Why are there no Ancient Woods in Whittle-le-Woods?

(This article was originally posted in 2016). When I moved to Whittle-le-Woods over thirty years ago, it was an industrial village but now, after much housing expansion, it is in effect a suburb of Chorley. Prior to the industrial revolution, however, Whittle was a thinly populated area of predominantly pastoral agriculture, with small scattered farms and little hamlets. Before that, in early medieval times, it was covered, as its name suggests, in woodland, part of an extensive swathe of woods that ran north–south down the rising ground between the Lancashire plain and the West Pennine moors. Most of that woodland has now gone and in this article I will explore the question that forms the title of the article: why are there today no ancient woods in Whittle-le-Woods?

Types of Woodland

What is meant by the term, ancient woods? To answer this, it is perhaps best to examine the term in the context of a typology of woodland. The leading authority of British woodland was the late Oliver Rackham and I will draw on terms and definitions that he put forward.

Wildwood: Following the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago, woodland regrew naturally until Britain was more or less covered by trees. This was wildwood, defined by Rackham as “vegetation not affected by settled humanity”. The first Mesolithic colonisers of Britain were hunter gatherers who lived with, but did not significantly exploit wildwood. From Neolithic times however, when the development of farming led humans to settle in particular places and to require more land, the wildwood was gradually cleared. Today, it is generally accepted that there is no wildwood left in Britain; while some areas of the country may have been wooded since the ice age, that woodland has subsequently been exploited and altered by human activity.

Ancient woodland: This term is used for woodland that grew naturally in medieval times (or earlier) and still exists, but unlike wildwood, ancient woodland was managed and cultivated by people as a resource and cash crop. Rackham defines it as “woodland that has existed – though usually felled many times – for several centuries”. Prior to the 20^th century, woods were important local resources and were carefully managed. Some trees were allowed to grow to maturity before being felled for timber, for building houses, ships etc. Most woodland, however was exploited for “underwood”, thin branches or “poles” that were used for fencing, for “wattle” in wattle and daub buildings and particularly for firewood. Two methods were used to produce poles: coppicing, where the trunk of a tree was cut to the ground to encourage the growth of new shoots around the remaining “stool”, or pollarding, where the trunk was cut off at a higher level, to prevent the new shoots from being eaten by deer and other animals. Today, ancient woods are rarely cultivated in this way, but surviving woods are still important as historical remnants and sources of bio-diversity and are legally protected.

Plantations: Rackham calls these simply, “stands of trees created by someone putting them there”. Plantations were therefore deliberately planted, as opposed to seeding themselves naturally. Examples of plantations today include centuries-old broadleaf woods in the grounds of country houses, more modern woods in public parks and the dense and uniform blocks of conifers that still cover large areas of Scotland (and the moorland of Lancashire).

Secondary woodland: Rackham’s definition of this is, “woodland that in the recent or distant past has been farmland, heath, fen etc”. He points out that left to itself, the land of Britain will sooner or later revert naturally to woodland, so secondary woods are those that have regrown naturally on abandoned land. Strictly speaking, most ancient woodland is secondary woodland, as it would have regrown centuries ago on land that had previously been cleared of wildwood. Today, the term is better used for woodland that has grown on land that has more recently been abandoned by man, in such places as railway or canal embankments, old quarries and industrial sites.

Woodland in Whittle-le-Woods

Taking the above typology as our guide, what kinds of woods exist today in Whittle and how do I know that they do not include any ancient woodland? To answer the second question first, ancient woodland in England has been precisely defined and mapped and the ancient woods in any area can be identified on the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ MagicMap website http://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx.  Searching the map using the categories, “Habitats and Species”, “Habitats”, “Woodland”, “Ancient Woodland” we discover (though I knew it already) that there are no officially recognised ancient woods in the parish of Whittle-le-Woods.

What of the woodland that does exist in Whittle? There isn’t a great deal of it and most can be broadly divided into two categories. Firstly there is a swathe of broadleaf plantations between Shaw Hill golf course and Buckshaw Village, most likely dating from the establishment of Shaw Hill as a country residence in the mid-18^th century, or its reconstruction in the 1840s. Woods were planted around the grounds of many country houses, as landscaping, a commercial resource and cover for game. Secondly, there are areas of secondary woodland (or possibly plantation) scattered around the parish on abandoned sites, such as the banks of the Lancaster canal and the river Lostock, and around Whittle Hill quarries, or as landscaping around housing developments. A pleasant, broad leaf plantation, Whittle Spinney, established by the Woodlands Trust as a recreational area between the housing developments east of Chorley Old Road and the M61 motorway is actually in Clayton-le-Woods parish.

