Transcript A TIMELINE OF U.K. WOODLANDS SINCE THE LAST ICE AGE

A TIMELINE OF U.K.
WOODLANDS SINCE THE LAST
ICE AGE
10-12,000 years ago
• ICE AGE
• Which parts of Britain under Ice?
7500 – 4500 B.C.
• Relatively stable climate
• By the end of this , most of Britain covered
in trees
• Known as what period?
• Succession to form a series of ‘climax’
woodland types
• 5 general ‘provinces’- what were they,
where were they?
• ‘WILDWOOD’
Around 4500 B.C.
• Farmers !!!
• What effects? What timber used for – think
about it ( any comparisons to today
anywhere???)
2300 - 700 B.C.
• New metalworking techniques
• What is this period called?
• What effect did this have on the wildwood?
1 A.D
• Population here 5 million
• 25 -30 % area wooded
• The Romans were here – what did they
ever do for us?
600 A.D.
• Big boom in a particular type of buildingclue –one building took around 26,000
tonnes of timber
• 793 A.D Viking invasions
1086 A.D
• Domesday Book
• 15-20% woodland in England
• Soon after , William responsible for setting
up what kind of ‘forest’? Significance?
1200 A.D
• By 1200 A.D. most of the modern
landscape we know today was
recognisable - Rackham , History of the
British Landscape
1300’ish
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Conflicting land uses
Much sheep grazing
Black Death
Effects of these?
1457-1503
• Acts encouraging tree planting
• 1483 – allowing enclosure of new
woodlands against grazing animals for up
to 7 years
• 1503- Scottish Act their woods are ‘utterlie
destroyit’
• 1476 –Caxton printing press
Early 1500’s
• Increase in what type of house building?
• Lot of timber for something used in
industry - what ?
• What else being built that took a lot of
trees?
• 1600’s onwards Wood pasture - what is it?
1700’s
• Importing much timber
• Iron production from charcoal at a peak ( a
single furnace needed 10,000acres of
coppice woodland to sustain operations) –
Rackham
• Late 1700’s coke from coal for smelting –
what effect on timber use?
• Railways – effect on timber use?
1800’s
• Shipbuilding – Fleet x 60 that of Armada
• Mid 1800’s Explorers finding new conifer
species in Americas – significance
• First attempts at changing way woodlands
were managed – in what way?
• Decline in wooden shipbuilding
1914
• Timber resources at breaking point
• 1919 Forestry Act – significance? What were the
consequences?
• “most ancient woods in 1870 were surviving in
1945”
• As much Ancient woodland destroyed in 28
years post 1945 as in previous 400 years
• Changes during 20th century – differing
objectives –how?
• Giving grants for tree planting and aftercare –
when did this start and why? What is there now?
Fairly recently
• Why the swing towards conservation?
• The Rio Summit 1992 – was it a load of
hot air or did it make any changes?
• Certification of timber – what’s that all
about?
The future?
• So what do you think?