfi eld, Welsh Newton Coppice timber plantations. (below right). The dense grove of beeches (top right) may and other parishes. coupe comprise several individuals. felling dates, This history was repeated with local variations manuscript name in all the coppices down the Wye. Around 1800, Coppices and letter on map. * not part of Haugh Wood most were cut on a 12- 14 year rotation, leaving Some of the wooded waste was cut down 1789 Capler Wood * 1790 Small Gutter X the oak coppices of and allowed to grow up again from the stumps 1790 Pound Fall T Haugh Wood as a Herefordshire to be cut in prehistoric times, but formal coppices were 1791 Broadmore Fall O, Q compartmented at longer intervals (3.7). not created until the Middle Ages, when large 1792 Lower Pound Fall T coppice. The 1795 map Cutt ing was not always patches of wooded waste were enclosed. shows the compartment 1793 Westwood * regular: thus, for example, Enclosure enabled grazing animals to be boundaries and the 1794 Westwood * the whole of the 762 acres excluded in the 5-7 years after felling, and this table shows both their 1795 Langley Fall U,R of Hadnock Wood was cut enabled new growth to prosper and the coppices names and the felling 1796 You Tree Fall L in the four years between to be more productive. With so much wooded sequence from 1789 to Fownhope Park Wood Cadora Woods 1797 Whitley Fall E 1601 and 1604, a colossal common land, coppice formation continued 1801. With the inclusion 1798 Upper Pound Fall T of two other woods, harvesting that left the Most coppices were made up of the trees that late in the Lower Wye Valley. Thus, the wooded 1798 Cat’s Tails, H this system sustained 18th century woodland wood far more open grew naturally. There was litt le need to plant common on the Doward was enclosed in the 18th 1799 Mangerdine Z gainful employment accounts, St Briavels than it is today (3.8). Nor underwood, and even the oaks regenerated well century, and the portion that went to the lord 1800 Sharpnage fall P and an output of useful was cutt ing always done well: for example, in the when the underwood was cut. During their of the manor became a coppice known as Lords 1801 Morgans Fall M products. 1720s, some coppices in Cadora Woods had been heyday, coppices remained an open patchwork of Wood. There were even very late survivals of 1801 Upper Fall B damaged by cutt ing too high (3.9), and the eff ects thickets of diff erent ages of growth under a scatt er informal coppicing in common woodland, and in of this can still be seen as tall lime stools or “stubs”, of spreading oaks, all permeated by open, grassy the Hudnalls it has never really ceased. In some Haugh Wood 1995 persisting amongst the 1960s conifers. The uses for rides. Limes, oaks and other trees on the boundary instances, the wooded waste was enclosed as a the timber, poles and brushwood were many and banks were pollarded and grew fat trunks, whilst park in the Middle Ages, and later converted to th various: thus, whilst much of the early 20 century in the coppice such species developed huge stools, coppices, e.g., Lady Park Wood, which is now produce from Caswell Wood (opposite Tintern many metres across. a natural reserve, and Chepstow Park Wood, Abbey) went for fi rewood, particular species which is now largely under conifer plantations. and sizes were used for ladder rungs, musical Coppice management declined and virtually instruments, agricultural implements, barrels, died out during the 20th century. Most of the Haugh Wood was a fi ne example of a large crate rods, and much else (3.10). coppices were still cut until World War II, but coppice (3.6). By the early 18th century, it was thereaft er they were progressively neglected. For a subdivided into 22 compartments and cut on a regular 20-year cycle, one compartment at a time. By the time it was cut, the underwood of oak, ash and hazel had grown into a thicket of poles, and aft er repeated cutt ings, each tree had developed a 1770 1823 1886 2002 thick stool from which new shoots grew vigorously into a new thicket. At each cutt ing, a scatt er of oak Owned by John Stackhouse 1790

Extract from the Inquisition Post Mortem for the manor of Eaton Tragoz (Foy) 1369 which refers to Foy park (now Eaton Park wood) and names “Lyndoner” wood. Translation: “and there is there one park whose pasture is worth nothing aft er the deer have had suffi cient grazing the coppice there is worth nothing because of the shade of the trees. There is there one other wood called Lyndoner and its pasture is worth nothing because subject to common rights all year but its coppice is worth 12d per year” A series of old maps of Lyndor Wood shows that How Caple Wood to the north originated in the 19th Century

14 15 time, some provided pulpwood to the paper mill at Since the 1930s, the neglected coppices have Recent restorations At the same time, many small fi elds stand neglected, Sudbrook, but this was always a precarious outlet, grown tall into a form of high forest, and until especially those on steep ground around the gorge. and in 2006 the factory closed. Many semi-natural recently this was the predominant state of the Aft er 1985, two kinds of restoration became These and the former commons have increasingly woods have grown tall since they were abandoned, ancient coppices. Latt erly, however, some, such as increasingly apparent. Conifers in the ancient developed into mixtures of birch, sycamore and oak but their coppice history is still obvious in the large parts of Fownhope Park Wood, Capler Wood, Birch woods had changed the scenery, shaded out the woodland with bramble and bracken thickets. Some stools, multi-trunked trees, and the old standard Wood and Bolston Wood, have been thinned and ground vegetation, and impoverished the wildlife, will continue to develop into tall woodland, but on oaks, whose crowns are now much reduced by the tall growth on old ash, lime and oak stools has so some were earmarked for restoration to native Staunton Meend, Cleddon Bog, Whitelye Common shade from the overgrown underwood. been singled to leave one trunk on each rootstock. broadleaves. In particular, the Forestry Commission and other places, trees are being removed in order to removed most of the conifers from Haugh Wood, restore the former grassland, heath and mires. In the last 20 years, coppicing has been revived in a Conifer plantations leaving open rides and clearings for butt erfl ies and few woods, such as the Gwent Wildlife Trust’s Croes- allowing native birch, ash and others to regenerate in Woodland composition Robert Wood, where charcoal is again made, and the the vacated ground. The Woodland Trust completed Woodland Trust’s reserve below the Fiddlers Elbow. Planted conifers have been part of the Wye Valley landscape for over two hundred years. The Beaufort the purchase of Cadora Woods and has started the Until the 18th century the woods were made up of Other overgrown coppices have been heavily thinned, long process of clearing the conifers, freeing the and should, deer willing, develop into a dense version Estate planted larch and pine in the woods and on native trees and the sweet chestnuts introduced before the heaths between Trellech and Tintern, Llandogo surviving native broadleaves, and promoting new the Normans. Thereaft er new species were increasingly of coppice-with-standards. Below the Wyndcliff , some broadleaved growth. of the tall coppice has been felled, thereby releasing and Penallt, and some fi ne larches from this era introduced into parklands and plantations, from the oaks from competition and recreating a sample of can still be seen in the hinterland of Whitebrook which some have spread naturally. Sycamore in the traditional coppice structure. (3.12). However, the principal spread of pine, larch, particular is now widespread and thoroughly spruce, Douglas-fi r and others took place in the naturalized, whilst laurels and rhododendrons are 20th century, particularly aft er 1945, when many spreading locally. The distribution and abundance Broadleaved high forest of the larger woods were changed from coppice to of oak, beech and other natives has been altered by plantations. planting, and the Scots pine, which was present in Groves of oak, beech and other broadleaves, grown prehistoric times, has been re-introduced. to full height in dense stands, were rare until the 19th century, but as coppicing declined, so some woods were deliberately changed from coppice to high forest. Farmland trees This policy was adopted in the Bigsweir Estate woods in the 1870s, when oaks were evidently planted into Trees and woodland habitats also occur in the coppices, and a fi ne example of the result can farmland, particularly as hedges and along old lanes. Trees were not confi ned to boundaries, but be seen in the Woodland Trust’s Bigsweir Wood. In Tidenham Park the 1890s, this also became the general policy in the were commonly scatt ered within fi elds, including Tintern Crown Woods, where beech was promoted such notable specimens as the Newland Oak as the principal timber tree (3.11), and we now enjoy Elsewhere the aim is to restore heathland. This is (3.13). Non-woodland trees were commonly a much reduced habitat, but conifer plantations on cropped as pollards, so well-treed farmland former heaths at Beacon Hill, Tidenham Park and came close ecologically to parkland. Today, non- Broad Meend are being felled, grazed and allowed woodland trees have been much reduced, but to regenerate naturally. The restored heaths initially the Lower Wye still retains a substantial stock of Cadora Woods take a bracken and gorse-infested form, but heather, veteran pollards, notably many limes. bilberry and other heathland species are spreading slowly into the vacated ground. The largest conifer plantations were established in the Forestry Commission’s woods. Secondary woodland Chepstow Park Wood, for example, was almost Hewelsfi eld Bigsweir wholly converted to conifers, together with the New woodland has been created on farmland and woods on the Trellech heaths. Likewise, the commons. Much of the Trellech Plateau woodland Highmeadow woods were partially replanted was created on heaths that developed out of wooded with conifers, and on the Woolhope Dome, much Oak high forest, Caplar Wood commons. Scatt ered throughout the AONB, small of Haugh Wood and West Wood followed suit. parcels have been planted as woodland for a The Forestry Commission also promoted similar variety of reasons, numerous tall beech-oak dominated woods from the conversions in private woodland. Thus, for from fox coverts and Sellack Hadnock Farm Fedw through to Tintern and on to the Hael Woods example, most of the woods between Redbrook parkland shelter in below Penallt. In the Highmeadow Woods and on and Bigsweir were replanted with Douglas-fir th th the 19 century to Great Doward, oak was favoured from the early 19 about 1970. Although many of these plantations timber in the 20th century and beech was promoted in the remaining have recently been felled, conifers still dominate century, and latt erly coppices from the 1890s, and, though most stands large parts of Wye Valley woodlands. for conservation. have since been replaced by younger plantations, some fi ne relicts of the earlier policies remain. Staunton Meend Howe Caple - Ingestone Newland

