Coppicing and Pollarding

The other title I gave this woodland was semi-natural. This goes almost by default in Britain as very few of our habitats are natural; humans have had an influence on all of them to a greater or lesser extent. The most obvious evidence of this interference (or management) in Whitehill Wood is the presence of hazel coppice. Coppicing is the practice of repeatedly cutting a tree at ground level to encourage it to send up several shoots which are then harvested for poles or whips. Coppiced material was an essential resource in medieval Britain, providing wood and timber that was fundamental to the medieval economy.

About 1.2km south west (as the crow flies) of the woodland one will come across an example of a related, but different method of managing trees for poles, known as pollarding. This practice is similar to coppicing, except that the trees are cut leaving a trunk of 1 to 2 metres in height to encourage the development of a dense crown. As well as using pollards for wood and poles, their leafy crowns were also harvested to provide fodder for livestock.

An Avenue and a Well

Just south of the hamlet of Wilcote is an avenue of ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) that lead to a holy well. The well is identified as Lady Well on the OS map, but is referred to as Bridewell in other sources. It is encircled by a stone wall and just south of it is a spring that runs through a cobbled waterway.

Prior to the Second World War local women and girls (wearing new straw hats bedecked with primroses and violets) would make a pilgrimage each Palm Sunday through the ash tree avenue to the well. At the well they would collect water and add it to bottles, into which they had previously added crushed mints and liquorice sticks, to make a tonic.

Some have suggested that the name Bridewell may be associated with the Irish Saint Brigid. This might be true more recently, but it is possible that the well has earlier associations with the Celtic Goddess Brigantia. While both has associations with healing especially for women, Brigantia was also a goddess of springs, streams and water, among other things. Her Imbolc, or festive day, was celebrated the beginning of spring and was subsequently absorbed into the Christian festive calendar as Saint Brigid’s Day.

Ancient and New

As you walk through the avenue, you will note that some of the trees have been planted relatively recently, but there are some magnificent old ash trees that still survive. I have seen many gnarled and ancient oaks, but I have seldom seen ash trees that display the fascinating, gnarled and hollow trunks like those found in this avenue. Dendrological (ring counting) analysis has shown that the oldest are some 300 years old. As a result, it has been speculated that the avenue was planted by John Cary, who became lord of Wilcote Manor after buying it in 1667. He is known to have been a keen planter and to have laid out 'nurseries of walnuts and ashes' at Woodstock for Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon.