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Trees and Woodland (1/4)
By Greg Howes
Introduction
As a family historian with roots in the Towy Valley, I have always had a deep interest in the history of the landscape as well as the people within it. The history of the landscape is the history of man, and the history of man embellished within the landscape. Inside that landscape there are few things more dramatic, inspiring and culturally revealing than its trees and woodlands.
Carmarthenshire has many areas of arboreal delights, and none more so than the area around the town of Llandeilo. The Dinefwr estate, Gelli Aur and Tre-gib woods, to name but a few. The cultural uses of trees and woodland have changed over time, but the awe and wonder inspired by them have not. Here is a series of notes on the history of and uses of these natural wonders.
What has Rome ever done for us?
When the Romans came to Carmarthenshire they built forts at Carmarthen and Llandeilo to name just two. The roads they laid down are still visible from the air in some places. They brought about many changes to everyday life, but they also made sweeping changes to the local environment. One of these alterations was to clear great swathes of woodland along roads and byways in order to make attack through ambush by the pre Roman Britons a less likely occurrence. The Romans would have used the timber for drying crops such as corn, bridge building and boat making. Oak was the favoured tree for the Roman fortress and house building, for not only is it tough, but its heartwood is strong and insect damage is minimal.
Middle Age Crisis
The 13th century was one of the most turbulent in Welsh history, and the environs surrounding Llandeilo were no different. In the year 1257 we find evidence from the Talley monks of a large battle being fought in the Towy valley. The battle was fought in an ancient, and now lost wood, of Coed Lathen (Coed Llangathen). The monks tell us of "daybreak till noon the battle was carried on in deep woods" and of soldiers cut down "in the Jungles, the ditches and the dingels"1. This type of evidence gives us vital clues when researching the extent of Llandeilo's arboreal history at this period of time, the extent of woodland, and ongoing use by the native Welsh in using woodlands and forests for battle sites. This proved to be a real thorn in the side of the authorities, so much so, that more clearances were encouraged. In 1284, "The burgesses of Carmarthen were granted free common in the woods, and were permitted to fell and carry away underwood, oaks for timber, and other trees, without any let or hindrance, as a matter of deliberate policy to clear dense woods where robberies and murders where frequent"2. Unsurprisingly, this led to more trouble and Rhys ap Maredudd, a Lord in the Towy valley decided to revolt against such measures. Interestingly, when we are told about this event, it is revealed that, "This rising was suppressed by forces that included very large numbers of woodmen.3
Ships for the Navy
Oaks were used in building ships for Britain's coastal defences and kept up the tradition of felling timber for military purposes within the Towy Valley. In the mid 18th century and again in the time of the Napoleonic wars with France, many thousands of oaks were cut down and stacked up along the banks of the Towy River. When flooding came to the valley, the trunks were pushed into the Towy and guided with the help of local coracle men to Carmarthen, and from this busy sea port they were transported to ship makers around Britain.
Oak for tannin etc
Tannin for hides to make leather was one of the heaviest uses of the oak tree. The oak bark was harvested from coppices every 25 years in site rotations. Latterly bark became available as a by-product of the timber trade. Spring was thought to be the best time for stripping the trunk bare of the bark. Large quantities of bark were shipped out on boats from Carmarthen quay. Welsh-grown oaks grown on hillsides were highly sought after because it was thought that they had very high tannin content. Not all of the oak bark left the county though; much was used in tanneries throughout the length and breadth of Carmarthenshire. Wood was also used as the major source of fuel in lime kilns around the Llandeilo area but was replaced by anthracite coal around 1800.
Notes on ancient Trees and Woodlands
The late 18th century saw the greatest recorded deforestation of Carmarthenshire (and much of Britain), when whole woodlands were lost and some were never replanted again. However, despite this decimation, Carmarthenshire has kept a large area of smaller woods and some notable larger ones on local estates. Many of the smaller woods occupy steep valleys (cwms) and are in a semi-wild condition, which is often teeming with wildlife. Some of these woodlands are classed as "Ancient Woodlands". Tthis term is used when describing woodland which is known to be in existence before 1700, the time just before major industrial felling.
Carmarthenshire has an above average amount of woodland and about one fifth of the county's woods are thought to be on a site of ancient woodland. Though we must always be aware when searching for evidence of ancient woodland the term "Forest" did not have the meaning that we place on it today. Legally speaking "a forest was an area of roughland on which the king or some other magnate had the right to keep deer and to kill and eat them".4 Ancient woodland sites around Llandeilo can be indicated and found in many different ways, place-name elements are one such example.
- Allot
- Wooded hillside
- Bedwos, Bedwes
- Birch Grove
- Carw
- Stag or deer
- Coed
- Wood
- Coetref
- Woodland homestead or farmstead
- Collwyn
- Hazel-wood
- Derlwyn
- Oak grove
- Derwen
- Oak tree
- Derwydd
- Druid
- Drean
- Thorn
- Garth
- Wooded slope
- Gelli
- Grove
- Gwern
- Alder or marshy land, Swamp
- Gwernos
- Place where Alder trees grow
- Gwig
- Wood
- Gwinllan
- Orchard or grove
- Helyg
- Willows
- Llwyn
- Grove
- Nyfed
- Grove or Sanctuary
- Perllan
- Orchard
- Perth
- Wood, forest
- Pren
- Tree
- Prysg
- Brushwood, thicket, copse
Remnants of ancient woodland around the Llandeilo area can be present in ditches and borders between old parishes and estates. The importance of old trees as markers and borders cannot be overlooked; it is a system used for well over a thousand years. Indeed it is possible that what Oliver Rackham described as "ghost woods " exist as remnants in our hedges as markers and borders which were once woodland fringes left as hedges when the wood was felled. While studying the 1887 and 1906 ordnance survey maps around the Llandeilo area I found evidence of many different tree species noted for either field or parish boundaries: Cherry, Beech, Willow, Oak White thorn, Birch, Ash, Apple. I even found an alder stump mentioned, and vaguer still, one location just said stump. The place name Broad Oak in the Towy valley is named after an actual (ancient?) oak marked on the cross roads that was featured on Ogilby's Brittania map in 1675.
Ancient woodland has a greater diversity of plant, animal and fungi species, some of which can only be found on these specific sites. Carmarthenshire had 22,919 acres of woodland in 1913, 5,473 coppice acres, 1,546 plantations under 10 years old, 15,900 described as "other woodland"5, which was around 4% of the total acreage of Carmarthenshire.
Footnotes
- Lewis Anne, BA, The last siege of Dryslwyn Castle.
- Linnard, William, "Welsh Woods and forests, A History", page 32, published by Gomer, in the year 2000.
- Linnard, William, "Welsh Woods and forests, A History", page 32, published by Gomer, in the year 2000.
- Rackham, Oliver "The last forest", Published by Dent, in 1993.
- Linnard, William, "Welsh Woods and forests, A History", page 183, published by Gomer, in the year 2000.
