Westbury Deer Park Survey

Veteran Trees

WSM 2008/6
Barry Lane
A Survey of Veteran Trees in Westbury Deer Park, Somerset

Summary
Ancient oaks are commonly found in medieval parks and Royal Forests and a field survey of
old trees was therefore undertaken in the winter of 2007/2008 in the bishops’ deer park in
Westbury-sub-Mendip by members of the Westbury Society. Over 90 trees, mostly sessile
oaks, were visited and recorded. Using the formula proposed by White (1998) the likely ages
of the trees were calculated. The results were then analysed in two ways. Firstly, an age
profile of all oak trees over 3m girth was calculated and secondly, they were all mapped
geographically onto a plan of the park. There were no oaks more than 300 years old.

Presumably all the oaks had been felled before the park was leased out by 1700. From that
period new oaks germinated or were planted in the newly created pasture landscape with field
hedges and trees to provide shelter for stock. The distribution of the veteran oaks indicated
that different farmers or landowners may have had quite different management regimes for the
trees on their land. One group of trees along the park boundary supported the idea that the
stone walls on the southern park boundary may have been demolished to provide hard core for
the two drove roads across the Moor that were constructed after the Parliamentary Enclosure
Act for Westbury of 1791.

Site location and description

The medieval deer park of Westbury enclosed an area of approximately 500 acres and lay to
the south west of the village of Westbury-sub-Mendip, near Wells in Somerset. It is included
in the Somerset Environment Record with PRN 24861 and has the grid reference ST 49 48.

Figure 1. Aerial view of Westbury with the deer park boundary indicated by the green line.
The location of each veteran tree surveyed is marked.
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The southern boundary approximately follows the Ordnance Survey 10m contour which
defines the edge of Westbury Moor. The northern boundary in places reaches up to 25m at the
foot of the Mendip Hills. Within the park there are three small hills - Lodge Hill, Windmill
Hill and Chalcroft Hill - that rise to a maximum of 65m. These hills are outliers of Black
Rock Limestone, which is surrounded by Mercia Mudstone, except on Westbury Moor, where
it is covered by alluvium from the River Axe that flows about 1.5km further to the southwest.

Historical background
The medieval deer park in Westbury was first identified by local archaeologist Chris Hawkes
in 1976 (Somerset PRN 24861) and was later the topic of a MA Dissertation by History
teacher and local documentary historian Tony Nott (1996). The park was probably
created by Bishop John of Tours in the mid-12th century and was managed directly by his
parkers and stewards until the late 16th century. After that it became leased out to Sir John
Rodney and his successors until 1660. Most of the area covered by the medieval park later
became known as Park Manor and was first mapped in 1759 (SRO DD/CC/11686) just prior
to a renewal of the lease to Charles Woodnoth Esq. of Maids Morton, Bucks in 1760.

Westbury Moor, outside the southwestern boundary of the park, was enclosed by an Act of
Parliament of 1791. The Moor was drained by a series of rhynes and two new droves
constructed - Long Drove and Short Drove - to provide access to the freshly drained fields.
The low-lying land beyond the park boundary to the south and east had probably been drained
in the 13th century by the bishop to create ‘overland’ pasture that he could lease out to tenants
in separate fields (Lane 2004).

Survey aims
Initial fieldwork had identified a number of large old trees within the park and along its outer
boundary. It was decided to survey all these trees and to assess whether their locations and
approximate ages might illuminate any particular phase of the park’s life. The size of a tree
that warrants the description ‘veteran’ or ‘ancient’ varies but a general guideline is that its girth
should exceed 3m. The aim of the fieldwork was to complete a survey form for every veteran
tree with a girth of over 3m within the former deer park or along, or close to, its outer
boundary.

Figure 2. Measuring the girth of a veteran willow on the bank of a rhyne.

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Fieldwork
Permission was obtained from the landowners and/or tenant farmers to carry out the survey
which was undertaken by members of the Westbury Society on Monday mornings from 26
November 2007 to 7 April 2008. Apart from the practical difficulties of putting a tape
measure around a tree deep within a thorn or bramble hedge, or across a waterfilled ditch, no
problems were encountered.

A recording sheet, based upon the model provided by English Nature’s Veteran Trees Form
(for the Veteran Trees Initiative), was first devised by botanist Lin Carter. An example of the
survey form that was used to record each tree is given on page 9. Lin then trained an initial
group in the field explaining in detail how to use the survey form. Additional guidance was
provided by the Specialist Survey Method publication (English Nature 1997). The field teams
varied in composition and number from two to six people. A hand-held GPS was used as
close to each tree as possible to record an eight figure grid reference.

