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Savernake Forest

Coordinates:51°23′N1°41′W/ 51.383°N 1.683°W/51.383; -1.683
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Savernake Forest
Six of Savernake Forest's historic oak trees: Top row: Big Bellied Oak; New Queen Oak; Queen Oak. Bottom row: Saddle Oak 1; Saddle Oak 2; Spider Oak.
Geography
Coordinates51°23′N1°41′W/ 51.383°N 1.683°W/51.383; -1.683
Area4,500 acres (7.0 sq mi; 18 km2)

Savernake Foreststands on aCretaceouschalkplateaubetweenMarlboroughandGreat BedwyninWiltshire,England. Its area is approximately 4,500 acres (18 km2;7.0 sq mi).[1]

Most of the forest lies within thecivil parishofSavernake.It is privately owned by theMarquess of Ailesburyand his son theEarl of Cardigan,and is administered by trustees. Since 1939 the timber of the forest has been managed byForestry Englandon a 999-year lease. The private status of Savernake Forest is maintained by shutting the forest to the public one day per year.[1]

Geography

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Savernake's landform is rolling downland, dissected by both dry and wet valleys. The valleys within the forest, of which there are four, are all dry, and the presence of Cretaceous deposits ofClay-with-Flintscreates the damp, heavy soils suited to dense cover ofoakandbeech.There are patches of poor drainage and wet soil.

History

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First mention of a woodland"Safernoc"was made in AD 934 in the written records of the KingAthelstan,but the land passed into Norman ownership soon after the Norman invasion of 1066.

Theroyal forestestablished in the 12th century covered an area of some 150 square miles (390 km2); it extended to the villages ofEast Kennett,Inkpenand the Collingbournes (west, east and south) while theRiver Kennetformed its northern limit. Savernake Forest was not continuously wooded:Royal forestswere a mixture of woodland,copses,common land and rough pasture.

This was the area of land put into the care of Richard Esturmy after the Norman Conquest. Since then Savernake estate and forest has passed down from father to son (or daughter, on four occasions) in an unbroken line of hereditary "forest wardens". In 31 generations, it has never once been bought or sold in a thousand years, and today it is the only ancient forest in Britain still in private hands.[1]

One early high point of the estate's fortunes was inTudor times.The head of the family (SirJohn Seymour) was used to welcomingHenry VIIIto the forest, where the king was very keen on deer-hunting. King Henry stayed at Savernake in 1535, where it is believed that his eye was then taken by his host's daughter,Jane Seymour.After the execution ofAnne Boleynin May 1536, they were subsequently married, and Jane was crowned Queen just months later, causing the head of the family at Savernake to suddenly find himself father-in-law to Henry VIII.[2]

Jane died in childbirth and after marrying a further three wives, Henry died ten years later. So it fell to Jane's brotherEdward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somersetto leave his estate of Savernake Forest in 1547 and to go up toHampton Court,where for the next five years with the title 'Lord Protector' he was King of England in all but name, until his late sister's young childEdward VIgrew old enough to reign alone.

The mid 17th century to mid 18th century saw variations in the size of the forest. English deer parks were subject todis-parkingwhereby sections of forest and parkland were converted to agriculture.[Note 1]On occasions during this period it was reported that the King's naval officers were far from happy with the state of the forest, finding"but 3 or 4 trees fit for his [the king's] use".The open spaces were found to be"infested with heath, furze, fern [bracken]"and had"coarse turfe".[3]

The Ailesbury Column

A second high point for the forest was under the wardenship of Charles Bruce and his nephew Thomas Bruce-Brudenell (wardens from 1741 to 1814).Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury,as head of the family, made a great success, and had risen at Court to be Governor to the KingGeorge IV.TheBruce Tunnelwhich carries theKennet and Avon Canalunder the estate is named after him. He employedLancelot 'Capability' Brownto plant greatbeechavenues in Savernake Forest, which was then some 40,000 acres (160 km2), nearly ten times its present size. These included the Grand Avenue, running through the heart of the forest, and which at 3.9 miles (6.3 km) dead straight stands in theGuinness Book of Recordsas the longest tree-lined avenue in Britain.