16 17 Woods are commonly located on rocky outcrops, Earthworks of traditional WOODLAND ARCHAEOLOGY boundaries and wastes, all places where quarrying would have been worthwhile and convenient, so a woodland use & management Woods contain a wide range of historical were protected from ploughing, the many linear strong association between woods and quarries is monuments (4.1). Some record the history of the earthworks have been well-preserved. to be expected. Quarries can rarely be dated, but a Some woodland earthworks were directly woods themselves, whereas others mark unrelated few would be Roman and many would be medieval. associated with woodland management. In activities in and around the present-day woodland. Large trees oft en survive Herefordshire, where woods existed in a matrix Woods may also contain deposits from which the Industrial relicts on the margins of quarries, of farmland, boundary banks with hedges were long-term history of the wood and the landscape as notably on the rock towers needed to keep stock out, and these survive as a whole can be reconstructed. Metal extraction and processing has long been left in the scowles. banks with external ditches. In and around the a feature of the district, and it has bequeathed a gorge, boundary banks were less necessary, and legacy of quarries and other mining remains. The indeed many were made to enclose the adjacent Ancient earthworks oldest are the scowles, which are labyrinthine, open fi eld, so these survive as banks with ditches on the cast iron workings in Limestone, some possibly woodland side. The larger blocks of woodland were Construction of the major prehistoric and early of Roman origin. Good examples can be seen in also sub-divided into separate, named woods, each historic earthworks must have displaced woodland, woodland at Clearwell, Scowles, Dingle Wood, Lady bounded by a bank to control stock movements but several were located in or close to ancient woods Park Wood, Symonds (see Haugh Wood, above). Moated sites in, for Capler quarry Capler quarry and have been recolonised by woodland that may Yat West, Doward and example, Fownhope Park and Trilloes Court Wood, be close to the original composition. Bronze Age even above the Blackcliff may have been hunting lodges. For centuries the barrows have been identifi ed in Hale Woods and in Minepit Wood. Tracks in woods woods provided a source of charcoal for smelting Litt le Doward. Iron Age fortifi cations are still The metal-working – the extensive woods were as much an incentive prominent in Spitt al Meend (Lancaut), Pierce Wood, Scowles at Scowles industries themselves Ancient lanes sometimes run in and by woods. On Litt le Doward, Symonds Yat, Chase Wood, Capler were located along the slopes these commonly take the form of sunken ways, Camp, Dinedor Hill, Cherry Hill (Fownhope) and valleys at Bishopswood, Coed Ithel-weir, Tintern, up to 4m deep: particularly good examples survive elsewhere. Off as Dyke passes up the lower valley on Whitebrook and Redbrook (4.2), where many of along parts of the Coxbury and Wyegate Lane, the lane the Gloucestershire side, where sections are clearly the remains have become covered in trees, together from Coxbury farm down through Cadora Woods visible in Caswell Woods, Hudnalls, Bigsweir and with the associated dams and pools. towards the river crossing at Whitebrook, the old main Cadora Woods and Highbury Wood. Many other road between Staunton and Monmouth, the southern banks and tracks exist in woods, some of which are Mill stones were fashioned from the Conglomerate edge of Red Grove leading outcrop between Hadnock and Brockweir, and most to Bigsweir, and the Roman seem to have been made in woods. Trees have closed road in Alcove Wood that over the small quarries and heaps, but a few mill stones was part of the Gloucester to Caerleon highway.

Track and park bank, Many of the lesser tracks Fownhope Park Wood were probably used to extract wood. Wood bank, Common Hill, Fownhope

Iron age ramparts in Pierce Wood Farming remains in woods

Hudnalls: millstone worker’s house and proto-millstone Paradoxically, several kinds of woodland still lie on the ground, where they are vulnerable earthwork are associated with farming and to collectors. Limestone was quarried throughout sett lement. Secondary woodland has grown over old the outcrop, especially in woods. Today, shallow fi elds around Staunton, leaving fi elds boundaries Moated site, Fownhope Park Wood Charcoal hearth, West Wood workings and small quarries are found in almost all below the trees. Extensive remains of 18th century woods on limestone, together with lime kilns. These squatt er sett lements survive in the Hudnalls as were common throughout the AONB, but many house sites and walls containing ancient stub have been destroyed, and most have deteriorated trees. Secondary woods oft en overlie cultivation substantially, but good examples survive in Highbury remains, i.e. ridge-and-furrow, and fossilised Wood. The early, large quarry in Pen Moel Rocks is ant-hills formed in previous pasture. The small now abandoned, leaving streams were frequently spoil heaps, quarry faces harnessed to grind corn: and rusting machinery to in the woods around the probably prehistoric. Many woods lie on parish, be colonised by woodland. headwaters of the Slade estate and county boundaries, which are remote In addition, most woods Brook the remains of a locations where well-defi ned boundaries would contain small marl pits corn mill, complete with a dam, leat and return have been desirable. Being in woods where they and sand pits. Lime kiln Charcoal stack (Cooke 1913) stream are still clear. Hudnalls, squatters’ wall

18 19 to maintain the metal-working industries as the Earthworks and natural ore itself – and today the traces can be seen in most NATURAL FEATURES medieval woods as charcoal hearths, fl at platforms features as information on which the wood was smouldered into charcoal. about woodland history Several features in the woods can be said Cadora Wood has more than 80 charcoal hearths. to be natural, in the sense that they owe their characteristics to natural events and processes, not The value of archaeological features is to people and their activities. The most signifi cant Recreation that they off er an opportunity to understand of these are those that developed over centuries or past societies and the evolution of present millennia, for, once destroyed, they cannot be re- Lady Park Wood A few woods contain earthworks associated circumstances. Analogous opportunities are created in the original form. with recreation and gracious living. The Piercefi eld provided to understand environmental history Walk is a track cut in the 18th century along the by more natural deposits in the Wye Valley Piercefi eld Cliff past several att ractions, such as woods. Undoubtedly, the most spectacular were Mixed deciduous woodland grott oes, caves, standing stones and cold baths. At the caves and rock shelters in the upper gorge, the Alcove, Lover’s Leap and the Eagle’s Nest, the notably King Arthur’s Cave, the Madawg rock The feature that is most directly infl uenced by walks led to viewpoints, complete with stone seats shelter and caves at Symonds Yat. These are woodland management is the composition of the Hudnalls Lady Park Wood and railings. Similar, if less ambitious provisions classic sites for the study of Pleistocene and woodland and the distribution of individual tree for early tourism were made in the walks along Flandrian environmental history (i.e. from the and shrub species. In particular, the ancient, semi- Coldwell Rocks and the viewpoints over the last Ice Age onwards), which yielded remains natural woods are highly likely to include ground The traditional coppice management, which of hyenas, mammoths, woolly rhinos and Stone that has been continuously wooded since the end of involved making the best use of ‘the natural growth Age people, but the deposits are now largely the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago. This opens up the of the soil’, thus unwitt ingly succeeded in preserving worked out (4.4). possibility that the trees and shrubs we see in them original-natural woodland types. In addition, it today have descended directly from the original, must also have maintained the woodland soils close Several other deposits in woodland have yielded natural woodland, and that the present-day range to their natural state and perpetuated populations of detailed information, but the potential of the Wye of woodland types would have been familiar to our the associated wild fauna and fl ora, albeit modifi ed Valley woods has not been realised. Peat bogs and Mesolithic and Neolithic ancestors. by millennia of wood-pasturage and coppicing. peaty hollows in woodland yield fossil pollen and Once this long-term continuity of tree-cover and plant remains: acid sites in the Trellech area and This bold claim is supported by evidence from woodland composition is appreciated, it comes as in Haugh Wood must have some potential. Tufa the deposits along the fringes of the Severn, which no surprise that the rarer woodland species are deposits in the Slade Brook and elsewhere may yield actually contain the trunks of trees that grew in found mostly in ancient woods – they must be fossil remains of plants, beetles and snails. Ancient the prehistoric forests that were fl ooded by rising survivors that have persisted down the centuries ponds may hold many secrets in their muddy sea levels 6000 years ago, and peat deposits roughly where they are now, yet have not been able bott oms, provided they have not been disturbed. which preserve the to colonise the new woodlands. Wyndcliff, 365 steps Visitors’ carvings on an old beech Indeed, some in Herefordshire are currently being pollen shed by the used to fi nd the remains of beetles from long ago region’s vegetation Other habitats that will give clues about long-term habitat change. down the ages (5.1). The soils buried under banks and other monuments These show that the Several other habitats have survived within may preserve information about conditions at the prehistoric woodland the ancient woods in a form that appears to be time the bank was constructed. In fact, the soils in on the rising land natural, or nearly so. The most obvious are the ancient woodland, which must still be more-or-less bordering the Severn limestone cliff s, most of which are contained within natural, are available as reference points for studies was dominated by ancient woods, e.g., Ban-y-gor Rocks, Wyndcliff of the eff ects of agriculture on soil properties. combinations of oaks, and the Dowards. These are not just striking limes, ash, wych geomorphological features, but permanent refuges elm, hazel, alder and other native trees, in Goldcliff, pre-historic forest fact much the same Eagle’s nest mixtures that we see in the ancient semi-natural coppice woods today. Inevitably, there have been some changes, such as the loss of Scots pine, the Cleddon Shoots. There were several other famous increase of ash, beech and maple, and the marked viewpoints in woodland, e.g. at the Devil’s Pulpit reduction in wych elm that followed the 1970s Bloody Cranesbill Seven Sisters overlooking a vista with Tintern Abbey, but these outbreak of disease, but the dominance of limes have not left visible artefacts. Livox Wood, which remains. Indeed, in the 20th century several lime- overlooks Monmouth, contains a relic of a diff erent dominated woods have been allowed to grow up kind, an ice house belonging to Troy House (4.3). into high forest, a form that may again resemble the structure of the late Mesolithic woods (5.2).

Livepool University researchers taking peat samples from Cleddon Bog Coldwell Rocks Horseshoe Vetch

20 21 for species of open spaces. True, the rocks have hills and steep-sided valleys that were created by been colonised by introduced plants, such as red the complicated morphogenesis of the Wye and its valerian and wallfl ower, but the concentration of tributaries. And, the more rugged the land forms, wild rose species and other shrubs and the great the more they are clothed in woodland. fans of ivy must be natural features. On cliff ledges and especially on the summits of the Seven Sisters Until recently, these large-scale features would rock pillars, the soils are so thin and drought is have been regarded as indestructible, but with the so frequent that trees and shrubs cannot grow, so advent of large quarries in the 20th century parts rich collections of herbs have been able to survive, of the valley and its surroundings have been re- including colourful species, such as common rock- confi gured. One thinks here of the abandoned rose, horseshoe vetch and bloody cranesbill. quarries at Pen Moel rocks and Caswell Wood, Livox Quarry at Tintern that is licensed to remove a The woods have also enabled remnants of whole meander core, and the Stowe and Stowefi eld other ancient habitats to survive. Perhaps the most Cleddon Shoots quarries at Clearwell and Newland. These quarries Buck Stone signifi cant are: are quite diff erent in scale from the small excavations that are found in almost all woods. • Springs and headwater streams. In farmland, these have mostly been channelled into ditches, Medium- and small-scale features are potentially but in ancient woods they remain more natural. at risk, not just from quarrying, but also from Good examples can be found in gorge-side Hudnalls, dip well constructed forestry operations, such as road building. These woods, such as Hudnalls. These oft en support at spring head features include: relict populations of invertebrates. • ‘Carpets’ of conglomerate boulders left in woods • The seasonal cataract of Cleddon Shoots, to the west of the outcrop, which represent complete with its collection of rare mosses and the remains of strata that have otherwise liverworts. These species have only survived disappeared from the valley. Good examples because the stream has always been shaded by remain undisturbed in the woods below St Slade Brook woodland. Whitelye Common Dropping Wells Briavels.

