Sheffield's Woodlands

I step from piercing sunlight into the soft greens of a Sheffield wood in the full luxuriance of mid-summer and chart a careful course through a wild profusion of hazel, bramble, grasses and rushes with the withering remains of springtime delight beneath my feet. The gnarled trunks of sessile oak twist to the sky proclaiming their majesty and age. On higher slopes, with its airy profusion of berry and leaves, vie with graceful birches with flaky white trunks. Lower down, the dark grey bark of alder and willows fill the valley floors.

In this green profusion, a woodland orchestra rolls out a sweet summer melody. Behind the rich chorus of robins, wrens, warblers and blackbirds, the drum is played by a great spotted woodpecker, guttural tones handed to magpies, with a whispered invertebrate thrum adding depth to this multi-layered scene.

Ancient woodland – a window back to the wild-wood of our long forgotten fore-fathers. A shadowed reminder of a Celtic past. The Green Man – part tree, part human and still a feature of some Springtime festivals flits at the back of my imagination. The dense, dark foliage of yew offers a tantalizing glimpse to that primeval past. A native of Sheffield’s woods, but is more commonly found standing as a venerable sentinel over the Churchyard dead. Yet, for many Churchyards, the yew is older than the church itself. It suggests a sacred association stretching way, way back – back to the endless green vista of forest which was once the wild-wood. An endless stretch of forest covering all the land – inhabited by wolf, bear and beaver. It is no wonder that woodlands strike a chord in the human consciousness.

I stand in a monument of great age – a splendid Sheffield ancient woodland – a solid reminder of Sheffield’s ancient, ancient past but also a natural history. A record of human interaction that tamed the wildwood and manicured it to human aims. The first clue are the many stemmed trunks of hazel, ash and oak sprouting tall and straight limbed from a wide stool (stump). These have been coppiced – a practice whereby trees are cut close to the ground to allow a cluster of new growths of ‘poles’ to grow up before cutting again. Woods were managed on strict coppice cycles of 7 – 25 years from medieval times until about 100 years ago.

Before that, Sheffield’s woods were managed in a quite different way. King William’s Doomsday Book of 1086 notes III woodlands in South Yorkshire of which 102 are described as Silva pastilis – wood pasture. This was common where woodlands were widespread and the human population sparse; people exploited woodlands for wood and also as pastures for cattle, pigs and sheep. As woodlands were cleared for farmland and later for industry and housing, the resource was more carefully managed through coppicing to provide a continuous and self-renewing supply – indeed a highly effective sustainable industry.

Woods were also managed to provide firewood and building timber. These gnarled trunks of today were almost certainly left as standards – older trees – amongst the coppice to be used for timber-framed buildings. Some to make king posts, tie beams, principle rafters, braces, ridge pieces, studs, wall plates, spurs, sill beams, purloins – the panoply of names reflects a highly technical and skilled trade.

The former intensive use of woodlands is also indicated by low winding banks marking former coppice boundaries and, in some Sheffield’s woods, mysterious depressions pit the forest floors. These are the site of whitecoal (charcoal) kilns which fired lead smelting hearths in the 17^th to mid 18^th centuries.

In many ways, the wide variety of uses, actually enhanced the wildlife of the original wildwood. Britain’s native flora and fauna is essentially of a woodland character reflecting the vast wildwood of old. However, natural woodlands are full of variety with wind-blown gaps allowing summer meadow to flourish, with marshes and rivers adding wetland and upland/lowland variety increasing the mix. This natural variety was deepened through woodland management.

Coppicing for example, provides a succession of different habitats from open meadow to scrub to high woodland allowing a wide mix of species to flourish.

Today, ancient woodland is rare – mostly cleared for open farmland and for towns. A combination of steep slopes and, that Sheffield’s early industrial revolution relied on wood, has meant that the City has a wonderful heritage of ancient woodland left. A springtime walk through Sheffield’s woods are a delight indeed. The strong smell of garlic waft upwards from crushed ramsons under-foot. Carpets of bluebell with white flowered wood anemone and yellow celandines add to a resplendently colorful scene. Sadly our woodlands are suffering from urban neglect with rubbish thrown in at the sides, dead trees (an important wildlife habitat) ‘cleared-up’, undergrowth trampled and invasive species (rhododendron, sycamore and Japanese knotweed) taking over.

Work to manage woodlands – to recreate the diversity has begun with Sheffield City Council active in many woods. The Wildlife Trust is working hard to manage its woodland reserves - Little and Great Roe Woods (Click here for a Walk through Little Roe Wood) and to encourage interest in Sheffield’s woods through woodland road shows. SWT is also planting new woodlands throughout the City. Recent examples include Black Bank and the Ponderosa. All of this effort is now being coordinated through the South-Yorkshire Community Forest which aims to re-forest large parts of South Yorkshire and create a varied landscape where people can enjoy

Living and working where there is room for wildlife. The Wildlife Trust will continue to work towards the management of all of Sheffield’s woodlands by active management, by raising money for this, by encouraging others and, most importantly of all – by getting people involved.

A hard and intensive task. In the quieter moments, I’ll slip into the green and continue my stroll through the imagination and search for the wildwood…….