The long-abandoned St Helen’s quarry, now tucked into the embankment of the M61 motorway, north of Birchin Lane, is almost completely hidden by the growth of secondary woodland

 We do not have to go too far, however, to find the nearest official ancient wood. It is Denham Wood, a thin and unprepossessing stretch of trees on a hillside overlooking the river Lostock in Brindle parish (best seen from the Leeds and Liverpool canal, just north of the Top Lock pub). Underwhelming though it is, it has all the characteristics of ancient woodland in Lancashire. It is a “clough wood”, on a steep hillside, using land that was not suitable for other forms of agriculture. It carries the name of its owner, Denham Hall, a large and ancient (though rebuilt) farmhouse on whose land it is situated. Though difficult to access, it shows good signs of bio-diversity, with swathes of bluebells in spring and other woodland plants. Finally, despite its designation, its trees are not ancient; they are unlikely to be much older than when the wood was abandoned as a cultivated and exploited resource.

Denham Wood, Brindle, on a slope above the river Lostock (though below the Leeds-Liverpool canal), is the nearest official ancient wood to Whittle-le-Woods

Bluebells and other woodland plants under the trees on the extension of Denham Wood along the eastern side of Birchin Lane. Interestingly, this section is not classed as ancient woodland, although it has the same characteristics as the rest of the wood

 Interestingly, there are no official ancient woods in the adjacent parish of Clayton-le-Woods and unlike Whittle, Clayton did not receive its “-le-Woods” appendage until the 19^th century. This is despite Clayton being rather more wooded than Whittle, with extensive woodland in Cuerden Valley Park. These woods, though centuries old, have however been identified as plantations established by early owners of Cuerden Hall. Controversy raged a couple of years ago when it was proposed to clear an area of wood to build an extension to the care home that now occupies Cuerden Hall. Although the clearance would have been legal, as the area was not officially designated as ancient woodland, protesters successfully argued that the woods were historic and important local amenities http://www.lep.co.uk/news/hundreds-back-bid-to-stop-centre-being-built-on-ancient-woodland-1-6563679.

Clearing Whittle-le-Woods

So what happened to the ancient woods that undoubtedly once covered much of Whittle? The short answer is that they were felled and the land cleared. But when, by whom and why?

The last question is easy to answer. The woods were cleared to provide land for farming. Prior to the “agricultural revolution” of the 18^th century, most farming was of a subsistence nature and was land-hungry. As the population increased, more land was needed to feed the extra numbers. Woodland and other areas such as moorland and fenland needed to be brought under cultivation, or more intensively exploited as pasture.

The answer to the question, when was the woodland cleared is a little more complex. It was not a unitary event and there were likely to have been a number of phases of clearance, regrowth and re-clearance over thousands of years, as population numbers ebbed and flowed. As noted above, the woodland that gave Whittle-le-Woods its name in Saxon times was strictly speaking secondary woodland, the original wildwood having been cleared long before. Indirect evidence of this prehistoric clearance may be gained from the presence of Neolithic burial monuments, Pikestones and Round Loaf, on Anglezarke Moor. These monuments were designed to command the view for miles around, which would not have been possible if the surrounding area had still been wooded.

Round Loaf on Anglezarke Moor, likely to be a Neolithic burial cairn. It would have had much less impact if the valleys below had been wooded at the time

Angus Winchester points out that climate change, disease, social unrest and other factors were likely to have led to significant population changes in subsequent millennia. There is evidence, nationally and locally, for an increase in population in the latter Bronze age (the second millennium BCE) followed by a decline following 1000 BCE, with much marginal land abandoned. Population increased again during the Roman occupation then suffered a sharp decline during the 6^th century CE, from unknown cause (Oliver Rackham suggested plague). It is possible that the woodland that gave Whittle-le-Woods its name regrew during this period. During the 12^th and 13^th centuries, favourable climatic and socio-political conditions led to another increase in population, which was brought to an abrupt halt by the outbreak of Black Death in 1349, that may have killed up to one third of the population. Numbers recovered subsequently and by Tudor times there was renewed pressure on land. Putting these trends together with the scanty evidence from local charters, it seems likely that much of the woodland in Whittle was cleared during the 12^th and 13^th centuries, with perhaps some regrowth and subsequent re-clearance following the Black Death. The ancient woods were largely gone by the end of the 16^th century.

