The W G Hoskins Lecture 2000
‘Woodland history in Hoskins’ day and now’ presented by Dr. Oliver Rackham
The eleventh Hoskins lecture
17 June 2000
On Saturday 17 June summer arrived fleetingly and happily coincided with the annual Hoskins Lecture. This was given by Oliver Rackham, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on the subject of ‘Woodland history in Hoskins’ day and now’. It would in fact have been a perfect day on which to seek out and investigate ancient woodlands. However some hundred Friends and guests were gathered in the New Building’s lecture theatre as Keith Snell introduced our distinguished speaker.
Dr Rackham explained that his interest in trees, woodland and the medieval period was inspired by the pioneering work of W.G. Hoskins and his book ‘The Making of the English Landscape‘ with its mix of documentary and fieldwork evidence. Hoskins was of the opinion that by the twelfth century, England was not heavily wooded and that this was due to progressive clearance through Roman and Anglo-Saxon times, but it is now known that even earlier clearances had been effected in the prehistoric period.
Trees are not part of the scenery of ecological history but, Dr Rackham suggested, are ‘actors in a play, each with its own lines to speak’. The particular biological properties of each species needed to be considered. Woodland industries such as hurdle making and charcoal burning to provide fuel for local iron smelting, helped to preserve woodland and to prevent farmers from grubbing it out. Developments since Hoskins show that there was re-afforestation as well as clearance and that some supposedly ‘ancient’ woodland is post-medieval. Oak was a pioneer in the formation of new woodland and many such woods are to be found on older ridge and furrow.
In Exeter and Totnes there is evidence of much underwood (i.e. coppice or pollard timber) in urban building and this indicates that it was fashion, rather than the ready availability of the material, that dictated its use. In Gamlingay (Cambridgeshire) 300 small oak trees used in the structure of one house, are evidence that supply was able to keep up with demand. Other constructional uses of woodland products are evidenced by the cordage made from Lime bark (bast) found in buildings at Lavenham (Suffolk), and scaffolding poles, used in the building of Ely Cathedral, which also bear witness to a thriving early trade in pine from Norway and the Baltic.
Dr Rackham stressed the importance of combining archaeological with documentary evidence and suggested that whereas the former could only evoke an imagined landscape, the archaeology of which could provide living proof of the former scene, for example the ancient pollarded oaks of Staverton Park (Suffolk) or those of Grimsthorpe Park (Lincolnshire) which date from the seventeenth century. Much older was the evidence of the Walton Heath track in the Somerset Levels, which dates to 2,300 BC and was made using stone tools, thus providing evidence for woodland history from the neolithic period.
At this point Dr Rackham paused to consider Hoskins’ advice ‘know…. thy native country’, and to speculate as to whether he had ever gone ‘over the threshold thereof’. Had he have done so, it was suggested, he would surely have drawn parallels with North America where forests, hedged by field walls by early colonists, could have been analogous to those of Anglo-Saxon England. There was much to be learned from such comparisons and studying alternative ways of doing things and some principles are ubiquitous whether in Texas, England or Crete.
Moving to the present situation, Dr Rackham touched upon the use of experiment in woodland management. This involved the practise of woodmanship and the observation of results. He went on to say that although woodland history is an academic subject, there was difficulty in getting papers published in academic journals, and yet some published work was not very good. Conventional writing on the subject has been largely the province of travel and literary authors, or consists of the historical comparison of statistical data – for example – comparisons of timber sales at different times. There has been little or no collaborative work and there is, therefore, no holistic approach to the subject. In the past, studies were undertaken to confirm theories such as Darwinian evolution, but Dr Rackham argued that research should be valued for its own sake and not solely.to validate, or disprove, theory.
In conclusion, Dr Rackham assured his audience that he had ‘come, not to bury Hoskins, but to praise him’, and wondered what he would have made of the greatest threat to modern woodland – the proliferation of deer now grazing the woodland floor and pollard ground.
Questions followed, and there was some general discussion on place-names and their relevance to an understanding of the disposition of ancient woodland. Asked when the last ‘wildwood’ disappeared, Dr Rackham replied that this was probably before the last period of glaciation.
After the applause of an appreciative audience had died away, Sylvia Pinches gave a vote of thanks to Dr Rackham for his stimulating talk. On returning to Marc Fitch House, members were treated to a delightful tea, co-ordinated as ever by Chris Draycott.
This year the book sale raised some £370 – a very healthy improvement on last year’s figure – for which thanks to all those Friends who gave away such saleable volumes.
From an original report by Ann Workman.