Description of results
A total of 91 trees were surveyed; 74 oaks, 12 ash and 5 willows. Subsequently the data for
12 trees with a girth of less than 3m was discarded for all the analysis that followed. This
reduced the dataset to a total of 79 trees. Fig. 3 shows the location of all these trees; a number
lay a short distance outside the park boundary.

The ages of the oak trees were calculated from their girth measurements by using the formula
devised by John White (1998) Fortunately one oak, number 55 surveyed, had been recently
felled (see fig. 4) and the opportunity was taken to check the accuracy of the girth/age calcula-
tion. Its girth was measured as 3.90m which gave an estimated age of 208 years; a total of
about 200 tree rings were counted.

Figure 2. Map of Westbury deer park with the location of all veteran oak, ash and willow
trees plotted.
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 Figure 4. Felled oak aged about 200 years from a count of its rings.

As it is not possible to date willows and ash trees securely from their girth measurements they
were not included in the age analysis that followed.

Firstly, the measurements for the 66 veteran oaks were grouped by girth within bands of 20 cm
from 3.00m to 6.00m, e.g. 3.00-3.19m, etc. The predicted age for a tree with the mid-point
measurement in each band, e.g. 3.10m, was then calculated. The results were graphed using
Excel showing the number of trees within each age band. See fig. 4. The number of trees
rises to a maximum of 10 with an age of about 150 years then falls off to zero at about 320
years with only one tree surviving beyond that age, and that lay just outside the park boundary.
There also appears to be a dip at about 220 years.

Figure 5. Graph of the numbers of trees of ages 150-360 years.

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Discussion
Veteran oaks of over 400 years are commonly found in parks and Royal Forests (Rackham,14).
It is therefore surprising that the oldest sessile oak within Westbury deer park is only about
300 years old. This suggests that all the oaks within the park were felled and cleared by 1700.
There is only one specimen (number 79) that appears to have survived longer. It stands in an
open pasture field just outside the park at ST 4918 4884. With a girth of 5.44m it has an
estimated age of 360 years. In other words it was planted or germinated about 1650 AD.

It would seem that the responsibility for clearing the oaks may rest with one of the bishops.
Leases to tenants of the park from the 16th century to at least 1764 commonly include the
phrase “excepting all the timber trees”.

In the lease of the manor house of Wookey granted to Thomas Clerke in 1544 large timber
which might be needed for repairs to the house was to be provided from Westbury Park
(SRS 83, 2). Sales of wood were also a significant element in the income derived from the
manor of Westbury: £7 9s was received in 1527 against a rent total in 1555 of £39 1s 8d.
(Hembry 1967, 16-17).

In 1622 instructions were issued by the Crown to Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, for the
observance of all the bishops of his province. Three of these instructions concerned the care
of their estates. One of these three was not to waste woods (Hembry 238)! Less than 10 years
later Charles I sent even more forceful instructions on the conservation of estates to all the
bishops, including one to Bishop Piers of Bath and Wells on 22 June 1634. No doubt it was
these instructions of the king which prompted Bishop Piers to draw up, at the front of his new
notebook, a comprehensive rental of all his manors, including Westbury (SRO DD/CC/13324).
The 16th century lease of the Park to Sir John Rodney is first recorded here.

The bishops of Bath and Wells were one of the four Lords Royal of Mendip who were in
control of the lucrative lead industry. The bishops’ minery at St. Cuthberts, Priddy was
thriving in this period and would have demanded considerable quantities of wood and timber
for the smelting process.

Whether Bishop Piers did conserve the timber in his park is not known. However it would
appear that sometime before 1700, perhaps under bishops Creyghtone (1670-72), Mews (1673-
84), Ken (1685-91) or Kidder (1691-1703) Westbury park lost all of its oaks. Unfortunately
none of their account books record any sale or use of timber from the park.

Another explanation may also be suggested; that is that it was one of the bishops’ tenants that
was responsible. Sir Edward Rodney, leaseholder of the Park, died without a male heir in
1657 and his two daughters Anna (wife of Sir Thomas Bridges of Keynsham) and Jane (wife
of Sir John Stawell) inherited his estates. The lease of the park shortly came into the hands of
Robert Bagnell, a Bristol merchant. It may be that he changed the economy of the Park by
creating the fields and enclosures that were shown on the 1759 map of Park Manor, as it came
to be known, all sub-leased to over 30 different farmers. Hedges were planted and occasional
hedgerow oaks and ash trees planted or encouraged to provide animal shelter in each field.
See fig. 6 over the page.

