Savernake Forest
Encyclopedia
Savernake Forest is on a Cretaceous
chalk
plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn
in Wiltshire
, England
. Its area is approximately 4500 acre (18.2 km²; 7 sq mi).
It is privately owned by the Trustees of Savernake Estate, the Earl of Cardigan
, and his family solicitor. Since 1939 the running of the forest has been undertaken by the Forestry Commission
on a 999-year lease. The forest is deemed to be public access land, by agreement of the Forestry Commission and the Trustees.
Savernake's landform is one of rolling downland dissected by both dry and wet valleys. The valleys within the forest, of which there are four, are all dry valleys, and the presence of Cretaceous deposits of Clay-with-Flints
creates the damp heavy soils suited to dense cover of oak and beech
. There are patches of poor drainage and wet soil.
, but the land passed into Norman ownership soon after the Norman invasion of 1066.
The royal forest
was established in the 12th century, and it covered an area of some
150 square miles (388.5 km²). As such it would have extended to the villages of East Kennett
, Inkpen
and the Collingbournes (west, east and south) while the River Kennet
was its northern delimiter. But it was not continuously wooded. Early Royal Forests were a mixture of woodland, copses, common land and rough pasture.
This was the area of land put into the care of Richard Esturmy, one of the victorious knights who fought at the Battle of Hastings
in 1066. 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 being bought or sold in a thousand years, and today it is the only ancient forest in Britain still in private hands.
One early high point of the estate's fortunes was in Tudor times
. The head of the family (Sir John Seymour
) was used to welcoming King Henry VIII
to 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
. They actually met at Littlecote House which is close by to the forest. There is a stained glass window in the Great Hall with their individual crests on and also one royal one with H & J on it. After the execution of Anne Boleyn
in 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.
Jane died in childbirth and after marrying again, Henry himself died a few years later. So it fell to Jane's brother Edward Seymour
to leave his estate of Savernake Forest in 1547 and to go up to Hampton Court
, where for the next five years with the title 'Lord Protector
' he was King of England in all but name, while his late sister's young child Edward VI
grew 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 to dis-parking whereby sections of forest and parkland were converted to agriculture.Note 1 During parts of 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".
In fact dis-parking was very much an on-off affair and it was only the Battle of the Atlantic (commencing 1940) that saw the final dis-parking of England's old deer parks.
A second high point for the forest was under the wardenship of Charles Bruce and his nephew Thomas Bruce-Brudenell (wardens from 1741–1814) Lord Thomas Bruce
, the Earl of Ailesbury, as head of the family, made a great success of himself, and had risen at Court to be Governor to the King George IV
. The Bruce Tunnel
which carries the Kennet and Avon Canal
under the estate is named after him. He employed Lancelot 'Capability' Brown
to plant great beech
avenues in Savernake Forest, which was then some 40000 acres (161.9 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 the Guinness Book of Records
as the longest tree-lined avenue in Britain.
Two large structures date from this time. First, and within the public access part of Savernake, there is the stone column some 90 feet (27.4 m) high, and purchased by Thomas Bruce Brudenell, the Earl of Ailesbury, as an impressive viewpoint at the end of a vista from Tottenham House
. Tottenham House had existed in various forms (and in various stages of decay) over the years, but the Earl had it rebuilt by Lord Burlington in 1820, and it looks much the same today.
The house is no longer the family seat, and the forest and the estate is set to change once more. Savernake survived World War II
remarkably intact (it was used as a munitions dump) and re-planting with conifer plantations was modest by 1950s' standards. Today the Forestry Commission
has engaged in a programme more sympathetic to the restoration and preservation of the ancient trees. David Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan
,Note 2 the current and thirty-first warden of Savernake Forest has initiated the renovation of Tottenham House and a golf course is planned for the southern part of Savernake estate.
The mosaic is emphasised by the assarted
character 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.
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."
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 (eg: 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 labor during and after the First World War. In 1930 he approached the government Forestry Commission but drew back when he recognized 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.