• The marsh above and below the Dropping • Karst features. These include; sink holes (e.g. Well on the Great Doward, together with the Bearce Wood); limestone pavement (e.g. Great tufa on the cliff face itself. The marsh fl ora has Geological and Doward and Yat Rock); and the various dry deteriorated since it was fi rst recorded in the 19th valleys in woodland, e.g. between the Dowards century, but it ramains a most unusual feature. geomorphological features and below Common Grove near Rosemary Whitecliff quarry Topping • Mire species in the alder wood known as Gilpin recognised the land forms – large and Coughton Marsh. These are the poor remnants of small - as one of the principal ‘adornments’ of the • Watercourses sinking into and arising from the most substantial mire on the Wye fl oodplain, valley, the basis of the distinctive natural beauty limestone, such as the Whippington Brook in which was damaged when the railway was built of the district. The large-scale features include the Highmeadow Woods. Some of these form series in the 1960s, when farmland was drained. incised Wye Valley itself, its great limestone cliff s, of tufa dams, notably in the Slade brook and and its lesser outcrops of sandstone and Quartz Millway Grove. One stream forms the marsh and • Small Sphagnum mires in Haugh Wood. The Conglomerate (5.4). The principal limestone cliff s tufa cliff s of the Dropping Well by the Biblins. Tidenham East Wood Doward quarry two mires, though shallow, have probably taken occur in two groups, the upper gorge from Coldwell centuries to develop. They are now drying out Rocks to the Seven Sisters, and the lower gorge • Headwater streams within woodland, many of due to increased tree cover nearby. from Shorn Cliff and Blackcliff down to Chepstow. which must have an unaltered form and fl ow. Apart from the wooded crags on Coppet Hill and • Bogs at Cleddon and Whitelye. These, the the large individual stones left by the erosion of Strata exposed naturally, or in quarry faces, remnants of the ancient wood-pasture of the Conglomerate outcrop, notably the Buckstone, may be important for geological science, especially Wyeswood, remained fi ne valley bogs until forty Suckstone and the Hearkening Rocks, the Quartz where they expose clear evidence of geological years ago, but grazing and burning has ceased Conglomerate outcrops are rather less conspicuous, processes (5.5). Examples with Wye Valley woods and they have been partially colonised by trees. but considerable cliff s are hidden in, for example, include the natural rock faces along the Pentaloe In this case the developing woodland constitutes the Hudnalls, around the Kymin and in Chase Brook, the medium-sized quarry in Lords Wood a threat to the natural communities, not a means Wood. Below the Blackcliff , a huge prehistoric (Doward), and the small Swarden Quarry above for their survival, so eff orts have been made landslip lies as massive boulders heaped into Prior’s Frome. recently to clear trees (5.3). ravines and mounds below woodland. The cliff s are just the most spectacular components of rugged

Hudnalls

22 23 Several other species contribute to the spring waist-high infl orescences, but this is one to avoid: FLORA AND FAUNA displays. The wood anemone is the fi rst, forming its narrow leaves are sharp enough to draw blood. clusters of predominantly white blooms suff used with magenta. On close inspection, the pigmentation Most of the plants mentioned so far avoid wet Habitats of all the fl owers in a cluster is found to be equal, and severely waterlogged ground, but such sites but diff erent from the pigmentation of fl owers in produce their own characteristic version of the spring Woodland habitats are inherently complex. Up nearby clusters, and this is because each cluster fl oral displays. The principal components are the to perhaps 10% of the land is not actually covered has spread from a single seed by underground pale yellow-green of the opposite-leaved golden- by trees but lies open as forest roads, grassy rhizomes, forming a clone that may be longer- saxifrage, and the bright yellows of the kingcup rides and natural openings, such as cliff s. This lived than the trees. A similar patt ern can be seen in and yellow fl ag. Colourful though they are, all three complexity is reinforced in the Lower Wye Valley dog’s mercury, whose fl owers are inconspicuous, constitute a warning to visitors: don’t tread where by ground conditions that vary from steep, dry but whose leaves form dense spreads of brilliant they grow, for you will sink. Several other species slopes with thin soils over outcrops, through deep, green early in the season. In this species it is the are characteristic of the margins of wet woodland fl at loams to permanently moist hollows, marshes and the hollows in otherwise dry woodland, such as and streams; and by soils that vary from bog peat wood speedwell (a pale version of the germander and strongly acid, infertile sandy-loams over the speedwell that grows in meadows and woodland Quartz Conglomerate to rendzinas and calcareous Bigsweir Wood rides), the delicate lady fern, and the robust clay-loams on the limestones. pendulous sedge. The last oft en forms dense groves on wet, shady woodland rides, and is one of the few Then again the tree-covered ground comprises Dog’s Mercury - male Dog’s Mercury - female species to thrive in the presence of large numbers of a bewildering range of structures, from open clear- deer (simply because it is too tough to eat). fell areas and groves of young saplings to mature leaf form and sex – the species has male and female stands with some trees well over 200 years old. plants – that is uniform within the cluster, but Not all woods produce spring displays and a Within this, the living trunks and branches provide diff erent from adjacent clusters. Somewhat later in rich variety of associated fl ora. Many neglected Toothwort substrates on which bryophytes and lichens grow, the spring, ramsons or wild garlic produces dense, coppices have litt le more than dense undergrowths and the dead stumps, fallen branch wood and equally bright green spreads, and then fi ne heads of bramble, though these have recently diminished indeed the larger living trees provide habitats for of pure white fl owers. These vanish rapidly aft er in those woods where deer congregate. Some other fungi. Equally, the three-dimensional character of fl owering, leaving virtually bare ground, but as woods have carpets of ivy: this species is found in woodland provides an infi nity of niches for wild they decay they become slippery and odorous, a fauna, from wide-ranging species, such as green Stinking Hellebore hazard to anyone walking down the steep slopes on woodpecker, that require both hollow trees and which they habitually grow. The familiar primroses grassy glades, to ‘mini-beasts’ that live most of their Wild Daffodil also bloom in spring, but they are rarely abundant lives in a single leaf (6.1). enough for their pale yellow fl owers to form a display. Likewise, the common violet is widespread Ground vegetation and and readily recognized, but it is seen as scatt ered specimens beside rides, rather than as spreads of Marsh Marigold Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage common plants Wild Anemone colour. However, both primroses and violets, and indeed all the spring species, occur mixed together For most of the year the ground vegetation of in a medley of white, green, yellow and blue. Wye Valley woods is dominated by brambles and widespread evergreens, such as male fern and The spring displays are accompanied by several greater woodrush, but the lasting memories for other species that contribute colour, but rarely most people originate in the spectacular displays cluster enough to form displays. Much the most Herb Paris Yellow Archangel of spring fl owers, that develop before the leaves Primrose Wild Arum conspicuous is the wood spurge, whose tall stems of the trees have spread to cast the deep shade of are fi lled with milky latex, and whose heads of summer. The bluebells make the greatest impact, bright green ‘fl owers’ are in fact modifi ed leaves. spreading glowing carpets of bright blue through The fl owers are there, but much smaller, sitt ing like many of the woods on both the sandstones and fruit in the bowl formed by the leaves. Growing limestones. Although the vast majority of plants with the spurge one can usually fi nd yellow are indeed blue, one can always fi nd a few white archangel, a scrambling relative of the white Early Purple Orchid Wood Spurge blooms, and occasionally also some faintly pink dead-nett le, and wood sedge, a tuft ed, grass-like specimens. The other species that brings people plant with drooping heads. On the limestones, the out on a summer weekend is the wild daff odil, distinctive wild arum is common, oft en with the which is scatt ered throughout the valley, though wood melick, a small woodland grass with dark it is common in only a few places, such as brown fl orets, and the unmistakable herb paris is Whitebrook and Birch Wood. frequent amongst the dog’s-mercury. On heavy,

Bluebells and Ramsons poorly-drained soils the tuft ed hair-grass produces Stitchwort Wood Sedge

