Bernwood Forest

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Entrance to the Bernwood Forest

Bernwood Forest was one of several forests in the Kingdom of England and a royal hunting ground . It is believed that it was reserved as a royal hunting reserve when the Anglo-Saxon kings owned a palace in Brill and a church in Oakley in the tenth century . In addition, the place was particularly popular with Eduard the Confessor , who was born in nearby Islip .

history

From around 1217 to the 17th century, the forest went through a phase of deforestation . Heinrich II. (R. 1154–1189) had a map of the forest made, which makes it possible to understand the historical boundaries; however, the real aim of creating the map was to divide the forest among the nobles. In the 16th century, another map of the forest was made, which already shows a strong reduction in the size of the Bernwood Forest. The map was created to find out what income could be generated from selling the forest. Under James I (ruled 1603–1625) the forest had lost its royal status and had completely disappeared.

Today the name refers to an area between Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire , in which at the time of Henry II there was a 400 km² forest. The approximate boundaries of the area today are the River Great Ouse , Padbury Brook , Claydon Brook, and River Thame .

Today's Bernwood Forest in Buckinghamshire is about 1 km² and borders Hell Coppice, York's Wood, Oakley Wood and Shabbington Wood. The Shabbington Woods Complex Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is home to a wide variety of wildlife and is one of the most important butterfly habitats in the UK. The owner, the Forestry Commission , was originally more commercially oriented. Until the end of the 1960s, pesticides were sprayed by air : first dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane to control the spruce weevil , then 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid to remove broad-leaved plants (including oak seedlings) before commercial pine stands were planted.

Holly Wood , Holton Wood , Stanton Great Wood and Waterperry Wood in Oxfordshire and Ham Home-cum-Hamgreen Woods in Buckinghamshire are also remnants of the Bernwood Forest and part of the SSSI. Another fragment of the forest is Rushbeds Wood in Buckinghamshire, an SSSI administered by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust .

Remarks

  1. ↑ On Google Maps, the nearby Waterperry Woods are referred to as the Bernwood Forest. The more detailed view on Ordnance Survey Maps (OS Maps), published by Streetmap, summarizes Oakley Wood, Shabbington Wood, York's Wood and Hell Coppice as Bernwood Forest.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Shabbington Woods Complex (SSSI citation) . Natural England. 1981. Archived from the original on January 1, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
  2. ^ Forestry Commission information
  3. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Haugh Wood history )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.wyewoods.co.uk
  4. ↑ Ham Home-cum-Hamgreen Woods citation . Natural England. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved on April 13, 2016.
  5. ^ Map of Ham Home-cum-Hamgreen Woods . Natural England. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  6. ↑ Rushbeds Wood . Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  7. ↑ Rushbeds Wood and Railway Cutting citation . Natural England. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2016.

Web links

Commons : Bernwood Forest  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 48 ′ 3 ″  N , 1 ° 6 ′ 54 ″  E