Savernake is a coppice-with-standards forest and an Ancient 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.
In the past standardization 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 the "Big Belly Oak" beside 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 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. The 2011 Radiohead
album The King of Limbs
is named after the ancient King of Limbs tree hidden in the forest near Tottenham Court House, where the band recorded part of their previous album, In Rainbows.
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 leave dead wood lying, for the benefit of invertebrates. In Savernake fallen trees are left to decay and dead 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. 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 a Site of Special Scientific Interest
.
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-bourne 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.
At 193 metres (633.2 ft) this is the chalk plateau at its highest, and a north-facing scarp slope overlooks the town of Marlborough. On the hilltop there is a small Forestry Commission Camp Site, together with a public car park and barbecue area. Four tracks head southwards through oak forest, the principal one being
Long Harry
. The track descends gradually, crossing
White Road
.
The tree cover is not dense and ancient oaks are plentiful here, including one name as Saddle Oak on account of is near horizontal boughs.
Church Walk
bridle path is crossed next before reaching
Great Lodge Bottom
.
The Church Walk path connects the A4 road to Cadley hamlet (the church there is now privately owned) on the A346
and it 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 with hawthorn and blackthorn scrub. After crossing the Grand Avenue
the valley runs into
Red Vein Bottom with its rough pasture and rabbit warrens. The path is joined by a small valley coming down from the pinetum (pine arboretum) at
Braydon Hook
adjacent to Braydon Hook House.
The path from Red Vein Bottom skirts the Ashdale Firs and passes some huge beeches before arriving at the
Amity Oak
, an old tree which serves as a Parish Boundary marker. The valley continues east to Hungerford
via Little Frith.
is 2.8 miles (4.5 km) south of Postern Hill and is 193 metres (633.2 ft) high.
There is a seasonal car park nearby. Three small valleys run North East from this high point.
Postwives Walk
begins with an ancient avenue of oaks and descends gently to cross
Charcoal Burners Road
(charcoal is still made here) and so on to
the heart of the forest, passing both the
Queen Oak
and the
King Oak
A second valley, named as
Cheval Bottom
starts in an avenue of mature
copper beeches
and later passes beside the
Park Pale
which is an ancient bank-and-ditch feature which marked the perimeter of the Royal Park as was.
The third valley starts near the column at
Three Oak Hill Drive
which, despite its name, has fine stands of beech and also of scots pine. The ground descends into
Drury Lane
and passes a young plantation before joining the other two valleys and then, as a fine shallow-sided valley of meadow pasture passes
Savernake Lodge
on its way to
Crabtree Cottages
and thence to
Little Frith
with its carpets of bluebells in May, and then finally joining the valley to Hungerford.
is a straight but narrow tarmaced road connecting the A4 road 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 a toll road through the forest, taking the Marlborough to Hungerford traffic, such as it was. The
Toll Road House
still stands today. The Grand Avenue continues south-east to
Eight Walks
where Capability Brown laid out the hub to Savernake's eight radial drives. A little further on there is an unexplained
Monument
on the western side of the road, rumoured
to be a marker (or tomb?) to someone who suffered a fatal fall from a horse.
At the
Three Oak Hill Drive
crossroads, a track north-east points to
Birch Copse
Duke's Vaunt Oak
is a notable tree approximately 1,000 years old. It was once hollow and 9.1 metres (29.9 ft) in girth. In 1760 it had a door and a lock and was capable of sheltering "twenty boys". Note 4 The tree is badly split now, but still survives. Here the ground is damp and parts of
Birch Copse
barely 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, but dead-wood fungi are common enough throughout the year. At the south-east edge of the forest there are good examples of Sweet Chestnut
and Yew
At Holt Pound
an avenue of oaks joins Birch Copse to
Bedwyn Common
This section of Savernake has its own avenue
London Ride which at 1.3 miles (2.1 km) runs from
St Katherine's Church
to
Upper Horsehall Hill Farm . The ride is lined with oak in the south, and by limes
in the north. Many old oaks and old sweet cheshnut are left standing, and foxgloves populate the forest edges.