As to who was responsible for clearing the woodland, it is tempting to think in terms of pioneering peasant families labouring to clear their own little plots. However, while the outcome of woodland clearance was, as we will see, a network of small, largely pastoral farms, more than individual effort was required. Most clearance is likely to have been instigated and directed by local landowners and to have required much pooling of resources. In the centuries following the Norman Conquest, much of Whittle came into the hands of three major landowners: the le Boteler (Butler) family, whose seat was at Out Rawcliffe on the Fylde; the Houghton family of Houghton Tower and the Crook family, the only significant landowners to live in Whittle, at “Old Crook” (now in the grounds of Lisieux Hall). It is not possible to be precise about who owned what in Whittle, or to reconstruct the actual pattern and chronology of woodland clearance within the township. However, as I set out in another article, it is just possible that an early clearance initiative resulted in the establishment of a “vaccary”, or cattle ranch in the heart of Whittle.

Whittle following Woodland Clearance

The clearance of the woodland did not result in Whittle becoming a significant population centre. As indicated earlier, the village that is today the heart of Whittle did not exist prior to the 19^th century. In common with other formerly wooded areas, by Tudor times Whittle would have become what Oliver Rackham termed Ancient Countryside, which he contrasted with Planned Countryside. While both types of countryside could be found in any part of England, ancient countryside is more common in the north and west, while planned countryside predominates in the south and east. Ancient countryside was:

“…a land of hamlets, of medieval farms in the hollows of hills, of lonely moats in the claylands, of immense mileages of quiet minor roads, holloways and intricate footpaths; of irregularly shaped groves and thick hedges…” (Rackham, 1976: p17).

Such countryside resulted from the piecemeal clearance of woodland and the enclosure of wasteland. In it, pastoral farming predominated, as it was largely situated in more hilly areas, with colder and wetter climates, less suitable for large scale arable farming.

Planned countryside, by contrast, resulted from later enclosure of mainly arable land that took place in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. It superseded the system of arable farming that had developed in Saxon times, based around “nucleated” villages and large “open fields”. Planned countryside is characterised by straight lines; rectangular fields surrounded by thin hawthorn hedges and sometimes straight roads built within the last two hundred years.

It is relatively hard today to see clearly the pattern of ancient countryside that covered Whittle prior to the 19^th century. Subsequent development, of country houses (Shaw Hill and Crook Hall, now Lisieux Hall), transport (canals and roads), industry and related housing and amenities have taken up much agricultural land and Whittle’s continuing transformation into a suburb continues to do so. For a clearer idea of what Whittle once looked like we must move beyond the township boundaries to the neighbouring parish of Brindle, in which ancient countryside is better preserved. Denham Quarry provides a fine vantage point for viewing the landscape. Look from the top of the quarry towards the sea. In the foreground, beyond the lane, is Hough House, a 17^th century farmhouse. Behind it is a patchwork of small fields. Their hedges are a bit threadbare, but you can see they were once thick and include a range of species of shrub – a good sign of a hedge that has been in situ for centuries. There is a scattering of ponds, dug years ago to provide marl to fertilise the land and water for stock. The lane winds irregularly towards the Brindle road and in the distance is Thorpe Green, a small hamlet, now gentrified, but once the home of landless labourers and squatters.

The small fields and once-thick multi-species hedges around Hough House farm, Brindle are characteristic of ancient countryside

This is how Whittle would have once looked. The many farmhouses would have originally been built of timber and wattle-and-daub, but were rebuilt in stone during the “great rebuilding” that swept the country in the 17^th and 18^th centuries (some woodland would have survived the initial clearances to provide for such local needs; for example, old field names suggest that land to the north of the river Lostock and below Carrwood Lane was once wooded). There were some small hamlets, established by road sides (Waterhouse Green and Rip Row, off Chorley Old Road) or on spare common land (Lucas Green). A smithy stood on Chorley Old Road, near Dolphin Brow. There was no church until the 19^th century; worshippers would have had to walk to Leyland or Brindle, or services may have been held by stone crosses that once stood on Chorley Old Road and Dawson Lane.

