Survey of Parkland Sites in Bedfordshire and Luton March 2011 Woburn Park Photo by Chris Smallwood Acknowledgements The parkland sites map which accompanies this report was funded by Natural England and Bedfordshire County Council. Data were provided by the Bedfordshire and Luton Biodiversity Recording and Monitoring Centre, Ancient Tree Hunt and Tree Register of the British Isles. Historical information was made available from the Bedfordshire Historic Environment Record via Heritage Gateway. Many thanks to Laura Downton, John Comont and Graham Bellamy (Wildlife Trust), Phil Irving (Greensand Trust), Vanessa Clarke and Ed Burnett (Bedford Borough Council), David Alderman (The Tree Register) and Adrian Fett (Bromham Mill), for providing additional information. 31 March 2011 Prepared by: Heather Webb BedsLife Telephone: 0300 300 6025 Email: [email protected] 1 Contents Methodology.................................................................................................................................4 Results.............................................................................................................................................5 Discussion.......................................................................................................................................8 Appendix 1 Historic parks of Bedfordshire and Luton ....................................................9 Appendix 2 Parklands removed from the Bedfordshire site register...........................11 Appendix 3 Bedfordshire and Luton Parkland Site Register .......................................12 Survey of Parkland Sites in Bedfordshire and Luton 2 March 2011 Introduction Parkland habitat typically consists of large spreading trees, often pollarded, at various densities in a matrix of grassland, heathland and woodland. It is believed to have been widespread in lowland landscapes through the medieval age and up to the early 19th century. Parklands contain veteran trees which can be internationally important for invertebrates of dead wood habitat, fungi and lichens dependent on ancient trees. Over 90 parkland sites can be identified in Bedfordshire but only remnants of most sites remain. The two largest parks at Woburn and Woodbury at one time occupied perhaps 3200 ha. Luton Hoo, Wrest Park, Southill and Chicksands probably all exceeded 200 ha. Woburn is the largest remaining parkland in the county, with large herbivores grazing acid/neutral grassland beneath trees of mixed ages including some veterans. This study is an extension of the 1997 report by Leach on Bedfordshire’s parkland habitats.1 Leach described the habitat and associated conservation issues both in the national and local contexts, and so that work is not repeated here. Rather, the current study attempts to refine Leach’s work by contextualising Bedfordshire’s parkland sites within the framework of the UK and Bedfordshire Biodiversity Action Plans (BAP). Specifically, this study aims to: Identify which of Bedfordshire and Luton’s parkland sites meet UK BAP habitat criteria, thereby creating a definitive site register Delineate the current boundaries of the county’s parkland sites, many of which are relics of once larger parks Assess parkland site condition and management Allocate each parkland to a BAP action category (i.e. maintain, achieve condition, restore or expand) to create a county parkland habitat opportunities map. The UK BAP historically included only lowland wood-pasture and parkland habitats. In 2008 this was amended to include upland sites as well. The current habitat definition includes:2 Wood-pastures and parklands derived from medieval forests and embankments, wooded commons, parks and pastures with trees in them. Some have subsequently had a designed landscape superimposed in the 16th to 19th centuries. A range of native species usually predominates amongst the old trees but there may be non-native species which have been planted or regenerated naturally. Parklands with their origins in the 19th century or later where they contain much older trees derived from an earlier landscape Under-managed and unmanaged wood-pastures with veteran trees, in a matrix of secondary woodland or scrub that has developed by regeneration and/or planting Parkland or wood-pasture that has been converted to other uses such as arable fields, forestry and amenity land, but where surviving veteran trees are of nature conservation interest. Some of the characteristic wood-pasture and parkland species may have survived this change of state. Not included in this definition are sites of 19th century origins or later, which do not have the above features. 1 Leach C. 1997. An analysis of wood pasture and parkland in Bedfordshire with respect to ‘Target Note 2’ of the English Nature lowland wood pasture and parkland biodiversity action plan July 1997. Bedford: Bedfordshire County Council, 70 p. 2 Biodiversity Reporting and Information Group. 2008. UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Habitat Descriptions. Maddock A, Ed. 94 p. Survey of Parkland Sites in Bedfordshire and Luton 3 March 2011 Methodology A list of candidate parkland sites was provided by the Biodiversity Recording and Monitoring Centre (BRMC), which had digitised Bedfordshire’s Historic Environment Record. This list included all historic parklands known to have existed in the county, and was cross-checked against Leach’s list to ensure that no sites were missing. The resulting list included 93 sites (Appendix 1). Desk-based work helped to eliminate from the list those sites which did not meet the UK BAP habitat definition. Each site was checked on the 2002 and 2007 county aerial photographs, to obtain a general idea of which still might exist. Several sites had been turned over to housing and other types of development and could therefore be eliminated right away. The Heritage Gateway3 was then used to identify the age of each site: sites dating from the 19th century or later could then be evaluated simply for the existence of very old veteran trees. Those which did not have any were eliminated from the site list. Most sites were visited to help identify current site boundaries, assess the condition of the sward, determine the presence and/or approximate age of veteran trees and determine what if any management practices were being employed. Some sites had no footpath, visual or other public access and could not be visited, however the vast majority of those which could be were visited. Site visits took place between April 2007 and April 2011. Forty-seven sites were eliminated from the list based on the combination of desk- and site-based work (Appendix 2). The remaining 46 sites were assessed for the presence of important species and veteran trees. The BRMC provided for each site a list of UK BAP4 and grassland indicator5 species recorded. Grassland indicator species were included to provide an indication of sward species richness and ecological importance. Where current parkland boundaries were not known, data extracted were based on historic boundaries. Lists of Bedfordshire’s veteran trees were provided by the Ancient Tree Hunt and Tree Register of the British Isles. These included veteran trees for only some of the parklands. However these two lists did contain records not included in Leach’s lists, which were used as the starting point for the veteran tree lists. Species lists, veteran tree lists and field observations were used to allocate each site to a UK BAP habitat condition category. These four categories identify the nature of work needed to manage habitat. The categories are: 1. Maintain extent: maintain the current extent of the resource. This category refers to spatial area of habitat which currently meets a UK BAP habitat definition. 2. Achieve condition: maintain condition (where it is good) or improve condition (where it is poor) of an existing BAP habitat resource. Like ‘maintain extent’, this category refers to habitat which currently meets a UK BAP habitat definition. As such the two categories are often used together. 3. Restore: improve the condition of degraded or relict habitat so that it qualifies as BAP habitat. Restoration implies that significant effort is needed to bring a site with relict features or historically former habitat into BAP condition. 3 Heritage Gateway. 2006. Quick Search [ONLINE] <http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway/>. Accessed 1- 31 March 2011. 4 Biodiversity Reporting and Information Group. 2007. Report on the Species and Habitat Review, Report to the UK Biodiversity Partnership, 172. p. 5 Bedfordshire and Luton Local Sites Partnership. 2010. Bedfordshire and Luton County Wildlife Sites Selection Guidelines, version 3, 92 p. Survey of Parkland Sites in Bedfordshire and Luton 4 March 2011 4. Expand: increase the extent of the resource, i.e. establish BAP habitat in an area where it currently does not exist and where no significant habitat relicts remain.6 The key features of lowland parkland are veteran trees and a grassy sward. These were used to prepare a decision matrix to determine into which habitat target category each site should fall. As parkland is a historic habitat this study was concerned with an existing or degraded resource. In keeping with the habitat definition above, sites without veteran trees were not considered as parkland although they may fall into one of the grassland habitat types. Likewise, sites which have over time wooded up may now more appropriately be considered as part of the county woodland resource.