Woodland Management and Moorland Ecology

The mention of Hays and a park in the early thirteenth century suggests that there was already extensive wood pasture either for stock or deer.

There is no specific mention of managed woodland until the eighteenth century after the purchase by Thomas Hill. Coppice was then being felled from 1754 as well as holly bark (SA112/7/ /12 (chapter and verse ?)). In the adjacent woodland in Habberley, Office Lord Tankerville’s agent managed extensive coppices in three blocks on a twenty year rotation. One particular coppice was reserved to supply wood for the lead mines. (SA P/ / ) His total acreage of coppice was almost 295 acres split between Eastridge (151a0, Small Vessons 939a) and Great Vessons(104a).(SA3621)

In 1798 there were acres of coppice which included acres on the slopes of Paulith. This was finally cleared during the First World War after which it became rough pasture punctuated with a few hollies. However the annual flowering of sheets of bluebells which underlie the invasive bracken provide the evidence of ancient woodland.

A Nursery is marked near Hunter’s Cottage in 1798 and this was presumably the source of the beech trees planted as shelter-belts screening some of the farms. These are first specifically mentioned at the sale of the estate in 1831 and are still to be seen at Gatten Lodge, Near Bank Farm and New Leasowes.

Writing in 1807 for the Land Revenue Office, Edward Harries says that in the “romantic vale of Habberley” there was a wood called the Vessons “the property of the Earl of Tankerville, consisting of about 200 acres in which is scattered young timber finely grown, that in 30 or 40 years will be of the largest size and best quality. Higher up the vale which contracts and assumes a different form is some oak Timber of Lord Berwick’s not inferior to that below- his Lordship’s property is said to be four thousand acres in which plantations may be raised to a variety of Trees and of great extent. I can only presume to say that if I was a young man possessing it I would pursue what his Lordship has just begun by planting or rearing widespread woods.” He further remarks on the adjoining property of Mr. Lyster in Ritton and Kinnerton which was “perhaps not much inferior to Lord Berwick’s at Gatten; however, here is a large field for improvement by planting, and the Timber has been much stripped from Mr. Lyster’s estates.” (TSAS 2ser., IV,94). These observations by Edward Harries, a notable forester, confirm that Lord Berwick, despite his increasingly straitened finances, was a planter.

The typical trees of the ancient woodland are oak, ash, field maple, holly, and birch. Alder and willow (spp.) occur along streams and in the boggy areas and mountain ash on the thinner soils. Oak, ash, elm, maple, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn and elder all occur as hedgerow species with some occasional guelder rose and spindle.

The survival of ancient woodland indicators like wood sorrel, archangel, woodruff and bluebells on roadsides below Westcott suggest that the rather neglected woodland bordering the conifer plantations is of ancient origin.

Holly has been an important winter fodder crop in the more distant past and this is reflected in the alternative and more ancient name of the “Hollyes” for the New Leasows and at the Hollies Farm beyond Gatten Lodge bordering on the Stiperstones. The cutting of holly for “trowse” for cattle is mentioned in the adjacent parish of Pulverbatch from the 16th century (SA 840 uncat.;extracts from court rolls) and in Gatten as a condition in leases.

Trowse is mentioned in Shelve leases from 16 as late as 1734 (SA 4947/2/18,20). The ‘Holly forest’ composed of ancient pollarded holly trees was formerly part of the Tankerville estate above the Upper Vessons on the north-eastern flank of the Stiperstones is renowned as a product of former woodland management and is now an SSSI. (This was first noted by G.F.Peterken, ‘The Hollies, Stiperstones’, Shropshire Conservation Trust Bull.XI,1967,pp 12-13; the feeding of holly is discussed in Agricultural History Review vol 9(2) 1961, pp89-92 J. Radley, ’Holly as a Winter Feed’ and Ibid. vol.29(2)(1981) pp97-102, M.Spray ‘Holly as Fodder in England’.)

Following the Second World War the Forestry Commission planted conifer plantations below Westcott and in areas on the eastern flank of the Stiperstones including the so-called Gatten Plantation. The latter had been wet ancient coppice ground (see Birchill above) until it was felled in the First World War and its understorey had been bilberry and heather which predominated when it was replanted with conifers in the 1950’s. It was felled in 2000 and under the management of English Nature and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust a successful attempt was made to return it to former moorland status under the slogan “Back to Purple”.

On the moorland of the Stiperstones Common, now owned by English Nature, heather and bilberry predominate though much ravaged by accidental fires in the 20th century which degraded the peat cover over the shattered mass of quartzite boulders which characterise the ridge. Cowberries are found on the summit ridge and have provided an inaccurate name for one of the main outcrops, Cranberry rock. Crowberries are also found with some bell heather and cross-leaved heath. On the lower slopes in wet flushes Bog Asphodel and Cotton grass are found. Marehay Marsh, adjacent to Marehay farm in the headwaters of the Habberley brook, which was drained in the late 20th century, amidst some controversy, was called Turfpit Marsh in 1798 (Gatten estate survey) and had clearly been exploited locally for fuel. Peat was mentioned as one of the assets of Ratlinghope manor in ( ) and rights of turbary are mentioned in the adjacent townships of Kinnerton and Ritton in 17 ( SA ).