24 25 the ground fl ora of virtually all woods, but on the ghost orchid was in a wood on the Woolhope the Killarney fern survives as a gametophyte, and limestone outcrops and some secondary woods on Dome. The bird’s-nest orchid, another leafl ess the pachyrachis form of the maidenhair spleenwort old fi elds, it grows so well that it excludes other species, is fortunately still frequent on the Doward (which is confi ned to the Lower Wye) is fortunately species. Equally, woods growing on strongly acid and other limestones, together with the greater ignored on the rocks by the Biblins campsite. soils, notably over the Quartz Conglomerate, support butt erfl y-orchid and the early purple orchid. The a modifi ed form of heathland containing few spring fl y orchid seems to have gone, but the broad-leaved fl owers. Instead, they have irregular ground cover Hart’s-tongue Fern helleborine is still frequent, and the very rare Bryophytes, Lichens and Fungi of greater wood rush, hard fern, bilberry, wavy white helleborine and narrow-leaved helleborine hair-grass (a fi ne-leaved, silvery-spiked grass) and survive in a few places. By far the commonest is the Fungi and the so-called ‘lower plants’ are trailing, scarcely-fl owering masses ofhoneysuckle . common spott ed-orchid, a species of meadows and important components of woodland biodiversity, Conspicuous fl owers do appear if such woods are woodland rides. Another species that is sometimes but they are not as well known as the fl owering plants and ferns, nor as readily appreciated by the cut down, notably foxgloves and sometimes also Male Fern confused with orchids is the toothwort, a pale pink, climbing corydalis, a pale form of fumitory. leafl ess species that grows in clusters att ached to general public. A brief review of the highlights is the roots of hazel bushes. needed to indicate their importance. By high summer, the ground vegetation is oft en Hart’s-tongue Fern reduced to litt le more than a scatt er of ferns, but in Amongst the other noticeable and interesting Mosses and liverworts are reasonably well the Lower Wye Valley, and especially around the species are some rarities that grow best on represented in Wye Valley woods, and, through gorge, these many be abundant and diverse. Of disturbed soils in woodlands, and oft en fl ower course, bracken is widespread, and can completely Nettle-leaved Bellfl ower strongly aft er felling. These include the wild form dominate the ground cover of woods on heathy of the well-known blue columbine, the nationally- soils, but the most interesting assemblages occur rare narrow-leaved bitt er-cress, the spreading on sheltered, rocky sites on the limestones. Here bellfl ower (a larger version of harebell) and the the ground may be covered in hart’s-tongue, with dainty upright spurge. The latt er is so restricted its simple, shining, strap-like fronds, and the not- to the southernmost parts of the gorge that it is so-easily-distinguished male fern, buckler ferns oft en known as the Tintern spurge. Two plants are and shield ferns. Deer will eat them, but only if perhaps best not handled, the stinking iris and the there is nothing else, so ferns and spring fl owers stinking hellebore, both of which grow on dry soils such as bluebells and ramsons remain in woods on limestone. The woodland margins also support where deer congregate. Northern Bellfl ower two further native bellfl owers, the nett le-leaved bellfl ower, which is close to its northern limit in the White Helleborine Wye Gorge, and the northern bellfl ower, which is Woodland plants actually right on its southern limit. Another species on the edge of its range is the madder, like a giant For many people the plants that excite are cleavers, which is common enough on the limestone the rare and uncommon species, and the Wye outcrops and wood margins, but elsewhere is found Valley woods have plenty of these. Specialists are only in south-west England. Lilies occur sparingly: particularly moved by the whitebeams, brambles there is litt le doubt that the scatt ered patches and hawkweeds. Whitebeams are the white-leaved Cleddon Shoots Oak Fern of lily-of-the-valley are native, but most of the shrubs that grow mainly around the large limestone snowdrops are relicts of cultivation, and botanists cliff s: most are common whitebeam, but some - are still debating the origins of the martagon lilies distinguished by leaf shape and fruit characteristics in the woods above Tintern. Likewise, some of the – are very rare species indeed, almost confi ned to wild daff odils and columbines have escaped from the valley and found nowhere else in the world. gardens, but most must be native. Likewise, the prickly scramblers we dismiss simply as ‘brambles’ are in fact numerous microspecies, Maidenhair Spleenwort This by no means exhausts the catalogue of some of which are known only from the valley. There Lily-of-the-Valley rare and local species, but most of the rest are is, for example, a distinctive Trellech bramble that inconspicuous or diffi cult to identify. Perhaps the is known only from the heathy plantations around most notable is the wood fescue, a tall, nationally- Beacon Hill. And, on dry banks and limestone rare grass that is common in the Hudnalls and some outcrops, the hawkweeds – a tall, yellow relative of other sandstone woods in the gorge, mountain Jubula hutchinsiae the daisy – are also variable enough to be split into melick, which reaches its southern limit in Britain on numerous microspecies. All these, however, are the Wyndcliff , and wood barley. Three nationally- for specialists: there may be no more than a dozen rare sedges are found mainly on limestone, the people in Britain who can confi dently distinguish fi ngered sedge in shade, the soft -leaved and dwarf one from another. sedges on outcrops. The Tunbridge fi lmy-fern and the hay-scented buckler fern were extinguished from The orchids are much more interesting for the shady rocks near Ross by Victorian collectors, but casual botanist. One of the last sightings of the Martagan Lily Upright (Tintern) Spurge Gymnostomum calcareum Marchesenia mackaii

26 27 the eff orts of a pioneer bryologist, Eleanora were introduced by the Normans. Both species are familiar, and peregrines have returned to nest on SOME WILDLIFE HIGHLIGHTS Armitage, have been well known since the last 19th now more common than ever (see below). Wild the cliff s within the woods. Moreover, the once- century. The gorge woods hold most of the British pigs, too, were once native, but the populations Rare endemic Whitebeam species and a strong population native goshawk has been successfully reintroduced population of Selgeria campylopoda and the only established in Penyard Park and Highmeadow of the restricted large-leaved lime. from Continental stock, and have increased to southern population of Anomodon longifolius, and Woods were both recent introductions. Other deer their maximum possible density. Tawny owls are both can be found in the upper and lower gorge have recently reached the district, and of these Massed displays of bluebells, ramsons and other herbs in common in the woods; Herons have maintained a spring. woodlands. Most of the nationally rare species that muntjac is an introduction, whilst red and roe deer heronry in the woods by the Wye at Piercefi eld; and occur within the AONB are concentrated in woods, can be construed as the return of the natives. Many nationally uncommon fl owers, including orchids, even cormorants have become a familiar sight fl ying particularly on the main limestone outcrops on the bellfl owers, sedges, grasses and the Tintern spurge. over woods along the gorge. gorge, and in the cataract at Llandogo known as Badgers and foxes are common in woodland, but Rich clusters of restricted mosses and liverworts on shaded Cleddon Shoots. The tufa at the Dropping Wells roam over the countryside as a whole, and much stream sides and limestone outcrops. The bird interest of the Lower Wye woods is (Great Doward) comprises limestone deposited the same can be said of many smaller mammals. by no means confi ned to deciduous woodland. around mosses, some of which are nationally Polecats have recently re-established themselves Greater and lesser horseshoe bats, dormice, polecats and Conifer plantations provide some diversity and rare. The gorge woods, being shady, close to the in the region, and they too make use of the whole other mammals use woodlands. in particular have helped to maintain strong sea, and in receipt of above-average rainfall, are landscape. Bats are more closely associated with populations of crossbill and siskin. Conversely, Goshawks in the woods and nightjars in the restored heaths notable for oceanic bryophytes growing towards woodland, where they use rides and edges for within plantations. the removal of large stands of conifers from the the eastern edge of their range. For example, on the feeding, and may roost in large trees. The Lower plantations around Trellech and near Tidenham shady limestone cliff s Marchesinia mackaii turns the Wye Valley supports important populations of the Strong populations of Fritillaries, White admirals and Wood have enabled plants surviving from the former rocks black, and in Cleddon Shoots several oceanic rare greater and lesser horseshoe-bats, some of Whites in several woods. heathland, such as gorse, heather and bell-heather, liverworts survive, such as Jubula hutchinsae and which use woodland for part of the year. The two Several restricted species of moth, slug, beetle, fl ies and to thrive and spread, and this has att racted pairs Riccardia palmata. Shaded Conglomerate boulders other groups found in the ancient woods, and probably of nightjars. Eventually, with the help of seasonal also support several uncommon species. others to be found. grazing, true heathland will be restored.

Lichens are less well-known, but there seems species most closely dependent on the woods are Many invertebrate species are much more closely to be litt le doubt that the range of species has the dormouse and yellow-necked mouse, both associated with woodlands than most mammals and been depleted by industrial pollution and of which are species of deciduous woodlands in birds. The best-known groups are butt erfl ies, moths centuries of coppicing. Nevertheless, small southern Britain with a marked preference for populations are known of those epiphytic lichens ancient woodland and overgrown hedges linked to that are generally associated with mature timber, ancient woods. Both are actually widespread, almost particularly deep in the main valley and sheltered common in the AONB, though they rarely reach side valleys, which were sheltered from pollution. small and isolated woods in Herefordshire (6.3). Recent surveys of scatt ered sites have revealed nationally infrequent species on limestone rocks, Nightingales have gone, and the lesser-spott ed Fallow Deer on old trees, and on wet boulders in lime-rich woodpeckers are now rare, but otherwise there is streams. The richest sites on present information some hope that the birds of the AONB have resisted appear to be the Litt le Doward and Lancaut. some of the declines that have been recorded elsewhere in Britain. Green woodpecker, greater The fungi ought to be well-known, since spott ed woodpeckers, nuthatch and tree-creeper Herefordshire, through the activities of the and other hole-nesters are common, the marsh tit Lesser Horseshoe Bat Raven Woolhope Club (6.2), has some claim to be the population has remained strong, and both the song birthplace of British mycology, but in fact current thrush and the mistle thrush have done bett er in knowledge appears to be patchy. The most and around the Lower Wye Valley than in most important area is the upper gorge from Coldwell other districts. Despite a national decline, woodcock Rocks to Litt le Doward, where rare and uncommon can still be fl ushed in the woods. The commonest puffb alls, milkcaps, Cortinarius species and boletes woodland species– wood pigeon, robin, wren, have been collected, including the Lycoperdon Nuthatch blackbird, chaffi nch, blue tit, coal tit - are equally mammiforme and the Devil’s bolete, Boletus satanus. familiar in the garden, together with summer A detailed survey of Cadora Woods showed that visitors, such as chiff chaff and willow warbler. not all woodland is rich in fungi, though even there Two species that are more associated with upland some uncommon species were found on old trees. woods to the west, redstart and pied fl ycatcher, have maintained small populations in the district. Greater Spotted Woodpecker Buzzard

Woodland fauna The larger birds use woods as just part of their range, though some actually nest in trees. Raptors and The two most prominent mammal species were corvids suff ered greatly at the hands of gamekeepers both introduced. Grey squirrels replaced the and in the face of pesticides, but buzzards and native red squirrels in the 1940s. Fallow deer were ravens have recovered so well that they are now present before the last ice age, but the present stock Green Woodpecker Treecreeper Badger Nightjar

28 29 feeds on lime, is holding its own in the woods between Tintern and Chepstow. TRENDS AND THREATS

