Oxfordshire Woodland Group

This is an original post made by mattwright on July 31, 2013, 23:35 in the "Sawpits" topic and moved here by ADMIN on October 13, 2013 11:53 to form a new topic.

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Wandering around the Chilterns beech woodland I've noticed many built up ridges often running parallel to footpaths, what would these be?

mattwright

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Hi Matt,

I suspect that what you are seeing are woodbanks which were made back in the 13 / 14th century in the form of a ditch and bank to form a woodland boundary.

The person on whose side the bank is present owns both the bank and the ditch.

John Morris at The Chilterns Woodland Project has published a book on woodland archeology that might prove useful to you to help identify the many different types of typical woodland archeology that can be encountered in the Chiltern Hills and elsewhere.

Please post a picture of what you have seen to enable better identification.

Ken Hume

Executive Trustee - Oxfordshire Woodland Group

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Hi Ken, I will get photographing! I'm sure that you are familiar with most examples which I've come across, but notably in Abbots Wood, near Woodcote. Amazing to think that ground works such as these date from the 13th - 14th Century.
I have noticed a very long and large ditch running adjacent to a footpath in a narrow strip of woodland near Swiycombe too, fascinating stuff. I'll check out John's book I might look for it in Blackwell's tomorrow.

mattwright