A stone column[4]some 90 feet (27 m) high was erected by Lord Ailesbury as an impressive viewpoint at the end of a vista fromTottenham House.

Large parts of the forest were used as a munitions depot between 1940 and 1949.[5]Re-planting with conifer plantations was modest by 1950s' standards, and today theForestry Commissionhas engaged in a programme more sympathetic to the restoration and preservation of the ancient trees.

David Brudenell-Bruce, 9th Marquess of Ailesburyis the current and thirty-first warden of Savernake Forest, having been handed the wardenship byhis fatherin 1987.[6]Tottenham House, which was designated asGrade I listedin 1966,[7]was sold in 2014.[8]

Inside the forest

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The areas of broad-leaved woodland which dominate the Savernake Plateau are accompanied by a farmland mosaic. The plateau is within theNorth Wessex DownsArea of Outstanding Natural Beauty.[9]The mosaic is emphasised by theassartedcharacter of the area east of the Savernake (coppices of Little Frith, Cobham Frith, Chisbury Wood, Haw Wood,etc.), where farmland occurs as clearings in a wider forest, creating a distinctive and memorable, 'secret' landscape [10]

Capability Brown worked out a strategy for linking coppices with oak plantings, lining forest trails with beech trees, and providing vistas with "proper objects" on which the eye might rest. The forest would be made part of the parkland. The scattered coppices, meadows, scrub, and heath should be united, into "one great whole."[11]

A pollarded beech

As times changed, and social expectations altered, a later warden George Frederick was eager to show off his forest. There was much rearranging of copses and vistas and setting aside of grass rides so that visitors could see the woods as a whole and be impressed. He ordered that the entire estate be fenced and palings be placed around individual trees. That way, the deer might roam freely with a minimum of damage.

The fifth marquess recognized that the woodlands needed to be made commercially viable. Included among the 778,000 trees he planted were a high proportion of softwoods, placed outside the forest's core (e.g.: Birch Copse in the SE). This warden was too deeply imbued with tradition to contemplate industrialized forestry but he was the first of his family to introduce a measure of systematic management of larch and spruce plantations.

Chandos Bruce, the sixth marquess, did everything possible to carry on with this combination of systematic management and concern for amenity and symbolic representation. Eventually, however, he found the burden too heavy due to increasing costs, Lloyd George's taxes on inherited wealth, and the impossibility of hiring enough labour during and after the First World War. In 1930 he approached the government Forestry Commission but drew back when he recognised that surrendering control would probably bring on an invasion by ranks of straight-backed conifers. Eight years later the commission became more open to the suggestion that recreational uses might be as legitimate as commercial ones and agreed to the special conditions the sixth marquess had stubbornly laid down. As a result, after 800 years of wardenship, the family surrendered control and the public, because of Lord Ailesbury's dedication, gained a handsome amenity.[12]

Savernake is a coppice-with-standards forest and anAncient Woodland.A coppice is a wood where broad-leaved trees, typically hazel, grow out of the stumps or "stools" left from previous cuttings. Standards are trees allowed to grow to maturity. If these trees are allowed to grow in close proximity they grow straight and tall. If they have more room to grow then side branches become substantial.

The King of Limbs, an ancient tree

In the past standardisation was not at all essential. Craft work and early mechanical industry, such as shipbuilding, wagon making, and furniture making all required "bends" and "knees," as well as other eccentrically shaped pieces which the side branches would provide. Trees such as beech and oak can be pollarded, a process whereby a standard is cut two-thirds up its trunk. Multiple boughs grow from the cut point and the life of the tree is extended and curved pieces of bough or trunk are often produced. Such trees become magnificent specimens and they live through generations of forest workers. Their base trunk attains great girth. Often the side boughs become too heavy and are broken in stormy weather. In other cases the bough weight (an outward force) begins to tear the lower trunk apart creating a cavity which can over decades become cavernous in size. The oldest of these pollarded trees is theBig Belly Oakbeside the A346 road. Big Belly is one of Fifty Great British Trees named and honoured as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. It has a girth of 11 metres (36 ft) and is 1000–1100 years old. In 2001 it was in danger of splitting in two, a fate that had already overtaken the similarly aged Duke's Vaunt. To prevent this, the tree was fitted with a metal corset.[13]The 2011RadioheadalbumThe King of Limbsis named after the ancient King of Limbs tree in the forest near Tottenham House, where the band recorded part of their previous album,In Rainbows.[14][15]

