What is coppicing?
In prehistoric times, people noticed that certain trees grew again after they had been felled. The new growth consisted of many thin poles, useful because they were easy to harvest and suitable for firewood, woven fencing and house building.

When people began to develop a settled way of life, and to keep domestic animals, they were able to keep an area of woodland regularly cut over. This practice of cutting trees to a cycle is known as coppicing. The length of the cycle depends on the species being cut, and the size of poles that are required.

Later cultures had a need for much larger timbers, so within areas of coppice, some trees were left to grow straight, tall and thick- these are called standards. Time-consuming to fell and process, standard trees were nevertheless extremely valuable for use in shipbuilding and the construction of important buildings like churches and barns.

Woods and woodbanks
Hatfield Forest's coppice woods are bounded by low banks - woodbanks - which were built to mark each area and to help keep out animals after the coppice was cut. Grazing deer, cattle, sheep and goats all find the young tree shoots very palatable, and can stunt growth in a coppice unless they are excluded for a few years after felling.

©National Trust
Coppice at Hatfield Forest

So, on top of the woodbank a dead hedge of bendy, twiggy branches was made. It didn't last forever, but had done its job well by the time the animals pushed their way through. Most of these ancient woodbanks can still be seen; today, instead of a dead hedge, a fence is used to protect the coppices from the cattle. Deer cannot be excluded so each coppice stool is protected.

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Hatfield's ancient coppice habitats
The system of blocks of coppice with standards was well established by medieval times at Hatfield Forest, and the shape of the woods has changed little up to the present day. For hundreds of years coppicing went on in the same way, producing a woodland habitat that alternated between light and shade, between open and densely bushy vegetation.

By continuing to coppice, the National Trust is ensuring the survival of this habitat, and the wildlife that makes its home there. Flowers like Primrose, Wood Violet, Wood Sorrel and St.John's Wort are common, and many birds, including Nightingales and Warblers nest in the bushy branches. Some coppice stools are themselves hundreds of years old, massive and gnarled, still producing healthy new growth.

Dead wood, too, has an important role; it houses fungi, lichens and insects, and provides a home to owls and woodpeckers. Other, much rarer species also depend on coppicing, and have only been able to survive here because of the virtually unbroken, traditional management of the woods up to the present day.

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How coppicing declined
When fuels like coal and oil came to be widely used, firewood was no longer valuable. There was less demand for, and less money in all the products of coppicing and it fell into a general decline throughout the country. Many woodlands were left without their traditional management, and the wildlife that thrived with the coppice cycle began also to decline.

In recent years, ecologists and conservationists came to see how the loss of coppicing was having a detrimental effect on the diversity of Britain's wildlife, and gradually the practice and the skills have been re-discovered. Coppicing at Hatfield had dwindled away by about 1940, to be gradually re-introduced by the National Trust, with a team of dedicated volunteers, from 1974.

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Woodland products
Just as economic factors were important in the decline of coppicing, so they will be important in its revival. The growing interest in 'renewable resources' is enabling woodland managers to find markets for coppice products, and the income helps to support and re-establish traditional management, with all its benefits for wildlife.

Today, poles from Hatfield Forest's coppice are sold for thatching spars, for walking sticks, for hurdle making, for wood turning and for firewood. The thin 'tops' are fed through a chipping machine, and sold either in bulk or handy-sized bags. Timber from the standard trees is sold either 'in the round' or planked; green, part-seasoned or kiln-dried. It is used in buildings, in gates, stiles and benches, for making furniture, and for wood turning or used on the Forest for bridges, gates etc.

The annual 'Wood Fair' displays some of the many crafts in which wood and timber are used, and a great deal of timber of different species is for sale. It is a time when we can all celebrate the continued productivity of the Forest, enjoy some of the best products of the woodland harvest, and come to understand a little better how this nationally important landscape is being cared for.