West Berkshire Countryside Society West Berkshire Countryside Society was formed in January 2012 to provide an umbrella group for four long-established environmental groups. These were The Friends of the Pang, Kennet & Lambourn Valleys , The Bucklebury Heathland Conservation Group, The Pang Valley Conservation Volunteers and The Pang Valley Barn Owl Group. Our remit is to continue their work of promoting and improving the landscape of West Berkshire by practical conservation work and by introducing people to the countryside, its work, history and wildlife, through the medium of talks and conducted walks – of which this is one. ‘THE WOODS of HAMPSTEAD Members of West Berkshire Countryside Society currently pay a £15 NORREYS’ annual subscription for individual and family membership to provide a financial resource. Those members who wish to, make up volunteer working parties to undertake practical conservation tasks. Non-members are very welcome to join our tasks and our conducted walks A walk around Park Wood and Down Wood in for which we make no charge. Non-members are also welcome at our talks Hampstead Norreys Parish. Starting and finishing at for which we make a small charge. the Village Hall About 1¾ miles or 2.8 km. If you would like more information about our activities or would like to join us and help with our work, please visit our website: Ordnance Survey Explorer Map www.westberkscountryside.org.uk 158 – ‘Newbury and Hungerford’ will be useful References: Greenaway D & Ward D (Eds) In the Valley of Victoria County History – Berkshire the Pang 2002 The Concise Dictionary of English Greenaway D. Around the Valley of the There is a modest hill on this walk and surfaces can be uneven and Place Names. OUP. Pang. 2007 muddy Chapman, Roger A Record of the Dunlop L & Greenaway D Around the 3 Valleys History & Inhabitants of Hampstead 2011 Norreys Parish 1990 Williamson T Shaping Medieval Landscapes Wood M Domesday 1986 2003 Winchester A Discovering Parish Williamson T. The Origins of Hertfordshire Boundaries 2000 2010 West Berkshire Council Historic Environment Record (HER) © Dick Greenaway 2013 Hampstead Norreys. The name means ‘farm place’ and there has been a 8. ? Old pond. This circular depression is clear in winter. They probably settlement of some kind here for at least two thousand years and probably for as another relic of the pre-woodland landscape. resulted from medieval ploughing. much as four and a half thousand years since many Roman finds have been The local soils are pervious and there is no made in the area and there are Bronze Age burial mounds close to the north and surface water so ponds would have been south of the village. The manor is listed in Domesday Book (1086) as having necessary if animals were to be grazed in the belonged to King Edward (the last Saxon king) and as having been allocated to area. Similar ponds exist in other woods, at Theodoric the Goldsmith after the Norman Conquest. The name changed to least one of which still holds water. Hampstead Sifrewast in the 12 th century and to Hampstead Norreys when it was bought by the Norreys family of Bray in 1450. Early Saxon Estates. Current historical research indicates that, after the re- conquest of southern England from the invading Danes by King Alfred the Great and his family in the late 9 th and early 10 th centuries AD, the country was divided up into very large estates controlled by the king’s immediate family and senior The ridge crossing the ride would be colleagues. These estates were soon sub-divided and tenanted by lesser lords. the headland where the plough was These smaller estates were constructed so that they had a mixture of land types. turned. They pre-date the creation of Typically the headquarters would be in a valley near the river and surrounded by the deer park (note 3) before 1515. the arable land and hay meadows, but the estate would spread up the valley 12. Holloway. This deep cutting is Down Wood. In this case ‘down’ and ‘wood’ sides until it met the land of the estate based in the next valley. This remoter land another of the roads up to the come from the Old English words dun and would be used for pasture and for supplying woodland products. King Alfred common grazing on the hilltop. It was wudu meaning ‘hill’ and ‘wood’. This is encouraged the spread of Christianity and literacy and local lords began to build carved out by thousands of years of another indication of the wood’s age – an churches on their estates. They naturally built them conveniently close to their