Forest tracks and bridleways lead south-east, and this is very much assarted Note 3 countryside. When
Stock Common
is reached there are footpaths to
Shawgrove Copse
, within sight of Great Bedwyn, or south to the rear of Tottenham Park by way of
Bloxham Lodge
accounts 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:
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn
Great Bedwyn
Great Bedwyn is a village and civil parish in the east of the English county of Wiltshire.-Location:Great Bedwyn is on the River Dun about south-west of Hungerford and south-east of Marlborough, Wiltshire. The Kennet and Avon Canal and the West of England Main Line railway follow the Dun and pass...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Its area is approximately 4500 acre (18.2 km²; 7 sq mi).
It is privately owned by the Trustees of Savernake Estate, the Earl of Cardigan
David Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan
David Michael James Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan is the heir apparent to the Marquessate of Ailesbury, and its subsidiary titles...
, and his family solicitor. Since 1939 the running of the forest has been undertaken by the Forestry Commission
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....
on a 999-year lease. The forest is deemed to be public access land, by agreement of the Forestry Commission and the Trustees.
Savernake's landform is one of rolling downland dissected by both dry and wet valleys. The valleys within the forest, of which there are four, are all dry valleys, and the presence of Cretaceous deposits of Clay-with-Flints
Clay-with-Flints
In geology, Clay-with-Flints was the name given by W. Whitaker in 1861 to a peculiar deposit of stiff red, brown or yellow clay containing unworn whole flints as well as angular shattered fragments, also with a variable admixture of rounded flint, quartz, quartzite and other pebbles...
creates the damp heavy soils suited to dense cover of oak and beech
European Beech
Fagus sylvatica, the European Beech or Common Beech, is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae.-Natural range:...
. There are patches of poor drainage and wet soil.
A short history of the forest and its wardens
First mention of a woodland "Safernoc" was made in AD 934 in the written records of the Saxon king AthelstanAthelstan of England
Athelstan , called the Glorious, was the King of England from 924 or 925 to 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder, grandson of Alfred the Great and nephew of Æthelflæd of Mercia...
, but the land passed into Norman ownership soon after the Norman invasion of 1066.
The royal forest
Royal forest
A royal forest is an area of land with different meanings in England, Wales and Scotland; the term forest does not mean forest as it is understood today, as an area of densely wooded land...
was established in the 12th century, and it covered an area of some
150 square miles (388.5 km²). As such it would have extended to the villages of East Kennett
East Kennett
East Kennett is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The United Kingdom Census 2001 recorded a parish population of 105.-Local government:...
, Inkpen
Inkpen
Inkpen is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire about southeast of Hungerford, close to the county boundaries with Wiltshire and Hampshire.-Amenities and landmarks:...
and the Collingbournes (west, east and south) while the River Kennet
River Kennet
The Kennet is a river in the south of England, and a tributary of the River Thames. The lower reaches of the river are navigable to river craft and are known as the Kennet Navigation, which, together with the Avon Navigation, the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Thames, links the cities of Bristol...
was its northern delimiter. But it was not continuously wooded. Early Royal Forests were a mixture of woodland, copses, common land and rough pasture.
This was the area of land put into the care of Richard Esturmy, one of the victorious knights who fought at the Battle of Hastings
Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II...
in 1066. 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 being bought or sold in a thousand years, and today it is the only ancient forest in Britain still in private hands.
One early high point of the estate's fortunes was in Tudor times
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
. The head of the family (Sir John Seymour
John Seymour (Tudor)
Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, KB was a member of the English gentry and a courtier to King Henry VIII, best known for being the father of the king's third wife, Jane Seymour.-Biography:...
) was used to welcoming King Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
to 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
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII. She succeeded Anne Boleyn as queen consort following the latter's execution for trumped up charges of high treason, incest and adultery in May 1536. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of...
