Burnham Beeches - ancient woodland in Buckinghamshire
The historic Burnham Beeches have been described as one of the finest surviving woodland tracts anywhere in Britain, with a particular history of pollarding - the removal of timber from growing trees.
The Burnham Beeches are the remnants of a vast forest that once covered almost the entire county of Buckinghamshire.
It is owned and managed by the Corporation of London who, in 1880, bought the woodland to save it from prospective developers.
Bounded by Windsor, Maidenhead and Slough, Burnham Beeches are within the area around London protected from further encroachment by the Green Belt. The Beeches, covering 220 hectares, are famous for ancient beech and oak pollards and the range of flora and fauna associated with old trees and decaying wood. It is a National Nature Reserve (NNR) and European Special Area of Conservation (SAC), famous for having the largest collection of old beech trees in the world.
Much of Burnham Beeches was once wood pasture. Cut in the past for wood fuel for local use, the site’s pollarded trees were abandoned approximately 200 years ago, resulting in very heavy branches on fragile stems. Many of the estimated 3,000 original trees have been lost as they have fallen over or fallen apart so now only around 420 remain. The City of London is working to re-establish the ancient techniques and restoring the old, lapsed pollards, as well as finding out new methods to create new pollards to help bridge the gap with the veterans.
The average age of the pollarded trees is estimated to be well in excess of 400 years. The largest tree, probably also the oldest, is the "Druid's Oak" -- almost certainly greater than 800 years old.
At 540 acres, the interior of the Beeches offers many easy walks as well as the chance to spot the locations of many movies and TV productions, as Burnham Beeches is a favourite location shoot, having stood in for Sherwood Forest in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, an Irish woodland in The Crying Game, ancient generic England in First Knight and Ivanhoe, and even a more tropical setting in A Town Like Alice.
The entire area was the haunt of highwaymen during the Middle Ages, so much so that it was said that the Vicar of nearby Hurley got danger money for riding through the region. One of the three Scheduled Ancient Monuments on the site shows inhabitation as early as the Iron Age. Hardicanute's Moat is a diamond-shaped earthwork of unknown origin.
Gnarled beeches, natural ponds and abundant wildlife create what has been described as a fairy tale-like atmosphere - particularly in autumn.
Visitor numbers to Burnham Beeches are currently regarded as unsustainably high, and this is causing substantial damage to this unique ancient woodland. To help protect the National Nature Reserve, the amount of available car parking has been reduced.
Further reading
Links to external websites are not maintained by Bite Sized Britain. They are provided to give users access to additional information. Bite Sized Britain is not responsible for the content of these external websites.