Summarise the historic use of management of woodlands in own locality - Shotover (Oxford)
Since I moved to Oxford in 2011, I seem to be related to the woodland area “Shotover Park” with “Brasenose Wood” as one of the more ancient parts. When I was living in Headington, I entered the woods from the North and the West, exploring large areas of the wood, learning about the different types of trees and the local Wildlife. Now that I live in Little Milton, I have the eastern part of “Shotover park” close by, only ten minutes drive away in Wheatley.
Here I want to focus on the part of Shotover which I fell in Love with first: Brasenose Wood.
“Brasenose Wood is 5km east of Oxford City, centred at Grid Reference SP560053. It is on the south-western lower slopes of Shotover Hill and is within Shotover Country Park. Shotover Hill is in the geographical area known as the Mid-vale Ridge or Upper Thames Basin and is in the Shotover Conservation Target Area (TVERC, 2006).(1)”
I know from my work as Chair of the “Friends of Magdalen Wood”, that the site is managed by the Oxford City Council. The “Parks-Team” is managing the park with a team of volunteers, who are trained in coppicing and pollarding and they support the various “Friends” groups all over Oxford.
In a document that classifies “Brasenose Wood” as a “Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) notified under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981” the management of the wood is described as followed:
“Brasenose Wood has a well defined coppice-with-standards structure and is one of the few English woods which is still actively managed by this traditional method. The greater part of the wood is an ancient remnant of Shotover Forest with a documented history dating back to the thirteenth century. The wood lies on poorly drained Kimmeridge clays but oolitic limestone occurs close to the south western boundary and the presence of lime-loving plants suggests that it outcrops elsewhere in the wood. The flora is exceptionally rich for a wood of this size with 221 recorded vascular plant
Here I want to focus on the part of Shotover which I fell in Love with first: Brasenose Wood.
“Brasenose Wood is 5km east of Oxford City, centred at Grid Reference SP560053. It is on the south-western lower slopes of Shotover Hill and is within Shotover Country Park. Shotover Hill is in the geographical area known as the Mid-vale Ridge or Upper Thames Basin and is in the Shotover Conservation Target Area (TVERC, 2006).(1)”
I know from my work as Chair of the “Friends of Magdalen Wood”, that the site is managed by the Oxford City Council. The “Parks-Team” is managing the park with a team of volunteers, who are trained in coppicing and pollarding and they support the various “Friends” groups all over Oxford.
In a document that classifies “Brasenose Wood” as a “Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) notified under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981” the management of the wood is described as followed:
“Brasenose Wood has a well defined coppice-with-standards structure and is one of the few English woods which is still actively managed by this traditional method. The greater part of the wood is an ancient remnant of Shotover Forest with a documented history dating back to the thirteenth century. The wood lies on poorly drained Kimmeridge clays but oolitic limestone occurs close to the south western boundary and the presence of lime-loving plants suggests that it outcrops elsewhere in the wood. The flora is exceptionally rich for a wood of this size with 221 recorded vascular plant