It is thought that nowhere else in Europe is there such a concentration of "veteran" trees. Savernake has hundreds of such trees, beeches and oaks, some appearing singly, others in avenues, some amongst younger broad-leaved trees and others within coniferous plantations. Some of the historically important trees are named and their names appear upon local maps, and even upon the modern Ordnance Survey Explorer 157. Since about 2006 the Forestry Commission has been clearing space around well-known venerable trees, and naming them with green plaques. Elsewhere clearings have been created, revealing old ponds, long hidden by coniferous plantings but now opened up to the light. Standing water is essential for bio-diversity. Savernake has areas of damp soil, but no streams. Another best practice is to leavedead woodlying, for the benefit of invertebrates. In Savernake fallen trees are left to decay anddead standing trees(monoliths) are generally left standing.

In 2003 White Park cattle were introduced into Savernake Forest, to forage freely in the Red Vein Bottom area, a semi-open area of relict wood pasture which had not been grazed in more than 60 years.[16]Such controlled grazing should recreate the naturally open glades ideal for the ancient oak and beech and their specialist lichen and fungal communities, as well as rare woodland and grassland flora; the exact wildlife features for which Savernake Forest is designated as aSite of Special Scientific Interest.[17]

Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) are regularly inspected and their health is monitored. Savernake has SSSI status primarily for rare lichens found on the bark of the older trees. There is also good representation of fungi types and mosses. However, the health of Savernake is not particularly good, partly because of the destruction wrought during World War II, and probably from wind-borne pollutants. The entire site is at condition 88%"unfavourable recovering".This is not a comment of the beauty of the forest, but a health statement on the lichens and mosses and invertebrates.

Forest features

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Savernake Forest has many named drives and other landscape features. These are named on the Ordnance Survey Explorer map 157Marlborough & Savernake Forest,but few are named on the ground.

Winter scene at Great Lodge Bottom

Postern Hill to Amity Oak

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(About 3 miles (4.8 km) west to east)Postern Hillis at(grid referenceSU197679).At 193 metres (633 ft) this is the chalk plateau at its highest, and a north-facing scarp slope overlooks the town of Marlborough. On the hilltop is a small Forestry Commission Camp Site – Postern Hill Campsite – together with a public car park and barbecue area. Four tracks head southwards through oak forest, the principal one beingLong Harry(grid referenceSU202681).The track descends gradually, crossingWhite Road(grid referenceSU206677).Tree cover is not dense and ancient oaks are plentiful here, including one namedSaddle Oakon account of its near-horizontal boughs.

Church Walk(grid referenceSU209675)bridle path is crossed next before reachingGreat Lodge Bottom(grid referenceSU215673).The bridle path connects theA4to Cadley hamlet on theA346,and is the only public right of way in the main part of the forest. Great Lodge Bottom is an east-running dry valley, fairly open withhawthornandblackthornscrub. After crossing the Grand Avenue the valley runs intoRed Vein Bottom(grid referenceSU219676)with its rough pasture and rabbit warrens. The path is joined by a small valley coming down from thepinetum(pine arboretum) atBraydon Hook(grid referenceSU221671)adjacent to Braydon Hook House. The path from Red Vein Bottom skirts theAshdale Firsand passes some huge beeches before arriving at theAmity Oak(grid referenceSU232675),an old tree which serves as a parish boundary marker. The valley continues east toHungerfordvia Little Frith.

Bluebells at Little Frith

Leigh Hill to Crabtree Cottages

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(About 3 miles (4.8 km) west to east)Leigh Hill(grid referenceSU219645)is 2.8 miles (4.5 km) south of Postern Hill and is 193 metres (633 ft) high.