Unfortunately, the most numerous groups of The woods are never static. Indeed, changes • The loss of clearings invertebrate have not been thoroughly surveyed, since the designation of the AONB in 1971 have and the shading of rides but scatt ered observations indicate that the woods been particularly substantial (7.1). have been responsible harbour many rare and local species. The woods, for a substantial loss especially those on limestone, are home to many With the extinction of traditional management of wildlife species, slug and snail species, including species such as during the 20th century, the structure of the ancient, including the great the ash-black slug that seem to be restricted to Hudnalls beetle on site map semi-natural woods has changed. Instead of a cycle reduction in the ancient woodland. Rare beetles and two-winged of regular cutt ing, which maintained a patchwork diversity of woodland Wood ant nest fl ies, whose larvae are associated with rott ing of open spaces, kept the rides open, and prevented butt erfl ies. Only timber, have been recorded from several woods. most of the trees from growing to full height, most Haugh Wood, a very A hint of what might be found came from Peter woods have been allowed to grow tall and dense. large wood that was Kirby’s recent surveys for the Gwent Wildlife Trust, kept open aft er 1945 Shaded track, Fownhope Park Wood which located two rare insects in the seepages by regular felling and within Prisk Wood, Adicella fi licornis, a caddis-fl y planting, has retained a semblance of its pre-war and Ellipteroides alboscutellatus, a crane-fl y. butt erfl y diversity. Silver washed Fritillary Special protection for species • The population of veteran trees is declining. Dead wood as habitat Those in woods suff er from mechanical failure Many nationally rare and vulnerable species - as hollow trunks eventually fail to support have been categorised as ‘endangered’, ‘vulnerable’, increasingly heavy crown branches – and ‘threatened’ or ‘near-threatened’, and some of these increasing shade from taller, younger trees. form the focus of individual action plans for their Those in fi elds are retained if they shade grazing stock, but they are rarely replaced when their Cistus forrester moth Speckled wood recovery. Amongst those species associated with Wye Valley woodlands, the bird’s nest orchid, crowns break up. Old trees on fi eld boundaries, roadsides and close to houses are removed or narrow-leaved bitt er-cress and English whitebeam An early 20th century view over Tintern Abbey showing and dragonfl ies: they are all common enough in trimmed for safety reasons and oft en replaced, woods, but it’s the Lepidoptera that include several are ‘near-threatened’, though the fi rst two of these that the woodland on the Gloucestershire bank has been have apparently strong populations in the woods completely coppiced. Such woods have been left uncut since but the replacements are not pollarded, and they woodland specialist species. Sadly, the woodland World War II are unlikely to achieve the ages of the current butt erfl ies have suff ered great reductions. The on limestone; the narrow-leaved helleborine is ‘vulnerable’, which means that it is at risk of veterans. Until recently this trend would have purple emperor was once found in the gorge, but caused litt le concern, but the high historical and has long gone; the Duke of Burgundy and marsh extinction in the wild; and the round-leaved whitebeam is ‘endangered’, which means that the biodiversity values of ancient trees in Britain fritillary were last seen in Haugh Wood in 1981; have now been recognized. and the several species of fritillary that were once risk of extinction is higher still. More positively, the familiar in the woods along the lower gorge have dormouse and all bat species are protected under not been seen for years. All is not lost, however, the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Further, others, Lady Park Wood Blackcliff for a few survived and now special measures such as the pearl-bordered fritillary butt erfl y and the devil’s bolete fungus, are included in the list of are in place in Haugh Wood to sustain the pearl- At the same time, many hedges have been allowed bordered fritillary, silver-washed fritillary, wood species whose survival and protection is guided by national and local Species Action Plans. to become overgrown, and the surviving boundary white and white admiral, and there is signs that trees, including most pollards, have developed they are spreading back to secluded, sunny rides huge, heavy crowns. As a result, the structure of in other managed woods. most of the ancient semi-natural woods is probably more natural now than it has been throughout the The moths have also been adversely aff ected historic period; the woods are even more prominent by post-war changes in woodlands. Although in the landscape than they were in Gilpin’s time; several hundred species can still be trapped in and many woods and individual trees have grown individual woods, the decline of coppicing and to spectacular dimensions. thus open spaces has been blamed for the loss of Beech pollard, Little Doward Lime pollard, Cadora Woods Kentish Glory and the orange upperwing, and These changes undoubtedly contribute to the decline of several other species. As forest the ‘natural’ beauty, but they mask associated rotations have lengthened, sallows and their many changes that many people would regard as dependent species have declined, and even the damaging. These damaging changes continued loss of mature elms has aff ected a few specialist unabated until the 1990s, but latterly efforts have species. Nevertheless, the species for which the been made to reverse them. Lower Wye is famous, the scarce hook-tip, which Sorbus eminens on Seven Sisters Bird’s nest orchid Beech stub, Hudnalls 18thC beech, Lady Park Wood

30 31 • Vistas have been lost and traditional viewpoints prices obtainable for home-grown timber have • Increasing ownership of woods by conservation Fownhope Park Wood, are also managing both have been blocked. Long-term residents fallen by more than 60%. At the same time, the value organizations, such as the Woodland Trust, hardwoods and soft woods on a commercial basis. increasingly complain that trees have grown tall of woodlands for recreation, nature conservation, County Wildlife Trusts and Natural England. This At Sellack, the Caradoc Estate is managing the enough to obscure the views that they knew in carbon sequestration and general quality of life trend is reinforced by the many ‘hobby’ owners ancient semi-natural, oak-dominated Riggs Wood their youth, and villages such as Whitebrook has increased, with the result that recent forestry of small woods who run their woods as de facto on a commercial basis (7.2). fi nd themselves increasingly in shade. The most policies at national and local scales have placed nature reserves, and by the special measures famous viewpoint from Symonds Yat Rock has more emphasis on environmental benefi ts of woods taken throughout their estate by the Forestry The woods are subject to many other trends and been protected by its prominence, but nearby and forestry. Moreover, increasing wealth has led to Commission. In Haugh Wood, to take a specialized threats, of which the most signifi cant are the following: viewpoints over New Weir and other viewpoints increasing demand for rural land and houses from example, the Forestry Commission collaborates favoured by the Picturescue tourists, such as the people who do not need to make a living from the with Butt erfl y Conservation to design operations Devil’s Pulpit, became land itself. The outcome today is that woodland around the needs of butt erfl ies and moths. Deer obscured by trees management is justifi ed more by its conservation and shrubs. Lately, (in the broad sense) benefi ts, and less by its yield of • Increasing demand for woodland ‘plots’. Woods Red and Roe deer were native to the Wye Valley however, the view utilizable timber. are partitioned into small plots and sold to in prehistoric and early historic times, and Fallow from the Kymin over diff erent owners. Whatever the long-term aims of were introduced in the medieval period. For Monmouth and the These social and economic trends have had many new owners prove to be, there is no doubt that this centuries, Fallow were largely confi ned to forests views over New Weir impacts on the woods of the Lower Wye Valley: fragmentation of ownership will make coherent and deer parks, but in the last 70 years or so their have been cleared of woodland management far more diffi cult. populations have burgeoned and spread, so that obstructing growth; • Native broadleaves have replaced conifer they now thrive throughout the AONB, and in the opening of Duchess plantations, especially in ancient woods that were • Increasing recreational use of the woods. This some parts are more numerous than they have ever Ride has revealed planted with conifers aft er 1945, e.g, in Colonel’s requires car parks, partitioning the use of tracks, been. Moreover, they are being joined by roe deer and muntjac spreading from the east and south. vistas that had been Devil’s Pulpit Park, Cadora Woods, Highmeadow Woods, and felling unsafe trees. lost; and the clearance Haugh Wood. This is a long-term process that not Despite the annual deer cull, numbers continue to of conifers from Beacon only restores the traditional appearance of the increase. The most recent estimate by the AONB’s Hill has revealed a woods, but improves them as wildlife habitats. Deer Management Group is that 1200 wild deer great panorama over Conifers will continue to be grown commercially roam the Lower Wye Valley (7.3). the Forest of Dean that on the infertile soils of the Trellech Plateau, but has not been seen for even here some conifers are being cleared in order Att ractive though they undoubtedly are, their decades. Beacon Hill to restore heathland, e.g. on Beacon Hill. impact on some parts of • Highway safety has been compromised by the the AONB woodlands is growth of tall trees just above the valley roads. litt le short of devastating. Most of the former coppices on the valley sides were last cut sometime between 1920 and 1950, so it was only in the 1990s that most were reaching Mountain biking full height. Growing on slopes, most had developed one-sided crowns, and as they reached • Increasing extent of woodland that is left full height they fell with increasing frequency untouched. Some ‘unmanaged’ woodland is Fallow deer Frayed ash growth onto the roads below. This problem has, however, Cadora Woods allowed to grow naturally as a deliberate provision been recognized, and recently many of the of a nature reserve management plan, but most is roadside trees along the A466 between St Arvans simply neglected. Some ownerships are too small and Wyesham have been felled or trimmed. The to permit forestry operations. Others evidently increased emphasis on have no interest in silvicultural interventions. safety felling is also in part a response to the increasingly litigious Enclosures with bramble, Lady Park Wood character of modern society. They browse and break saplings to the point where Cadora and Bigsweir Woods few trees can regenerate, and regrowth from coppice Cadora Woods Wye Vally Raising Awareness Day Biblins Bridge During the 1960s is so restricted that stools eventually die. They also and 1970s, national forestry policy and economic Despite these changes, some estates continue eat low shrubs and the woodland ground fl ora, and realities combined to favour widespread planting of to manage woods for timber production and in extreme cases, such as Lady Park Wood, have conifers, and it was during this period that several game preservation. In the gorge, Bigsweir Estate reduced formerly luxuriant brambles to scarcely- prominent Wye Valley woods were reforested as is felling 19th century oaks and post-1945 conifers. visible remnants, halved the diversity of the ground plantations. However, since 1990, when the fall In Herefordshire, the Brockhampton, Peristone, fl ora, and laid bare the woodland fl oor7.4 ( ). Deer do of the Iron Curtain allowed access to substantial Aramstone and the Duchy of Cornwall (Harewood help keep glades open, but they reduce the amount timber reserves in eastern Europe and Russia, the End) Estates, together with the Trust that owns and variety of fl owers in open situations, and thus the nectar sources for invertebrates.

