Stories of Sherrardspark Wood, Welwyn Garden City

The bluebells of Sherrardswood

The gorgeous ancient woodland indicator, yellow archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon) (not to be confused with its s.9 invasive species cousin, variegated yellow archangel (L.galeobdolon subsp. argentatum) which was growing literally across the road 😡

Found down Rectory Lane at the edge of Sherrardspark Wood, WGC. It is interesting that this lane is packed with AWI's but this part of the adjacent woodland is not. Perhaps this is indicative of ground disturbance in parts of the wood that were replanted during its history?

Sherrardswood was victim of the Oak Boom of the 19th century, when the tanning industry coupled with ship building drove a high demand for oak bark and a subsequent over planting of oak in woods which had for centuries been coppice with standards.

Many of these oaks went unfilled when the tanning boom crashed and with it demand for the oaks, causing the coppice to be eventually shaded out.

 This is why the wood wardens are thinning out the oaks in some areas.

Coppicing and traditional woodmanship "the woodland economy" was dead as a trade before any of us were born.

We only know its forgotten remnants in the form of abandoned coppice and pollard. We don't realise the extent to which our lowland woodlands were managed as crops. How a wood could be cut down hundreds of times over its history. We don't notice that many ancient woods lack ancient trees because hundreds of years of harvesting stopped them getting old.

We don't realise just how modified they really are from whatever the "natural" regional woodland type might have been. In many places, there is a vague common thread but species composition is very much informed by what was considered crop and what was considered weed.

This is one of the things that can make a woodland NVC survey tricky.....but also fun as you get to put your investigator cap on to work out its story!

#botany #ecology #ancientwoodland