There is a seasonal car park nearby. Three small valleys run northeast from this high point.Postwives Walk(grid referenceSU220647)begins with an ancient avenue of oaks and descends gently to crossCharcoal Burners Road(grid referenceSU222654)(charcoalis still made here) and so on to the heart of the forest, passing both theQueen Oak(grid referenceSU224657)and theKing Oak(grid referenceSU225659).A second valley, namedCheval Bottom,(grid referenceSU225645)starts in an avenue of maturecopper beechesand passes beside thePark Pale(grid referenceSU229660)which is an ancient bank-and-ditch feature which marked the perimeter of the Royal Park at one time. The third valley starts near the column atThree Oak Hill Drive(grid referenceSU231662)which, despite its name, has fine stands ofbeechand also ofScots pine.The ground descends intoDrury Lane(grid referenceSU229648)and passes a young plantation before joining the other two valleys and then, as a fine shallow-sided valley of meadow pasture, passesSavernake Lodge(grid referenceSU233667)on its way toCrabtree Cottages(grid referenceSU240670)and thence toLittle Frith(grid referenceSU246676)with its carpets ofbluebellsin May, and then finally joining the valley to Hungerford.

An avenue of copper beeches

Grand Avenue to Strawgrove Copse

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(About5+3⁄4miles (9.3 km) north to south.) TheGrand Avenue(grid referenceSU210683)is a straight but narrow tarmaced road connecting the A4 to the Durley Road near Tottenham House. It is lined with beech trees, but few of them are survivors from the original plantings. The A4 was once atoll roadthrough the forest, taking the Marlborough to Hungerford traffic. TheToll Road House(grid referenceSU209684)still stands today. The Grand Avenue continues southeast toEight Walks(grid referenceSU225668)where Capability Brown laid out the hub to Savernake's eight radial drives. A little further on there is an unexplainedMonument(grid referenceSU231662)on the western side of the road, rumoured[18]to be a marker (or tomb?) to someone who suffered a fatal fall from a horse.

At theThree Oak Hill Drivecrossroads, a track north-east points toBirch Copse(grid referenceSU239662).Duke's Vaunt Oak(grid referenceSU238664)is a notable tree approximately 1,000 years old. It was once hollow and 30 feet (9.1 m) in girth. In 1760 it had a door and a lock and was capable of sheltering"twenty boys".[19][Note 2]The tree is badly split now, but survives. Here the ground is damp and parts ofBirch Copsebarely see daylight. While some of the tall pines seem senescent, other plantation firs are green and vibrant. Many varieties of fungi can be seen in profusion in October, butdead-wood fungiare common enough throughout the year. At the southeast edge of the forest are good examples ofSweet ChestnutandYew.AtHolt Pound(grid referenceSU248657)an avenue of oaks joins Birch Copse toBedwyn Common(grid referenceSU255652).This section of Savernake has its own avenue,London Ride,which at1+1⁄3miles (2.1 km) runs fromSt Katherine's Church(grid referenceSU252649)toUpper Horsehall Hill Farm(grid referenceSU261667).The ride is lined with oak in the south, and bylimesin the north. Many old oaks and oldsweet chestnutsare still standing, and foxgloves populate the forest edges. Forest tracks and bridleways lead southeast, and this is very much assarted[Note 3]countryside. WhenStock Common(grid referenceSU262644)is reached there are footpaths toShawgrove Copse(grid referenceSU270643),within sight of Great Bedwyn, or south to the rear of Tottenham Park by way ofBloxham Lodge(grid referenceSU262637).