32 33 Grey squirrels reduction in woodland bird populations, and they killed in large numbers by drought, and this has may also compete with dormice. been repeated in recent years. The warmer summers Grey squirrels colonized the Lower Wye in the and winters may have contributed to some changes early 1940s and have subsequently wreaked havoc Despite decades of research, no solution has in the distribution of moths and butt erfl ies. The in broadleaved woodland. They strip bark from been found, and the best hope is to mitigate the pied fl ycatchers are declining, perhaps because beech, oak, birch, maple and other tree species, eff ects. Observations from the long-term studies their nestlings no longer hatch when the caterpillars scarring the trunks and eventually girdling the of beeches in Lady Park Wood may help here (7.5). on which they fed are available (7.7). Two fungi leaders. The timber is spoiled; potentially large Damage is most severe in fast-growing, pole-stage that aff ect tree growth have increased recently, the trees are reduced to litt le more than tall bushes; trees, so relief may be obtained by not thinning, or Phytophthora that att acks beech bark and the mildew and surviving trees are generally so damaged by growing beech below a fairly dense overstorey, that turns oak leaves silvery in late-summer, thereby that they have litt le or no value as timber. Even at least until they have grown larger than the impairing both growth rates and seedling survival. mature trees are att acked: for example, branches vulnerable sizes. This will not prevent crown Otherwise, there is litt le sign that the woods have blown from the crowns of mature beeches have branches being stripped, but at least more trunks been aff ected thus far, but predictions of long-term almost always broken at scars caused by grey might be sound. change include fears that beech may not be able to squirrels, i.e. the squirrel is causing premature survive in southern Britain, and clearly that would crown deterioration and compromising public Wild boar have a major impact in the Lower Wye Valley. safety. Limes seem to be immune and ash and wild cherry are oft en spared, but the adverse eff ects on Two populations of wild pigs have lately MAIN DIRECT THREATS TO WYE VALLEY WOODS the longevity, stature, timber value and safety of become established in the AONB. A small herd beech and oak impairs woodland management of true wild boar has been established for several 1. Deer. Dense populations prevent tree regeneration or require managers to fence compartments. throughout the AONB. years in Penyard Park and Chase Wood. The population remains small and nocturnal, so they 2. Grey squirrels. Strip bark from beech, oak, sycamore, keep themselves well hidden, but they are also etc. Deforms young trees and damages mature trees. controlled by neighbouring farmers. More recently, a herd of feral pigs with some wild boar blood was 3. Lack of management. Poor quality tree growth and loss Beech killed in 1976 drought of open spaces and thus habitat diversity. released near Staunton, where, despite poaching, they have started to breed. The cross-breeds were not afraid of people, which some visitors fi nd Chemicals The indirect eff ects may soon be noticed, alarming, and they were quite prepared to visit - however. Firewood has always been produced and damage - gardens. The survivors are becoming The woods are subject to several forms of from Wye Valley woods and open fi res and wood more circumspect, and may now be reverting to pollution from activities beyond their boundaries. burners continue to be popular features in houses, wild behaviour. Where a wood abuts on arable fi elds, lateral drift but modern advances in woodfuel technology have of fertilizer and herbicides changes the fl ora on the improved the prospects for woodfuel boilers and boundary. Streams that drain into the woods from cookers, and the rising costs of oil-based heating cultivated land are oft en enriched by the leaching fuels makes wood fuel more fi nancially att ractive. Grey squirrel of excess fertilizers. Woods near habitations and Wood fuel is also ‘carbon neutral’. Against this lay-bys are commonly used as rubbish dumps background it is reasonable to predict a revival of coppice management, at least in the more accessible Grey squirrels do more than compromise timber During the 19th and 20th centuries, sulphur values, public safety and the very future of oak areas of woodland, a development that would also dioxide generated by industry in South Wales aff ord substantial benefi ts for biodiversity. and beech as major trees. They also have impacts and the English Midlands apparently killed many on other fauna. The extinction of red squirrels is an epiphytic lichens, leaving only small fragments in obvious instance, but, as an aggressive predator, deep, narrow valleys, but this source has been much grey squirrels may be implicated in the widespread reduced and the lichens are starting to recover. Today, industrial pollutants have been replaced by the nitrogen compounds generated by intensive Wild boar catt le units which fall in rain, and appear tobe altering the ground fl ora throughout the AONB. Indeed, the nitrogen deposition rate in the AONB is Att itudes to wild pigs are ambivalent. Whilst amongst the highest in Britain (7.6). they were once native to the woods and may have helped woodland processes, such as oak regeneration, they alarm some people, damage Climate change grassland and may infect farm pigs with diseases. At the time of writing, no decision has been reached The impacts of climate change on the woods are on possible controls. diffi cult to assess, but several recent developments Damaged beech leader Damaged sycamore trunk have been linked. In 1976 beeches and birches were Highbury Wood

34 35 the same time, managers try to operate sensitively to which woodlands contribute. Combined with MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND OPTIONS - either shaping their felling to the natural form the Forestry Strategies, they provide a basis for of the land, or operating unobtrusively - in order woodland management in the AONB. to maintain the ‘natural’ beauty of the landscape. General policy Subject to these overarching considerations, Native woodland is being maintained or restored woodland managers can also aim to grow and where landscape and nature conservation values are Forestry policies are constantly under review. harvest utilizable timber, which not only contributes high, and in particular in all the ancient woods along They change regularly in step with changes in social, value to society and the economy, but also helps to the gorge. Save for the yew-dominated woodland economic and sustainability factors. Likewise, maintain the diversity of habitats within the woods. below some of the limestone crags, this involves management plans for individual woods are Some felling and lopping is also necessary to make maintaining or restoring mixtures of deciduous, regularly up-dated in response to both policy and woods safe for visitors. broadleaved trees, such as oak, ash, beech and lime. economic changes and accumulating management Where such semi-natural mixtures are still present, experience. Accordingly, this review of management forestry operations aim to retain all the site-native options is presented in general terms, rather than tree and shrub species, but where the mixtures have particular actions and quantitative targets, in the Sustainability in the past been replaced by conifer plantations, the hope that the underlying considerations will be of Timber operations in Little Doward Woods appropriate native species may have to be planted. enduring signifi cance. The overarching requirement of woodland By retaining and restoring semi-natural mixtures, management is sustainability – of productive the natural beauty will be maintained along side Woodland management within the AONB IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT FROM THE capacity, landscape, recreation, biodiversity and healthy populations of native wildlife species. is governed by the current Wye Valley AONB NEEDS OF WOODLAND WILDLIFE contribution to the economy. In this respect, Management Plan (8.1), and the Forestry Strategies wildlife is particularly signifi cant, not just because for England and Wales (8.2). The latt er set the patt ern 1. The variety of species depends on the variety of habitats, conspicuous and att ractive species are there to be for woodland management nationally, whilst the not just physical variety of soils, drainage, aspect, but also variety of tree sizes and shapes. enjoyed, but also because they and the multitude former sets strategic objectives and targets, not 2. A variety of native tree species is particularly important, of micro-organisms form the key element in just for woodland within the AONB, but for all for these are the species with which the woodland wildlife sustaining the human environment. Whilst wildlife other activities and considerations. The latest Plan has evolved, and many depend on particular tree and is far from being the only contributor to sustaining shrub species. relates to 2004-2009, but the Strategies have been the environment of the Lower Wye valley, its needs Light thinning 3. Conifer plantations unrelieved by broadleaves greatly operational since 1998, and, as the review of trends reduce wildlife in general and ground vegetation in form a useful starting point for translating the (above) makes clear, they have already brought particular, and there is no certainty of recovery after features and interests of the woods into a strategy about signifi cant changes, especially in woods the conifers have been harvested. Future plantings of for woodland management. BOX 8.1 lists some managed by the Forestry Commission. conifers en masse should thus be confi ned to ground general pointers, based on observations in the where pure conifer plantations have already been grown. Lower Wye Valley woods, combined with research The dominant infl uence in the management 4. Open spaces (including rides) and young-growth and observations elsewhere. of individual woods is the Forestry Commission, are important habitats for both woodland species Selective felling of oak Large clear-cut for two reasons. First, as the manager of much of and species of open habitats. This implies a need for the woodland, including woods which are one or sustained management, including some short-rotation stands, such as coppice or conifer high forest. Key features of woodland two orders-of-magnitude larger than most other 5. Conversely, mature structures and dead wood are properties, its programme of operations has a major also important, which implies a need for long-rotations, management direct impact. Forestry Commission plans conform minimal intervention stands and leaving large timber in the woods. to, and demonstrate, the current Forestry Strategies These aspirations were formalized in the Wye and AONB Management Plan. Second, the Forestry 6. Deer and grey squirrels are adversely affecting woodland diversity and sustained management. This implies a Valley AONB Management Plan 2004-2009 as eight Thinning Regrowth after thinning Commission applies controls and off ers advice and need for control, particularly of introduced species. strategic objectives for woodlands and numerous grants to other woodland owners, thereby ensuring 7. Ancient woods are the principal locations of rare species, others for recreation, nature conservation, etc. that operations in private woodlands conform to which implies a need to retain all the existing woods, current thinking. They cannot, however, oblige any and a particular need to maintain ancient woods under a native mixture of trees and shrubs. SOME KEY MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES owner to carry out any or particular operations, and 8. The particular mixtures of trees and shrubs in ancient they cannot control the availability of unwooded woods appear to resemble those in the last natural • Maintain the contribution of woodland to the natural woods of the district. This points to the need to limit land for aff orestation. beauty and biodiversity of the Lower Wye Valley. New forestry road Timber awaiting collection planting and rely on natural processes for regeneration. • Promote appropriate woodland management in 9. The largest ancient woodlands are the richest, notably Woodlands contribute to the beauty of the accordance with best-practice advice. the upper and lower gorge woods and Haugh Wood. • Maintain all ancient woods. landscape, provide most of the wildlife habitats, Maintaining biodiversity in these concentrations remains • Restore broadleaved woodland on some ancient woods Several options exist for managing existing aff ord access for recreation, yield utilizable timber, the priority. previously planted with conifers. semi-natural mixtures. The ‘default’ option is 10. Isolation limits the diversity of small woods surrounded and provide for specialist interests, such as game • Improve condition of SSSI woods. by farmland. Improved habitat links in least wooded to adopt ‘continuous-cover’ forestry, i.e. small- preservation. Balancing these multiple uses requires • Protect and increase farm and hedgerow trees. districts would benefi t woodland biodiversity. scale forestry operations that minimise the visual • Expand the area of broadleaved woodland where this is skill and sensitivity. In broad terms, management 11. Each woods is unique at some level of detail. Not only is benefi cial. impact on the landscape. This variously takes the aims to be ecologically sustainable, i.e., it seeks to the particular combination of species distinctive, but the • Develop skills and markets for local timber. form of repeated thinning; small-group felling; maintain the productive capacity of the site whilst history and archaeology of each wood tells an individual • Increase understanding and awareness of woodland. or more intensive felling that nevertheless retains retaining the diversity of woodland wildlife. At story.

