Isle of Wight Ancient Woodland Survey REPORT AUTHOR Dr Vicky Basford DATE OF REPORT 7th January 2013 SITE NAME Quarr Wood MODERN EVIDENCE FOR NAME OS 1:25000 OL 29 2005 Definition of Site and Location of Wooded Areas The late-eighteenth century extent of Quarr Wood can be seen on the OS drawing surveyed in 1793- 4, this being one of a series of eight such drawings in the British Library often known as the ‘Mudge Survey’ (Figure 1). Quarr Wood was bounded by the precinct wall of Quarr Abbey in the west, by Quarr Hill in the south, by the road from Quarr Hill to Binstead Church (Church Road) in the east and by the Solent in the north. In more recent times Quarr Wood has been fragmented by development. This survey will be restricted to the examination of wooded areas within the historic boundary of Quarr Wood as shown in Figure 1. The present-day extent of woodland in the area is shown in Figure 2. Current and Proposed Areas of Ancient Woodland Three separate areas are currently defined as Ancient Woodland. These have been labelled ‘AW1’, ‘AW2’ and ‘AW3’ on Figure 3. The sizes of these three areas are given on the MAgiC website (2012) Area AW1 = 1.25 ha. Area AW2 = 4.31 ha. Area AW3 = 1.88 ha. A recent report for the Isle of Wight Council on the revision of the Provisional Isle of Wight Ancient Woodland Inventory (Brownscombe 2013) has identified additional wooded areas within the historic boundary of Quarr Wood that may merit designation as Ancient Woodland (see Figure 5). STATUTORY DESIGNATIONS Some of the present-day woodland shown in Figure 2 falls within the Isle of Wight AONB, including two of the areas identified in the Provisional Inventory of Ancient Woodland (AW1 and AW2) but not AW3. Area AW1 falls within the ‘Ryde Sands and Wootton Creek SSSI. HABITAT All the currently existing woodland shown in Figure 2 has been defined as a ‘Deciduous Woodland BAP’. LAND OWNERSHIP Not known. SITUATION IN LANDSCAPE Historically, Quarr Wood lay within Binstead Parish between Quarr Abbey and Binstead Church (Figure 4). TENURIAL AND LAND USE HISTORY Quarr Wood is depicted as a single block of woodland on the 1790s Ordnance Survey drawing (Figure 1). Although no documentary evidence is available for the land use of Quarr Wood in the medieval period or earlier, the north-east part of the Island in which it lies was well-wooded in comparison with other parts of the Island. Tree cover was retained longest on the heavy clay soils of 1 northern Wight and this has assisted particularly good survival of ancient woodland in the north east sector of the Island. Today, north-east Wight carries over 40% of the Island’s surviving ancient woodland and by far the greatest number of large woodland blocks (Pope 2012, 18). Margham (2012, 279-284) has reconstructed the bounds of the later Anglo-Saxon estate of Stathe. This 800 acre estate occupied the western half of the medieval parish of Binstead and the Havenstreet area to the south (Margham 2012, figure 8.32). Its western boundary was formed by Wootton Creek and its eastern boundary lay to the west of the site of Quarr Wood and Quarr Abbey. Margham suggests that a substantial part of the area within the Stathe estate was an open landscape in the late Saxon period (probably heathland) although he concedes that woodland was probably also an important land use within the estate, particularly within the area of the present Firestone Copse. Margham also points out that woodland management in the Quarr and Binstead area within the middle to late Saxon period is implied by the dated wooden structures recorded on the foreshore during the Wootton-Quarr Survey (Tomalin et al 2012). He also draws attention to the economic importance of woodland during the medieval period when a monastic tannery is recorded in the valley between Newnham and Quarr, and a charcoal burner, John Hanson of Quarr, is cited in AD 1552 (Hockey 1970, 55; Hockey 1991, 104). Both tanning and charcoal burning were industries dependent on the plentiful supply of wood). In the medieval period the area of Quarr Wood as shown on the 1790s Ordnance Survey drawing was split between the estates of Quarr Abbey1 and Binstead Manor. The land belonging to these two estates is shown on a modern map (Hockey 1991, xvii). This map does not mark the position of Quarr Wood but depicts the boundary between the estates of Quarr and Binstead (Figure 4). It seems clear that the western part of Quarr Wood, owned by Quarr Abbey, was managed as woodland in the medieval period. Evidence is provided in a document dealing with the sale of the manor of Quarr and the grange (home farm) of Newnham to John and George