The Duke's Vaunt oak in 2004
The Duke's Vaunt oak in 2011

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Nevertheless, several private farms had been carved from Savernake Forest in these years, includingLevett's Farm (1649), Culley's Farm (1649), and Compton's Farm.(Savernake, A History of the County of Wilshire, D.A. Crowley, 1999, Victoria County History, British History Online) Levett's Farm was owned byWilliam Levett(sometimes spelled Levet) ofSwindon,Wiltshire, acourtierto KingCharles Iand descendant of aSussexfamily.(William Levett, Savernake near Marlborough, A Bibliography of the King's Book, or Eikon Basilike, Edward Almack, 1896) By 1685, Levett's residence was given as "West Lodge, Savernake Parke". (Levett also acted as agent and surveyor for theDuke of Somerset.)(Renewal of lease for ninety nine years or named lives as described in 9/2/282, made by the current owner of the Savernake Estate, William Levett of Swindon, surveyor for the Duke of Somerset. 1 March 1673, Wiltshire and Swindon Archive Catalogue, Wiltshire Council) These three farms, and many more which followed in later years, are shown on a map drawn in 1812. They are situated mainly to the west of the present day forest, at Clench Common. Levett's and Culley's are shown on the O.S. map of 1998, whilst Compton's is possibly marked as "The Old Chapel".
  2. ^The Duke's Vaunt was surrounded by a new planting of conifers in the 1980s. In 2007 more than 30 of these firs were cut down as part of the"haloing"process for the oldest of Savernake's trees. Haloing means taking out encroaching trees and undergrowth that might rob the old trees of the light and air they need.(FromForestry Commission press release 27-6-2007 "Can't see the trees for the wood"Archived2011-06-06 at theWayback Machine)
  3. ^Assarted woodland: in general, woods were deemed to be assarted if their outline is sufficiently irregular. This is most evident where they are adjoined by assart field systems. Assarts are fields cut out of woodland and are identified as enclosures of very irregular form with wavy boundaries.(Taylor, Christopher (1982) [1975].Fields in the English Landscape.Archaeology in the Field Series. London:J.M. Dent& Sons Ltd. pp. 75, 97.ISBN0-460-02232-6.)

Nearby places

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References

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  1. ^abc"Savernake Estate".Retrieved8 September2016.
  2. ^Chandos Bruce.The Wardens of Savernake Forest,pp. 301-2. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1949
  3. ^Bruce., 1949, p. 216
  4. ^"Follies of Wiltshire",Retrieved on 16-6-2009.
  5. ^Crutchley, Simon; Small, Fiona; Bowden, Mark (2009)."Savernake Forest: A Report for the National Mapping Programme (29-2009)"(PDF).English Heritage. pp. 40–44. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 17 September 2016.Retrieved8 September2016.
  6. ^"The Marquess of Ailesbury obituary: much-married stockbroker".The Times.29 August 2024.Retrieved29 August2024.
  7. ^Historic England."Tottenham House (1183809)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved8 September2016.
  8. ^Rayner, Gordon (17 October 2014)."Earl of Cardigan admits defeat in battle to keep ancestral home on Savernake estate".The Telegraph.Retrieved8 September2016.
  9. ^"North Wessex Downs aonb"Archived2009-09-11 at theWayback Machine,Retrieved on 13-6-2009.
  10. ^County Council paper."Wiltshire Planning Department",Retrieved on 13-6-2009.
  11. ^Bruce. "The Wardens of Savernake Forest", p83-86.
  12. ^Peggy Walvin,Savernake Forest(Cheltenham: privately printed, 1976), pages 35-36
  13. ^Newsquest Group"This Is Wiltshire.",Retrieved in 2003.
  14. ^"Radiohead releasing new albumThe King Of Limbson Saturday (19 Feb) ".NME.14 February 2011.Retrieved20 April2011.
  15. ^"Finding Radiohead's King Of Limbs".DIY Mag.Retrieved17 August2020.
  16. ^"Ancient cows help conserve forest".BBC. 30 April 2007.
  17. ^"Savernake Forest SSSI Citation Sheet"(PDF).Natural England SSSI Detail.Natural England.Retrieved25 May2023.
  18. ^"Follies of Wiltshire - mystery",Retrieved on 16-6-2009.
  19. ^FromForest Life 2002, magazine of the Forestry Commission

Further reading

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TheVictoria County Historyaccounts of the Savernake parishes give a very full account of the settlements, estates, and economic history of the region.

For a definitive account of the lineage of the forest wardens see:

Other reading on ancient forestry in England:

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