36 37 enough mature trees (known as a ‘shelterwood’) to maintain the external appearance of mature woodland. Thinning and small-group felling favour shade-bearing species, such as beech and lime, whereas more intensive felling is necessary if light-demanders, such as oak, ash, wild cherry and Large-leaved lime sapling birch are to prosper. Lime seedling

The alternative is to resume traditional management, which in most instances means coppicing, i.e., cutt ing most of a stand and allowing it to grow up again from the stumps. Coppicing is more conspicuous in the landscape, but it confers considerable benefi ts for wildlife by favouring the Coppice at Shorncliff Ash seedlings numerous species that thrive in clearings and rides. woods: it ought to come Planted oaks in ‘Tuley’ tubes Coppicing also favours the small trees and shrubs, free, and it ensures a such as dogwood and broom, which are heavily and young woodland, (ii) maintains a steady yield natural distribution of shaded by continuous-cover forestry, and restores a of timber and a steady fl ow of work for forest trees in the mixture. Young ash saplings feature of the Wye Valley’s history. In practice, there industries, and (iii) helps to keep trees healthy Sadly, however, natural may be litt le diff erence between coppicing, which and safe for visitors. A steady fl ow of forestry regeneration is oft en impracticable, because (i) deer traditionally retained standard oaks as timber trees, operations also reassures residents and visitors that Coppice product Coppice regrowth eat all the young shoots, (ii) bracken and bramble and shelterwood fellings. Examples of restored the landscape will not be subjected to the pulses smother seedlings, or (iii) the main tree species fail coppicing can be seen in Caswell Woods, Fiddlers of rapid felling and replanting, alternating with to set ‘seed’ oft en enough, Elbow and below the Blackcliff . The safety fellings periods on general inactivity, that characterized or in suffi cient quantities. th above the road between Redbrook and Llandogo is woodland management through the 20 century In practice, therefore, developing into de facto coppice. – a form of feast and famine. In practice, the ideal is fencing and planting approached, not achieved, in Forestry Commission are generally necessary, In planted ancient woods (PAWS), the woods, and is not achievable in individual small particularly when the conifers are being, or have been, replaced by woods, but it can be approached on a larger scale. aim is restocking of oak. native broadleaves. This transformation might be Such planting can still achieved by felling all conifers immediately, but the grow as a mixture by surviving broadleaves and dead wood within the Specialised aspects leaving, say, 30% of the stand would be damaged by the shock of sudden ground in and around Whilst the programmes and prescriptions exposure to wind and sun, ruderal invaders would plantations unplanted, described so far apply to the generality of Wye Valley swamp woodland plants within the clearings, and Sycamore, an invasive introduced species, being for this will fi ll slowly by woodlands, specialised the new woodland that develops would be even- controlled by ring-barking natural regeneration. objectives are pursued aged. Bett er would be to convert in stages, starting in some locations. A good by freeing surviving broadleaves from competition, The emphasis on broadleaves does not exclude example is Lady Park gently increasing light to remaining concentrations 1953 Forestry Commission census survey sheet conifers. In fact, conifers will continue to be grown Wood in the upper gorge, of woodland fl ora, then replacing the conifers over for compartment 4 of Linders Wood. Every commercially on the less fertile soils of, for example, which in 1945 was set aside many years by repeated thinning, or in patches. In woodland in Herefordshire has such a survey. the Trellech Plateau and the core of Highmeadow, as a ‘natural’ woodland Cadora Woods, the Woodland Trust has embarked Extract from 1953 Forestry Commission census survey sheets for Linders Wood where they have long formed the bulk of the stock. for long-term ecological on a long-term (20-year or more) programme of stand type vol main species Remarks 1 BHF ash 100%. This area was felled about 17 months to 2 years This helps to pay for conservation management research (8.4). It has since conversion (8.3), and conifers are being replaced by ago having about 100 ash poles 11-20 [yrs] elsewhere, and provides some diversity in the been left untouched, and native broadleaves in many Forestry Commission standing. There is a strong regrowth of ash from old stools throughout the whole area. landscape. It also aff ords detailed observations of woods on the gorge sides. 2 coppice particular wildlife how it has responded to 3 devastated hazel holly Very recently become devastated. Clearance birch oak ash of lop & top still going on. When cleared benefi ts: some species natural events, such as Recording, Lady Park Wood Trees and shrubs regenerate naturally once syc. up this area may become either “felled” actually prefer conifers, the advent of elm disease space has been created in the canopy and thereby or, if there is as much regrowth as may be expected BHF or coppice. 1-10 [years]. and the short rotation in 1971 and the drought of 1976, are helping us to ‘restock’ the wood, though shade-bearing species 4 coppice Syc 30%; birch Few old oak 120+ [yrs] on the north border of conifer plantations understand how natural woodland functions. may anticipate regeneration opportunities with 30%; ash 30%; of stand. This coppice is a thicket all about SC hazel 10%. 10-12 years. Not worked. furnishes a ready supply slow-growing saplings in the understorey. This Western Red Cedar, Haugh Wood 5 devastated oak ash SC This area was devastated some time ago and of open space habitats. It is now standard practice to maintain dead natural regeneration starts either as seedlings holly box yew throughout the area fruit trees are now growing. elm NS SP. Together with the large quantity of box, laurel, wood volumes in managed woodland, both as that grow into saplings, or new growth from cut yew and rhododendron the area is more of amenity & fruit value than [for] forestry. Whatever tree species and silvicultural systems habitat and to promote the decomposer organisms stumps, that generally grows faster than seedlings. 6 BHF 600 poplar 100% 12’ x 12’ good crop. Vigorous & high pruned to 18’. are adopted, the ideal is to maintain a steady that are essential for a healthy woodland. In Natural regeneration from either seed or stump is 7 CHF 600 JL 100%. Just recently thinned programme of felling and restocking. This (i) addition, numerous veteran oaks, beeches, limes the preferred method of restocking in semi-natural 9 BHF 100 oak 55%; ash Understorey of hazel coppice and elder. 35%; elm 10%. maintains the habitats associated with clearings and other trees survive in and on the margins of

38 39 and Tidenham Park, the Forestry Commission is Llyfos and Earlswood districts would improve links removing mature conifer plantations, and will graze with Wentwood; and in the Herefordshire farmlands the regrowth with the aim of restoring the heather- west of the Wye, supplementing the still-dense hedge and bilberry-dominated heaths that formerly grew network would improve links to the woodlands along there. Likewise, some of the birch scrub that has the Monnow catchment and beyond. encroached onto Cleddon Bog and Staunton Meend Deer protection exclosure, Bigsweir has been removed. and food supply. As a result, two of the important Trees outside woodland The widespread tracks, rides and forest roads native timber trees – beech and oak – cannot now will be maintained as open, but sheltered, habitats be grown into the great trees that we inherited Trees and hedges in farmland and around that pervade all but the smallest woods. They not from the past. Research continues, and meanwhile houses contribute to the sum of woodland habitats. the damage can be mitigated by minimizing the Bluebells, for example, Re-pollarding a lime only facilitate access, but Re-pollarded lime, Cadora Wood Fiddler’s Elbow add greatly to woodland amount of thinning in maturing stands. are widespread in hedges biodiversity. They are and green lanes, dormice the woods, which provide habitats for specialized particularly important Management must also contend with widespread use hedges to move woodland species, visual diversity and a link for the Haugh Wood pollution and climate change. Solutions, if any, must between woods, and Bluebells in hedges veteran oaks and limes with past management (8.5). Many are pollards or butt erfl ies, and there be found in a wider context, but some precautionary St Briavels Common ancient coppice trees, and some must be several the whole ride system measures can be taken locally. The increased loads are commoner around hundred years old. Every eff ort is being made to is managed for them. of nitrogen can be partly off set if some is removed fi elds than in woods. Moreover, many hedges were maintain them, by freeing them from competition, Elsewhere, rides are kept as timber, i.e., the response is more management, once the margins of woods, that were retained as and re-coppicing or re-pollarding them to minimize open, but diverse, by not less. The impacts of climate change are still fi eld boundaries when the wood was cleared. the risk of mechanical failure. ‘Overmature’ stands, thinning on the margins, uncertain. Beech may not survive climatic warming, such as those in Lady Park Wood, also contribute to Forest road in conifer but at present grey squirrels provide a far bett er The AONB is fortunate to still have a good stock leaving a scatt er of plantations, Haugh Wood the stock of dead wood and veteran trees. spreading broadleaves reason for not trying to grow beech as timber, and in of hedges and fi eld trees, but these will need to be beside them, and planning forestry operations to reserves, beech can safely be left to fi nd its own level. perpetuated by ensuring that saplings are allowed Several woods contain natural features that avoid simultaneous mature stands on both sides. to grow as eventual replacements for today’s mature require special protection (section 5). The natural The grassland and tall herbs in the rides are mown New woodland trees, and by hedge management. rock gardens on the Seven Sisters Rocks, the at various frequencies to maintain diversity. various caves and rock shelters, and the marsh and tufa deposits of the Dropping Well, for In most parts of Britain, woods are so small and Some wild species should be controlled. If deer scatt ered, that their isolation from each other has Conclusion example, are small features that are vulnerable were to multiply unchecked, they would destroy to excessive public access and habitat changes. impoverished their wildlife, and their small size sapling trees, eliminate some of the woodland The Wye Valley AONB is less in need of additional Several woods support small populations of rare makes them hardly worth managing for timber or ground fl ora species, and create a hazard on woodland than any other AONB, but the woodlands wild plant species, such as the white helleborine, anything else. The Wye Gorge and its surroundings, nearby roads. One response is to fence them out of that dominate its landscape, wildlife habitats and spreading bellfl ower and martagon lily, and these in contrast, have always been very well wooded by sensitive woods, such as reserves and woods under recreational resources need to be managed. Aft er a need special consideration by managers. British standards, and it is the grasslands and other regeneration, but this is unsightly for visitors, non-woodland habitats that are small and isolated. divisive period during the 1970s and 1980s, when expensive, increases the browsing and grazing woods were either neglected or intensively managed Parts of some woods have been felled and will Additional woodland in this part of the AONB is pressure on other woodland, and oft en does not for narrow objectives, much has since changed remain as permanent open spaces within the usually unwelcome, for it is likely to replace rare work, since deer are remarkably quick to spot any towards management for multiple objectives. The woods. Some are vistas, such as the Duchess Ride habitats and obscure more views. weakness in a fence. Culling in sensitive woods general need, as currently envisaged, is to continue in Cuckoo Wood, and these may develop into short- does not work, for other deer quickly move into any The same may be said about the Woolhope Dome, and reinforce this transformation. rotation coppices. Others represent the fi rst steps in uninhabited woods. Probably the best long-term heathland restoration. At Beacon Hill, Broad Meend but elsewhere in the AONB north of Goodrich, the approach is landscape-scale culling, which involves woods are generally isolated amongst farmland. reducing the deer numbers substantially in a whole Here there is a much stronger case for expanding group of woods and the intervening farmland. The woodland habitats by planting adjacent to small aim of present and future control is to reduce the woods and growing wooded links between woods. damage to tolerable levels, but not to reduce deer Debates amongst ecologists and landscape designers to the point where they are rarely seen by visitors. about the most effi cient patt ern for linking woods are Deer also represent a source of venison, which is lively, but there is much to be said for concentrating available for sale in local shops. new woodland along watercourses. Rivers and streams are the natural links in the landscape, and Deer are beautiful animals, and culling them additional riparian woodland would fi t well into is a sad necessity. Much the same can be said of the existing patt ern of farmland trees. that other scourge of Wye Valley woods, the grey squirrel. Att empts at control have only ever been On a larger scale, there is a case for planning successful on a local scale, and in most of the Wye wooded links to concentrations of woodland outside the Ride in Haugh Wood Valley woods its numbers are determined by weather AONB. In particular, additional woodland in the Coed Wooded habitats along the Wye at Sellack