Mill in 1544, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries (Webster 1975-1995). This document contains details of the woods on the estate. It refers to: Eastwood, 25 acres, Newnham Copse, 3 acres, making a total of 28 acres of which 10 acres were of 30 to 40 years growth, 3 acres of 8 years growth and 15 acres set with short shrubbed polling oaks of 30 and 40 years growth. All the woodland described in this document probably lay to the east of Quarr Abbey within Quarr Wood apart from the small area of ‘Newnham Copse’. The size of ‘Eastwood’ may provide evidence about how Quarr Wood was divided between the manors of Quarr and Binstead. The extent of Quarr Wood as shown on the 1790s Ordnance Survey drawing (Figure 1) was 105 acres so it would appear that over three-quarters of the area shown as woodland on the 1790s drawing belonged to the manor of Binstead. No documentary references to woodland within the medieval manor of Binstead have been identified but it is known that the Binstead area has been subject to quarrying activity over a very long period of time. Bembridge Limestone has been worked on the Island since the Iron Age and Roman periods. The limestone was recovered from several sites across the north of the Island but the quarries at Binstead were the most important. In the Saxon period a particular facies of superior limestone known as the ‘featherbed’ or ‘Quarr Stone’ was first worked. Exported consignments of this stone were used for architectural detail in a number of pre-conquest churches in Hampshire and East Sussex. The heyday of the Binstead quarries was from the 12th to the 14th century. They gave their name to the adjacent Cistercian abbey of Quarr and provided stone for the Norman cathedral 1 The abbey of Quarr was established in about 1133 as a daughter-house of the abbey of Savigny. It was granted land called Shaldefleet [Escaudeflot] by Hugh Gernon, lord of Chale (Hockey 1991; 1, 20). 2 at Winchester and for Romsey Abbey. By the 15th century the majority of the featherbed stone had been removed. However, stone was still quarried at Binstead during the early development of Ryde from the late 18th century and continued until 1876 (Westmore 2012, 292). A survey of the Binstead quarries formed part of a large-scale archaeological investigation along the Wootton-Quarr coastline in the early 1990s (Tomalin et al 2012). The resultant plan (Figure 6) is based in part on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch map (Figure 7). Comparison of Figures 1, 6 and 7 makes it clear that some quarrying took place within the north-east corner of Quarr Wood although two of the largest quarry sites lay to the east of the wood near Pits Cottage and Brookfield Lodge. It is unclear whether the eastern edge of Quarr Wood would have been totally stripped of woodland during quarrying operations, with subsequent regrowth, or whether quarrying activity actually took place within a wooded environment. The date of the various quarry features within the wood is also uncertain (see below under ‘HER Data’). The Binstead quarries lay within Binstead Manor which belonged to William son of Stur at the time of Domesday but afterwards passed to the Crown. The manor is probably to be identified with half a hide in the Isle of Wight, whence stone might be quarried for the cathedral church of Winchester, granted by William the Conqueror to Walkelin, Bishop of Winchester. The area of land held by the see of Winchester had increased to one hide by the time of Henry I. Binstead became a member of the episcopal manor of Swainstone (also owned by the see of Winchester) and remained with Winchester till the surrender of that manor to Edward I in 1284. In 1292–3 it was found that the king’s quarry at Binstead could supply stone for the fabric of the abbey church of Quarr as well as for any work the Crown might wish to undertake in the Island, so the abbot was to be allowed to dig and remove what stone he required, paying at the customary rate of 40d a ‘millena’ (Page 1912, 151). Binstead Manor passed with Swainston to the sister of Edward II in 1307 and then in 1315 to the infant Edward III. In 1331, Edward III granted Swainston to William de Montagu, subsequently Earl of Salisbury and from that date it followed the descent of Ringwood Manor until 1478, when it was granted to Anthony Lord Rivers. It passed back to the Crown in 1483 and was then granted for life to Sir Reginald Bray. In 1513 Swainston was restored to Lady Margaret Pole, a member of the Montagu family, but after the Countess’ attainder and execution in 1541 it again passed to the Crown (Page 1912, 219).