feet, hooves and wheels loosening indication emphasised by its rich flora. own dwelling. The priest was funded by the Tithe – a tenth of the increase of the the soil that was then washed away land – from his parish and the parish would coincide with his patron’s estate. by rain. The road leading to Eling 9. Chalk quarry. The local soils are not only Thus parish boundaries often show us Saxon estates. They are often marked by from the Hampstead Norreys to pervious they are also acid and chalk was earthen banks and ditches which have sometimes been shown to be very much Hermitage road runs up a similar used to ‘sweeten’ them. See Note 1. older and perhaps the boundaries of Roman or Iron Age land holdings. gully. 10. ‘Farmer’s’ limekiln. ( See page 2). Deer Parks. Medieval deer parks were both the ultimate status symbol and a 13. Terraces. Buried in the trees to These pits are often found near chalk strictly practical method of producing meat. They were mainly a product of the the north of the path are a series of th th quarries. They produced small quantities of 12 & 13 centuries. The Statute of Merton in 1235 allowed lords of manors to shallow terraces and another lime for making mortar and limewash. Chalk enclose parts of the manorial waste to create deer parks providing they left holloway leading to the chalk pit at blocks from the quarry were stacked in the pit ‘sufficient’ for their tenants. If the site was in or near a royal Forest a licence Point 1. mixed with dry wood and burned. This called a Grant of Free Warren was needed before a park could be created. They 14. Rich flora. This area is produced highly corrosive quick lime that had were usually stocked with fallow deer but could hold wild pigs, and red or roe particularly rich in Ancient Woodland to be quenched with water before it could be deer. Indicator Species. Look for wood used. The heat during firing was intense and Ancient Woodland Indicator Species ( AWIS) are plants adapted to growing in anemones, sweet woodruff, would not have permitted the oak on the bank shade and that have poor powers of bluebells, wood speedwell, violets, to exist. This oak is 150-200 years old thus seed dispersal – like the bluebells and th sanicle, primroses, pignut, wood putting last use of the pit in the 19 century. A wood anemones opposite. This means melick and many others. that if they are destroyed by ploughing or magnetometer survey showed intense trampling they do not easily return. heating around the rim of the pit. Woods are not usually ploughed and 11. Look for the anomalies. This long path grazing is likely to be intermittent. is quite dry for most of its length. Why are Therefore a wood with a number of these these puddles at the eastern end? They lie in species is likely to be Ancient. An the hollows between long low ridges running ‘Ancient Wood’ is defined as having north into the trees. These may be hard to see when the vegetation is high but are quite existed since at least 1600. Natural Sweet woodruff & archangel England publishes a list of AWIS. 1 6 From car park and church 1 Car park 14 2 13 3 4 N 5 12 Park Wood 5 100 metres Down Wood This map is taken from a 11 much larger and more 6 detailed survey of the woods. This was carried out in the winter of 2005- 2006 and was deposited 7 9 with West Berks Council Historic Environment 8 Register. The plan demonstrates the richness of historic features in ancient woodland. 10 4 3 The Dean – the playing field in front of and had a stockade around the top. At the Village Hall – gets its name from the most only 14 people can stand on the Old English word denu which means ‘a top and there is no sign of any outer hollow’. An apt name and an indication earthworks. There are three other of how long names can survive! barrows within half a mile – all St Mary’s Church is reputed to have ploughed flat. The woodland has Saxon work in the structure. It also has preserved this one. It dates from a preaching cross base near the door c.2500BC. and an interesting cast iron tomb. 5. Terraces. These were formed by Manor Farm is without doubt on the soil loosened by cultivation moving site of a long series of ancient farms down hill to a boundary. They appear leading back to at least Saxon times to be from the pre-wood period. There Manor Farm and church 1969 St Mary’s church and probably further. It was the centre is a Roman farmstead to the south of With acknowledgements to Mrs Betts of a large Saxon estate which originally the wood and they may be related to included Hermitage parish.