Whilst most farming would have been pastoral, some arable land was needed to meet local needs. Farms would have set aside some land for growing crops, especially barley. There was also the “Townfield”, a large arable field to the north of Town Lane (Town Lane means the road to the Town Field) that was shared out among local residents. The corn was processed at a mill that stood on the site of Lowe Mill industrial estate (hence “Waterhouse Green”). Some farms also had orchards. There would have been inns; the Roebuck on Waterhouse Green has been quenching thirsts since the 18^th century, or earlier.

In 1666 there was a total of 60 hearths in Whittle. The largest house was Crook Hall, which had nine hearths, followed by Swansey House (originally a large farmhouse, now a private house), which had five. This leaves only 46 hearths for the rest of the township, illustrating the sparse population at that time.

While the principal occupation of the local population was pastoral farming, many families supplemented their income with textile production, initially fustian or linen. Wives would spin thread (children often carried out the initial preparation) and their husbands would weave it on handlooms kept within the farmhouse. The long tradition of spinning and weaving among Lancashire upland farmers was a strong factor in the county becoming the centre of the cotton industry when the industrial revolution arrived.

Lock Farm on Town Lane has an unusual single-storey loom shop as an extension, a legacy of the days when the farmer and his family supplemented their income with textile production

 Whittle Transformed

While some patches of ancient countryside survive in the township of Whittle (the area around Lucas Lane is a good, though shrinking example), change began in the 18^th century and continues to this day. In the late 1700s, the Crosse family moved into the area and established Shaw Hill, a (fairly) grand country house with parkland and ornamental woods. The other country house in the township, Crook Hall, was rebuilt, with “New Crook”, now Lisieux Hall, replacing the older and smaller “Old Crook”, and the parkland extended (which is why Dawson Lane, on the edge of the parkland, embraces otherwise inexplicable 90 degree bends). Industrialisation began to take root; cotton mills were built in the late 18^th century at Lowe Mill and Kem Mill. These early mills were for spinning or “finishing” (bleaching, dying and printing); weaving was still done by hand until the mid-19^th century and extensive "colonies" of handloom weavers’ cottages, with attached loomshops, were built around the township. Transport was improved; the Lancaster canal pierced Whittle in 1803, followed by the Leeds and Liverpool canal in 1819. Chorley Old Road was upgraded to a turnpike and then the “new” turnpike, opened in 1825 (now the A6), smoothed the way for travellers from Chorley to Preston. The growing population required new amenities and Whittle began to take on the appearance of a village, albeit one without a clear centre, as growth happened along both Chorley Old Road and the new turnpike. The first school opened in the late 18^th century and the first church in 1830. By the mid-19^th century Whittle sported a set of stocks (on Chorley Old Road) and later a police station.

The advent of mechanised weaving led to the foundation of weaving mills (at Kem Mill and later at Swansea Mill). Other aspects of industrialisation took hold: quarrying; brick making; a factory making chemicals for the cotton trade and a brewery. There was even a spa, that later became the Howard Arms. All these initiatives, along with the rows of terraced housing to accommodate the workers (and the grander houses for the factory owners), ate into the farmland. Farmers themselves sometimes changed the landscape, adopting Victorian “high farming” principles that embraced larger fields. By 1901, the population of Whittle was 2,333.

During the first half of the 20^th century the pace of change slowed somewhat, meaning that when I came to live here in the 1980s it still had a village feel. Since then, the collapse of the cotton industry and the expansion of suburban housing has transformed Whittle once again. I can’t complain too much; I live in a suburban-style cul-de-sac on the site of a 19th century farm. However, I can still walk the ancient lanes past centuries-old farmhouses (notwithstanding the constant drone of the M61 motorway) and imagine the slow pace of life as it once was – and even the ghosts of the trees that once covered Whittle’s gentle hills.

Sources Used

Tithe maps available at Lancashire Archive, Preston.

Historic Ordnance Survey maps available at Old Maps.

A History of the County of Lancaster, Volume 6 (Victoria County History). British History Online

Barrowclough D (2008) Prehistoric Lancashire. Stroud: The History Press.

Hodgkinson K (1991) Whittle & Clayton-le-Woods: A Pictorial Record of Bygone Days. Chorley: CKD Publications.

Rackham O (1976) Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape. London: Dent.

Rackham O (2006) Woodlands. London: Collins.

Winchester A (2006) England’s Landscape: The North West. London: Collins (English Heritage).