. They actually met at Littlecote House which is close by to the forest. There is a stained glass window in the Great Hall with their individual crests on and also one royal one with H & J on it. After the execution of Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
in 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.
Jane died in childbirth and after marrying again, Henry himself died a few years later. So it fell to Jane's brother Edward Seymour
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, KG, Earl Marshal was Lord Protector of England in the period between the death of Henry VIII in 1547 and his own indictment in 1549....
to leave his estate of Savernake Forest in 1547 and to go up to Hampton Court
Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London; it has not been inhabited by the British royal family since the 18th century. The palace is located south west of Charing Cross and upstream of Central London on the River Thames...
, where for the next five years with the title 'Lord Protector
Lord Protector
Lord Protector is a title used in British constitutional law for certain heads of state at different periods of history. It is also a particular title for the British Heads of State in respect to the established church...
' he was King of England in all but name, while his late sister's young child Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
grew 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 to dis-parking whereby sections of forest and parkland were converted to agriculture.Note 1 During parts of 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".
A second high point for the forest was under the wardenship of Charles Bruce and his nephew Thomas Bruce-Brudenell (wardens from 1741–1814) Lord Thomas Bruce
Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury
Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury and 3rd Earl of Elgin was the son of Robert Bruce, 2nd Earl of Elgin and Lady Diana Grey. His maternal grandparents were Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford and Lady Anne Cecil, daughter of William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Exeter...
, the Earl of Ailesbury, as head of the family, made a great success of himself, and had risen at Court to be Governor to the King George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
. The Bruce Tunnel
Bruce Tunnel
The Bruce Tunnel is on the summit pound of the Kennet and Avon Canal between Wootton Top Lock and Crofton Locks in Wiltshire, England.This is the only tunnel on the canal and it is 502 yards long...
which carries the Kennet and Avon Canal
Kennet and Avon Canal
The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is commonly used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the central canal section...
under the estate is named after him. He employed Lancelot 'Capability' Brown
Capability Brown
Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...
to plant great beech
European Beech
Fagus sylvatica, the European Beech or Common Beech, is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae.-Natural range:...
avenues in Savernake Forest, which was then some 40000 acres (161.9 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 the Guinness Book of Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
as the longest tree-lined avenue in Britain.
Two large structures date from this time. First, and within the public access part of Savernake, there is the stone column some 90 feet (27.4 m) high, and purchased by Thomas Bruce Brudenell, the Earl of Ailesbury, as an impressive viewpoint at the end of a vista from Tottenham House
Tottenham House
Tottenham House is a large Grade I listed country house at Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, England.-History:The house, which has more than one hundred rooms, stands in Savernake Forest and belongs to the Marquess of Ailesbury...
. Tottenham House had existed in various forms (and in various stages of decay) over the years, but the Earl had it rebuilt by Lord Burlington in 1820, and it looks much the same today.
The house is no longer the family seat, and the forest and the estate is set to change once more. Savernake survived World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
remarkably intact (it was used as a munitions dump) and re-planting with conifer plantations was modest by 1950s' standards. Today the Forestry Commission
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....
has engaged in a programme more sympathetic to the restoration and preservation of the ancient trees. David Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan
David Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan
David Michael James Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan is the heir apparent to the Marquessate of Ailesbury, and its subsidiary titles...
,Note 2 the current and thirty-first warden of Savernake Forest has initiated the renovation of Tottenham House and a golf course is planned for the southern part of Savernake estate.
Inside the forest
The areas of broad-leaved woodland which dominate the Savernake Plateau are accompanied by a farmland mosaic. The plateau is within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Beauty.The mosaic is emphasised by the assarted
Assarting
Assarting is the act of clearing forested lands for use in agriculture or other purposes. In English law, it was illegal to assart any part of a Royal forest...
character 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.
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."
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 (eg: 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 labor during and after the First World War. In 1930 he approached the government Forestry Commission but drew back when he recognized 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.
