Historic Woodland management by coppicing

Some months back I read Oliver Rackhams’s really splendid books Trees and Woodland in the British Countryside and The History of the Countryside. Anyone interested in history - national or local - or in conservation, or simply who enjoys being out and about in the country shoykd not only read them, but own copies as essential works alongside Hoskins’ The Making of the English Landscape. One of the things Rackham brings out is that woodland was a managed asset, tended and protected, and also harvested. One way of doing this was by coppicing trees to produce multiple stems which could be cut on a rota over the years.

Watching the videos to which I referred in my recent post Living the life of an Anglo-Saxon I found the site features coppicing in Tree Felling and Regenerating Ancient Hazel Coppice with an Axe | Early Medieval Woodland Management

 

I subsequently came acros other websites on coppicing and its place in the history of woodland management. They can be seen at The Art of Coppicing: Ancient Woodland Management Techniques Explained, at Coppicing Hazel, Why, When & How and at Pollarding vs Coppicing