Woodland and its Management in the Medieval Chilterns

Studies of medieval woodland are few and mostly concern the royal forests. This account of the Chiltern woods thus goes some way towards filling a significant gap. Assarting had ended in the Chilterns by 1300, leaving a pattern of woodland that remained basically unchanged for 300 years. Most woods comprised high forest and underwood. Beech was the dominant species, but many woods also contained much oak and ash, especially in the north-east. Private and common woodlands had become distinctive, often after complex transactions. Private woods were especially valued for fuel, sold in the vale and London—an important factor in their preservation. There was no systematic management in the extensive woods of the south-western and central Chilterns, although selective felling was sometimes practised by the late fifteenth century. In the north-east, where timber was limited, coppicing was widely followed by 1400. Common woods, generally more open in character, provided timber, pannage, and herbage for villagers in hill and vale, but common rights were often restricted. The sixteenth century brought renewed clearing for cultivation and expanding timber sales. Beech, now usually coppice, became ever more prominent, eventually to be converted to high forest with the rise of the furniture industry after 1800