Savernake is a coppice-with-standards forest and an Ancient Woodland
Ancient woodland
Ancient woodland is a term used in the United Kingdom to refer specifically to woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England and Wales . Before those dates, planting of new woodland was uncommon, so a wood present in 1600 was likely to have developed naturally...
. 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.
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
album The King of Limbs
The King of Limbs
The King of Limbs is the eighth studio album by English rock band Radiohead, produced by Nigel Godrich. It was self-released on 18 February 2011 as a download in MP3 and WAV formats, followed by physical CD and 12" vinyl releases on 28 March, a wider digital release via AWAL, and a special...
is named after the ancient King of Limbs tree hidden in the forest near Tottenham Court House, where the band recorded part of their previous album, In Rainbows.
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 leave dead wood lying, for the benefit of invertebrates. In Savernake fallen trees are left to decay and dead 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. 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 a Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
.
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-bourne 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
Savernake Forest consists of many named drives and various other landscape features. These are named on the Ordnance Survey Explorer map 157 Marlborough & Savernake Forest, but few are named on the ground.Postern Hill to Amity Oak
(About 4.7 kilometres (2.9 mi) West to east) Postern Hill is at .At 193 metres (633.2 ft) this is the chalk plateau at its highest, and a north-facing scarp slope overlooks the town of Marlborough. On the hilltop there is a small Forestry Commission Camp Site, together with a public car park and barbecue area. Four tracks head southwards through oak forest, the principal one being
Long Harry
. The track descends gradually, crossing
White Road
.
The tree cover is not dense and ancient oaks are plentiful here, including one name as Saddle Oak on account of is near horizontal boughs.
Church Walk
bridle path is crossed next before reaching
Great Lodge Bottom
.
The Church Walk path connects the A4 road to Cadley hamlet (the church there is now privately owned) on the A346
and it 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 with hawthorn and blackthorn scrub. After crossing the Grand Avenue
the valley runs into
Red Vein Bottom with its rough pasture and rabbit warrens. The path is joined by a small valley coming down from the pinetum (pine arboretum) at
Braydon Hook
adjacent to Braydon Hook House.
The path from Red Vein Bottom skirts the Ashdale Firs and passes some huge beeches before arriving at the
Amity Oak
, an old tree which serves as a Parish Boundary marker. The valley continues east to Hungerford
Hungerford
Hungerford is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, 9 miles west of Newbury. It covers an area of and, according to the 2001 census, has a population of 5,559 .- Geography :...
via Little Frith.
Leigh Hill to Crabtree Cottages
(About 4.8 kilometres (3 mi) West to east) Leigh Hillis 2.8 miles (4.5 km) south of Postern Hill and is 193 metres (633.2 ft) high.
There is a seasonal car park nearby. Three small valleys run North East from this high point.
Postwives Walk
begins with an ancient avenue of oaks and descends gently to cross
Charcoal Burners Road
(charcoal is still made here) and so on to
the heart of the forest, passing both the
Queen Oak
and the
King Oak
A second valley, named as
Cheval Bottom
starts in an avenue of mature
copper beeches
and later passes beside the
Park Pale
which is an ancient bank-and-ditch feature which marked the perimeter of the Royal Park as was.
The third valley starts near the column at
Three Oak Hill Drive
which, despite its name, has fine stands of beech and also of scots pine. The ground descends into
Drury Lane
and passes a young plantation before joining the other two valleys and then, as a fine shallow-sided valley of meadow pasture passes
Savernake Lodge
on its way to
Crabtree Cottages
and thence to
Little Frith
with its carpets of bluebells in May, and then finally joining the valley to Hungerford.
Grand Avenue to Strawgrove Copse
(About 9.2 kilometres (5.7 mi) North to south.) The Grand Avenueis a straight but narrow tarmaced road connecting the A4 road 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 a toll road through the forest, taking the Marlborough to Hungerford traffic, such as it was. The
Toll Road House
still stands today. The Grand Avenue continues south-east to
Eight Walks
where Capability Brown laid out the hub to Savernake's eight radial drives. A little further on there is an unexplained
Monument
on the western side of the road, rumoured
to be a marker (or tomb?) to someone who suffered a fatal fall from a horse.