40 41 Notes, references and further reading Acknowledgements

1.1. William Coxe (1801), A historical tour through Monmouthshire. Davies & 4.2. Chris Barber and Michael Blackmore, Portraits of the past. The industrial The text was written by George Peterken with the assistance of David Lovelace on some aspects relatingto Co., Hereford. heritage of old Monmouthshire, Blorenge Books, Abergavenny, 67-73. Herefordshire. It incorporates information supplied by the Forestry Commission, Natural England, the Countryside Council for Wales, the Woodland Trust and other organisations represented on the Woodland Management Group of 1.2. William Gilpin (1789), Observations on the river Wye and several parts 4.3. Elizabeth Whittle (1997). An analysis of the historic landscape. Report to of South Wales, &c. relative to picturesque beauty; made in the summer the Countryside Council for Wales. the Wye Valley AONB. In particular, Forestry Commission staff discussed drafts of the final sections relating to trends, of the year 1770. 2nd edition. R.Blamire, London. opportunities and options for management, and contributed to their development. Rebecca Roseff and Ian Standing 4.4. A.M.ApSimon and others (1992), King Arthur’s Cave, Whitchurch, helped with the archaeology section. Andrew Blake of the AONB Office wrote the specification and discussed the detail. 2.1. A Nature Conservation Strategy for the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Herefordshire. Reassessment of a Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, The document thus seeks to represent the views and understandings of all these individuals and organisations. Beauty. Wye Valley AONB Joint Advisory Committee, July 1999, p.24. Mesolithic and Beaker site. Proceedings of University of Bristol Spelaeological Society 19(2), 183-249. 2.2. A.Caseldine (2000), The vegetation history of the Goldcliff area. In: M. Bell, The booklet was designed by Tony Eggar, with the guidance of Mark Bristow of the AONB office. The illustrations A. Caseldine & H. Neumann (eds.) Prehistoric intertidal archaeology in the 5.1. An outline of the post-glacial history of woodland in the southern parts of came from a variety of sources. David Lovelace supplied maps, records and photos relating to Herefordshire woodland Welsh Severn Estuary. Research Report 120, Council for British Archaeology, the AONB can be gleaned from the numerous publications of the Severn York. 208-244; A.D.Brown (2005), Wetlands and drylands in prehistory: Estuary Research Group. and archaeology. Bird and mammal photos were by Ray Armstrong and Andy Purcell; butterfly photos by Peter Hugo; Mesolithic to Bronze Age human activity and impact on the Severn Estuary, wild boar photo by Dr Martin Goulding; bryophyte photos by Jonathan Sleath; and the whitebeam photo by Tim Rich. southwest Britain. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Reading. 5.2. see notes 2.4, 2.5 The mountain biker photo was provided by Stockfile - Steven Behr. The aerial photographs came from the AONB office collection. Many shots of woodland and woodland management were supplied by the Ravine WoodLIFE Project 2.3 G.Peterken (2005), Development of the ancient woodland of the Lower 5.3. Caroline Howard and Julian Woodland, In Wimpenny (2000), op.cit. Wye Valley. Archaeology in the Severn Estuary 16, 111-120. from sources in the Woodland Trust, Countryside Council for Wales and the Forestry Commission. The majority of 5.4. William Dreghorn (1968) Geology explained in the Forest of Dean and photos were supplied by George Peterken, supplemented by Tony Eggar. The print of Lover’s Leap is reproduced 2.4 J.S.Rodwell (1991), editor. British Plant Communities. I, Woodlands and the Wye Valley, David and Charles, Newton Abbot. courtesy of Chepstow Museum; the print from William Gilpin’s book and the old Tintern postcard were supplied by scrub. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 5.5. Trail Guides for Woolhope Dome, Symonds Yat and Wye Gorge by George Peterken; and the prints from Cooke’s The Forest of Dean were supplied by Ian Standing. 2.5. Sites of Special Scientific Interest are scheduled under s.28 of the theHereforshire and Worcestershire Earth Heritage Trust, Geological Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. Records Centre, University College Worcester. Further information on current Wye Valley AONB management policies 2.6. Special Area for Conservation have been listed in response to the 6.1. This section is summarised from a forthcoming volume on the Lower European Union’s Habitats and Species Directive. Wye Valley in the New Naturalist series by G.F.Peterken, in press with HarperCollins. The sources will be acknowledged in the book. Please visit our website at: www.wyevaleyaonb.org.uk. etc, etc (?) 3.1. Citations for prehistoric clearances; H.C.Darby and I.B.Terrett (1954), The Domesday Geography of Midland England, Cambridge University 6.2. The Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club for the 1860s Press, Cambridge. and 1870s make interesting reading on the earliest fungal foreys.

3.2. Cyril E. Hart (1966), Royal Forest. A history of Dean’s woods as producers 6.3. Bright, P.W., Mitchell, P. and Morris, P.A. (1994). Dormouse distribution: of timber. Oxford University Press, Oxford. survey techniques, insular ecology and selection of sites for conservation. Journal of Applied Ecology, 31, 329-339. 3.3. Arthur O Cooke (1913). The Forest of Dean. London, Constable. 7.1. This section is based on discussions with, and information from, the staff 3.4. Several contributors to Julian Wimpenny (editor) (2000), Trellech 2000, of the Forestry Commission. BioLine, Cardiff, summarise aspects of landscape history around Trellech. 7.2. Information from David Lovelace. 3.5. G.F.Peterken (editor) (2005), Flowers in the fields. A natural history of grassland in the Hudnalls. Parish Grassland Project, Hewelsfield and St Briavels. 7.3. Estimates from deer populations are completed annually by the AONB office.

3.6. Unpublished report on the history and ecology and Haugh Wood report 7.4. Peterken and Mountford (2005), op.cit. by David Lovelace. 7.5. E.P.Mountford (2006). Long-term patterns and impacts of grey squirrel 3.7. B of Ag reports, heref, Glos. John Duncomb (1805), General View of debarking in Lady Park Wood young-growth stands (UK). Forest Ecology the Agriculture of Herefordshire, Board of Agriculture. Rudge, T. (1813). and Management, 232, 100-113. The most vulnerable are fast-growing General view of agriculture of county of Gloucestershire. Board of trees of 7.5-35 cm diameter at breast height. Agriculture. Sherwood, Neely and Jones, London. 7.6. M.A.Sutton and others (2004), The role of trees in landscape planning 3.8. G.F.Peterken and E.W.Jones (1987), Forty years of change in Lady Park to reduce the impacts of atmospheric ammonia deposition, In: Richard Wood: the old-growth stands. Journal of Ecology, 75, 477-512. Smithers (editor), Landscape ecology of trees and forests, IALE(UK) and Woodland Trust, pp.143-150. 3.9. Details of 18th century coppice management can be found in management records (D2026) held in the Gloucester Record Office (Unpublished 7.7. From long-term observations on the pied flycatchers in the RSPB’s report for Woodland Trust by David Thomas). Nagshead reserve

3.10. Unpublished forestry thesis by E.S.Lord, 1934, ‘Report on Forest of 8.1. Management Plan Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty 2004- Dean and Tintern Woods’, held by G.F.Peterken. 2009. Available for the AONB office, Hadnock Road, Monmouth.

3.11. W.Schlich (1915, The Tintern Crown forests. Quarterly Journal of 8.2. Separate forestry strategies have been published for England and Wales. Forestry, 9, 194-204. 8.3. Woodland Trust PAWS restoration booklet. 3.12. Barbara Spence, In Wimpenny (2000), op.cit. 8.4. G.F.Peterken and E.P.Mountford (1995). Lady Park Wood reserve - 3.13. One the largest oak in Britain, the hulk is still impressive half-a-century the first half century. British Wildlife, 6(4), 205-213; G.F.Peterken and after it died. A sapling oak grown from the original now grows on the spot E.P.Mountford (2005). Natural woodland: 60 years of trying at Lady Park near Newland. Wood. British Wildlife, October 2005, 7-16.

4.1. An inventory of archaeological sites for Gloucestershire and Herefordshire 8.5. Veteran tree surveys area now in progress in parts of the AONB. is held by the County Council as the Sites and Monuments Records; Bryan Walters (1992). The archaeology and history of Ancient Dean and the Wye Valley, Thornhill Press, Cheltenham. This section includes information and advice from Rebecca Roseff and Ian Standing.

42 43 The Wye Valley AONB - places mentioned in the text

Hereford

61 68 39 16 HILLS 34 Woolhope 12 36 Beacon Hill 19 37 37 Fownhope Cherry Hill 38 Coppet Hill 2 39 4 Dinedor Hill 33 40 Doward Ballingham WOODS 41 Leys Hill Y E R W R I V E 25 1 Alcove Wood 2 Bolstone Wood 3 Cadora Woods 31 4 Capler Wood Harewood End Sellack 5 Caswell Wood 6 Chase Wood 7 Chepstow Park Wood Ross-on-Wye 8 Colonel’s Park FEATURES 27 9 Croes-Robert Wood 10 Cuckoo Wood 42 Ban-y-gor Rocks 6 11 Dingle Wood 43 Blackcliff 49 12 Fownhope Park Wood 44 Buckstone 13 45 Cleddon Bog Hadnock Wood 41 46 14 Hael Woods Goodrich Cleddon Shoots 15 Hale Woods 47 Coed Ithel Weir 48 16 Haugh Wood Welsh Newton 38 Coldwell Rocks 17 49 Coughton Marsh Highbury Wood 22 18 Highmeadow Woods 56 40 69 50 Devil’s Pulpit 64 59 48 19 Holme Lacy Park 24 51 Dropping Well 55 21 51 20 Hudnalls 52 Duchess Ride 67 13 21 54 53 Eagle’s Nest Lady Park Wood 18 22 Little Doward Monmouth 54 Fiddler’s Elbow 57 Staunton 23 Livox Wood 44 55 Hearkening Rocks 11 24 56 Lords Wood 63 King Arthur’s Cave 25 Lyndor Wood Penallt 57 Kymin 26 30 Coleford 58 Lover’s Leap Minepit Wood 17 27 Penyard Park Newland 59 Madawg Rock 60 28 14 Pen Moel Rocks Pierce Wood 8 3 Clearwell 61 29 Piercefield Wood 66 Pentaloe Brook Whitebrook 30 62 Piercefield Walk Prisk Wood 9 31 Riggs Wood 63 Scowles Trellech 36 32 Tidenham Park 52 64 Seven Sisters Rocks 10 33 St Briavels 65 Shorn Cliff Trilloes Court Wood 45 46 20 34 66 Stowefield quarry West Wood Llandogo 47 35 Whitelye Common FOREST OF DEAN 67 Suckstone 68 Swarden Quarry 35 Hewelsfield 69 15 Brockweir Symmonds Yat rock 5 70 Tintern 70 Tintern Abbey 50 71 Wyndcliff 65 32 43 Tidenham Chase 26 23 7 53 71 58 42 Lancaut 28 29 62 1 60 Chepstow