by Peter Quelch woodland archaeologist Pollards A CANW member, living in Argyll in the Lake District Pollarding of trees is an alternative form of traditional woodland management alongside coppicing. While coppice stools are cut at ground level, pollard branches Thomas Pennant the renowned traveller are cut at about a person’s head height. This keeps the new shoots safely out of was touring Cumbria in 1772 on his way north reach of cattle and sheep. The Lake District has a surprisingly large number of to Scotland. In his published diaries Pennant describes pollarded trees surviving, and many of them are extremely old, certainly more the use of croppings as an important winter fodder for than 300 years old, while others have been initiated more recently. cattle in Elizabethan times, which implies storing leaf hay cut in summer. There was a dispute as the bloomeries were at the time using so much of the ash loppings for charcoal making, resulting in a ‘bloom Shredding is a variant of pollarding smithy’ payment in lieu, which where instead of cutting the top of the tree off (topping) the side branches of had continued to the time of the tree are cut off leaving a living peg Pennant’s visit. for climbing the tree. The next year all Note that Pennant was the cut branches are growing sprays of distinguishing between the shoots, which can be re-cut a year or two two main pollard products of: later. The point of shredded trees in more croppings, being fast grown sunny climates is that they sustainably leaf fodder (3-7 years old), and produce more leaf foliage than any other loppings, being 20-30 year old cutting system. Cutting the foliage is a fairly dangerous occupation however, poles used in charcoaling, or for holding on with one hand and using an making implements in wood, or axe or slasher in the other! for building. Pennant did note however that the recent (ie early/mid 18thC) improvements in agriculture rendered the bloom-smithy payment now obsolete. This he National Trust foresters Note the massive pile of long straight ash implies that the old practice and farm tenants carry out a poles obtained by this cutting. The trees of storing winter fodder from Tcontinuing programme of pollard had been re-pollarded roughly 20 years tree leaves had already become maintenance, to help preserve the old previously and so were growing well in outdated, since the agricultural pollards, which if they are not re-cut this low lying location with deep soils. improvements of the 18th C had periodically will eventually grow tall and It is surprising how fast old pollards can made other winter fodder like become unstable, typically blowing apart grow – their root systems after all can turnips and sown hay readily in gales. If re-cut every few decades they be massive. Cutting merely rejuvenates available for many farmers. So it seem to last for ever! them! Pollarding of ash but also elm, goat willow and birch also carried on in was improvements in agriculture Pollards are preserved partly for cultural This typically fast growth also applies Norway and Sweden until the 1950s, that caused the end of the landscape reasons, and partly for to the production of leafy shoots which a period when many of the old ways tradition since medieval times biodiversity benefi ts. The old rot-hollows grow in thick masses a year or two after of life dropped out of common use in and probably before that too, of and other niches on these veteran trees cutting. After a few years of re-growth Scandinavia, as elsewhere. cutting leaf-fodder from shrubs provides nesting holes for birds and bats, pollards take on a ‘lollipop’ shape, which and trees. bark surfaces for lichens and mosses, in some people like and others don’t! They fact a whole host of opportunities for are after all a man-made and yet natural This story of the end of wild animals, insects and plants. feature, a combination of natural and pollarding would also be true cultural heritage that has been called bio- over much of the UK including These three photos show a very large cultural heritage in other parts of Europe. upland areas. But what is old ash pollard on an old fi eld boundary interesting about the Lakes is behind Stonethwaite School. In Nov 2007 it was partly re-pollarded by axe in the that farmers clearly kept up the old way, in view of the schoolchildren pollard system for two centuries as part of the Bassenthwaite Refl ections later than in most regions, not programme, by members of Grampus just for fuelwood production but Heritage. Then the National Trust forestry also for feeding to livestock. staff took over and fi nished the work with It is ironic that chainsaws in a safe way! It should be well there is