At the
Three Oak Hill Drive
crossroads, a track north-east points to
Birch Copse
Duke's Vaunt Oak
is a notable tree approximately 1,000 years old. It was once hollow and 9.1 metres (29.9 ft) in girth. In 1760 it had a door and a lock and was capable of sheltering "twenty boys". Note 4 The tree is badly split now, but still survives. Here the ground is damp and parts of
Birch Copse
barely 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, but dead-wood fungi are common enough throughout the year. At the south-east edge of the forest there are good examples of Sweet Chestnut
Sweet Chestnut
Castanea sativa is a species of the flowering plant family Fagaceae, the tree and its edible seeds are referred to by several common names such Sweet Chestnut or Marron. Originally native to southeastern Europe and Asia Minor, it is now widely dispersed throughout Europe and parts of Asia, such as...
and Yew
Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
At Holt Pound
an avenue of oaks joins Birch Copse to
Bedwyn Common
This section of Savernake has its own avenue
London Ride which at 1.3 miles (2.1 km) runs from
St Katherine's Church
to
Upper Horsehall Hill Farm . The ride is lined with oak in the south, and by limes
Tilia cordata
Tilia cordata is a species of Tilia native to much of Europe and western Asia, north to southern Great Britain , central Scandinavia, east to central Russia, and south to central Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, and the Caucasus; in the south of its range it is restricted to...
in the north. Many old oaks and old sweet cheshnut are left standing, and foxgloves populate the forest edges.
Forest tracks and bridleways lead south-east, and this is very much assarted Note 3 countryside. When
Stock Common
is reached there are footpaths to
Shawgrove Copse
, within sight of Great Bedwyn, or south to the rear of Tottenham Park by way of
Bloxham Lodge
Nearby places
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
- Cadley, Wiltshire
- Burbage, WiltshireBurbage, WiltshireBurbage is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England. It is about south of Marlborough and west of Newbury.-Local government:...
- Durley, Wiltshire
- ChisburyChisburyChisbury is a hamlet and prehistoric hill fort in the civil parish of Little Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Chisbury is about west of Hungerford and about south-east of Marlborough.-History:...
- Great BedwynGreat BedwynGreat Bedwyn is a village and civil parish in the east of the English county of Wiltshire.-Location:Great Bedwyn is on the River Dun about south-west of Hungerford and south-east of Marlborough, Wiltshire. The Kennet and Avon Canal and the West of England Main Line railway follow the Dun and pass...
- Little BedwynLittle BedwynLittle Bedwyn is a village and civil parish on the River Dun in Wiltshire, about south-west of the market town of Hungerford in neighbouring Berkshire....
- West Woods
- Collingbourne Woods
- PewseyPewseyPewsey is a large village, often considered a small town, at the centre of the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire about west of London. It is well connected to London, the West Country and Wales being close to the M4 motorway and the A303. Also, the village is served by Pewsey railway station on the...
- Wootton RiversWootton RiversWootton Rivers is a small village located between Pewsey and Marlborough in Wiltshire.-The village:The village and its church are built on what was originally the site of a Saxon manor house. At the start of the 14th century it came into the hands of the de la Riviere family, after whom it is now...
- Easton RoyalEaston RoyalEaston Royal is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England.The United Kingdom Census 2001 recorded a parish population of 283.-Local government:Easton Royal is a civil parish with an elected parish council...
- Wolfhall
Further reading
The Victoria County HistoryVictoria County History
The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 and was dedicated to Queen Victoria with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of...
accounts 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:
External links
- Savernake Estate
- Secure from rash assault Sustaining the Victorian Environment by James Winter
- Savernake Forestry Commission Savernake page
- Wiltshire Archives: Levett's freehold estate in Savernake Forest
- Woodland Trust's Ancient Tree Forum
- Burbage archives
- Geograph project - photos of Savernake by grid reference
- Ramsbury at war - Savernake page