No explanation can be offered for the dip in the graph of fig. 5 around 220 years. As only 4
trees are involved it may only be a statistical error. It is also possible that around 1790 there
were years of poor germination or neglect of planting.

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 Figure 6. Part of the 1759 map of the Park manor showing the new pasture landscape.

Neither is it possible to explain the origin of the distribution of the veteran trees in two distinct
areas in the western and eastern parts of the park, with none in the central area. See fig. 2. At
the western end of the park, apart from those trees on the park boundary, there appears to be
clear evidence of planting of trees at the centre of many of the hedgerows; this is not found at
the eastern end of the park. There is an apparent gap approximately 1km wide in the centre of
the park separating the trees at either end.

By far the largest number of trees are standing within hedgerow field boundaries and only 13
are growing on the boundary of the park itself. These boundary trees are found in three
distinct places. One group of these trees are actually growing out of the foundations of the
stone park wall along the southern boundary adjacent to the Moor. Presumably these are
naturally seeded and would have started to grow once the wall itself was demolished. The
oldest tree in this group, no.77, may have started growing about 1740 suggesting that robbing
of stone from the wall may have begun by that date. The other 6 trees date from 1780-1860.
The Parliamentary enclosure of Westbury Moor followed an Act of 1791, when considerable
quantities of stone would have been required as foundations of the newly constructed access
roads of Long Drove and Short Drove. A grass covered pile of stones at ST 486 482 may be
material removed from the wall but not used for the drove foundations.

Figure 7. Pile of stones removed from the park wall and probably ready to be re-used as
foundation for one of the new droves across the Moor after 1791, but never used.
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One isolated veteran, no.80, dating from about 1740 stands amidst the ruins of the northern
boundary wall, suggesting that robbing there also started in the mid-18th century.

The third group of 5 veteran trees is growing on the earthen bank above the ditch along the
southern boundary. Again the earliest dates from the mid-18th century.

Most of the remaining trees are growing in hedgerows that form internal field boundaries
within the park. A few that do not may be shown to be on the alignment of hedges now gone.
The oldest of these trees date from 1710-20 providing a date for those boundaries that are
older than the first surviving map of the Park Manor of 1759. Most of the boundaries on that
map still survive today.

The old ash trees show a geographical distribution vary similar to that of the oaks, fig. 2.

All four very large willows are close together on the banks of a rhyne just outside the southern
boundary of the park, fig. 2.

Recommendations
It is recommended that advice is sought on conservation work that might be done to prolong
the life of as many of the veteran trees as possible.
It is also recommended that the guidance set out in English Nature’s IN13 - Veteran Trees: A
Guide to good management is followed. This document is now available free of charge from
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/

Bibliography & references

English Nature 1997 Veteran Trees Initiative. Specialist Survey Method
Hembry, P.M. 1967 The Bishops of Bath and Wells, 1540-1640: Social and Economic
Problems, University of London Historical Studies 20.
Lane, B.J. 2004 Gooseland unpublished report. Available at http://www.britarch.ac.uk/cbasw/
Nott, A.G.W. 1996 The Park of the Bishop of Bath and Wells at Westbury Somerset University
of Bristol unpublished MA thesis.
Rackham, O. 1996 Trees and Woodland in the British Countryside London: Phoenix
SRO = Somerset Record Office documents
SRS = Somerset Record Society volumes
White, J. 1998 Estimating the Age of Large and Veteran Trees in Britain Forestry Commission.

Archive deposit
All the original paper and digital records will be deposited with the Wells & Mendip Museum.
Paper copies of this report will be deposited with the Wells and Mendip Museum, the
Somerset Environment Record Centre, the Ancient Tree Forum, the Woodland Trust and each
of the landowners/farmers. A pdf version will be available from
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/cbasw/

Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to those landowners and farmers who gave permission for the survey to take
place on their land, particularly Ian Kealey, Dave Limond, Andrew Sealey and Robert Tucker.
Thanks are also due to Lin Carter who helped considerably in the initial stages of the survey
by creating the survey form and training everyone in how to make the observations and
measurements. Live.maps.com provided the aerial map used in fig.1.

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Surveyors
The following members of Westbury Society contributed to the fieldwork - John Ball, Andrew
Buchanan, Chris Hann, Barry Lane, Austin and Hilary Little, Nick Mayor, Stephen and Rachel
Taylor, and Nicky Venning.

Report
This report was written by Barry Lane
2 Glencott, The Hollow, Westbury-sub-Mendip, BA5 1HH
barry.j.lane@btopenworld.com

Date: 25 November 2008

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Figure 8. Sample survey sheet