such a re-grown by now…. Norse connection with Cumbria in many aspects, These remnants of past coppices can be place-names for example, as the magnifi cent multi-stemmed veteran trees, ‘cropping ash’ pollards as they are known and sometimes growing on extremely in Cumbria are identical in form to many rough boulder scree, as do many of the still surviving in Sweden. pollards. Not only was the coppicing One of the main purposes of pollards was tradition passed on in Cumbria, but also to provide farmers with leafy twigs cut in Coppicing continued in the Lake District pollarding carried on in the Lakes long mid summer after the hay crop had been throughout the post-war period until the after it was abandoned in other parts of gathered. The sprays of branches with techniques and knowledge of markets England and Scotland. In Cumbria within leaves attached were dried on racks, on could be passed on to the current living memory farmers occasionally cut walls or on the cut trees themselves, and generation. This exhibition shows how leafy fodder and fed it direct to livestock then gathered and stored in barns as leaf successful that transfer of knowledge in exceptionally dry spring-times (they fodder. No-one as far as I know cuts and about coppicing skills and coppice crafts do happen now and then! stores leaf fodder in the UK nowadays, was! except perhaps some goat keepers? But Today, with the re-pollarding carried in some countries in Eastern Europe, for During the fi eldwork for this pollard on by National Trust staff for cultural example Serbia, the practice of feeding project, mainly in Borrowdale, the author landscape and biodiversity reasons, dried oak leaf fodder to sheep continues often found not just the typical 19th C there are still thousands of old pollards today. The photo shows shredded oaks oak coppices most of which have now surviving in Cumbria, and it is easy for and the stacks of leaf fodder drying out, grown on to be oak high forest, but also visitors to see pollards at all stages of just like old hay ricks. on occasion some very old oak stools. management in the landscape. What tree species were pollarded Was it just ash? No - examples of old pollards surviving in the Cumbrian landscape today show that alongside the ashes, sycamore (not native to the UK but long naturalised), wych elm and birch were also important pollard species. Birch pollard – a different tree–form from ash pollards, but many examples survive this Alan Shepley’s pollard ash tree is high on the slopes above Watendlath Alan was the CANW member Tarn amongst other pollards most interested in my studies Of all the trees elm then ash have the of pollards and he carried out most nutritious fodder. In addition oak research into them himself. Alan was sometimes pollarded depending on may have seen this magnificent where it was growing. In some locations tree in his visits to pollards in St such as Seathwaite Valley (west) the whole woodland seems to have been Johns in the Vale, and so I associate pollarded in the past, so virtually every it with him. The tree is on the locally native tree you can think of is alignment of a much older field present in that pollarded woodland. That includes goat willow, hawthorn, boundary dyke, and adjacent fields rowan, lime, oak, etc . have the remains of post-medieval rig and furrow, and ghost One other tree species deserves special boundary dykes. mention: the holly. Throughout the wood Ash pollards – Fornside Farm, St Johns in Sycamore pollards alongside ash pollards pastures depicted in this poster are to be the Vale. Ash in the form of a layered hedge. and of similar age, in the fields below found old gnarled hollies, not normally a This tree form of ash hedgerow pollards Watendlath pollard shape as such, but clearly cut over can be seen even when the hedge itself has Acknowledgements repeatedly in the past. It is well known mostly gone that shepherds cut the evergreen holly I wish to thank a succession of National Trust as winter sheep browse in the upland staff in Cumbria for their continued interest districts of England and Scotland within in my work and dedication to the pollard living memory. The importance of holly cause: beginning with Judith Derbyshire, Cliff groves for fodder cutting in the past is Brown, David Thomason and Ken Parker in reflected in the common place name the 1990s to Maurice Pankhurst and Jamie Hollin, Hollins or Hollen. Lund currently. Also thanks to Martin Clark and Mark Graham of Grampus Heritage Of course holly leaves are available for starting me off on this work, and to Iris throughout winter unlike most other Glimmerveen for sharing enthusiasm for the native trees and shrubs (yew is also subject.