It is easy to forget that charcoal was the world’s first industrial fuel and that it has been used in the UK over much of the last five thousand years. During that time there had been a huge pressure on timber supplies and this has necessitated the production and effective management of the woodland resource.

The very earliest metal workers were likely to have abundant woodland supplies. Much of the post glacial wild wood remained and as this was cleared to give way to agriculture timber was always readily available in the locality. By around 1000 BC around half the natural wild wood had been already cleared and considerable pressure was now placed on local timber supplies. In the south of England, on the chalklands in particular, relatively little woodland remained. The more sophisticated management of woodland began.

Coppicing has been the mainstay of woodland management in the UK for many thousands of years. It is likely too, that evidence of coppiced material in the UK dating from 6000 years back is the earliest evidence available in the world.

Coppicing is the cutting of a tree or shrub to ground level. This encourages the tree to sprout a number of new shoots, which then grow very vigorously. Coppicing is similar in concept to pruning except that all the wood is removed and not just a few branches. By cutting the tree or shrub to the ground, all dead, diseased and old wood is removed and then utilised. This reinvigorates the plant and root resources are directed to healthy new shoots which grow vigorously. This makes for a thicker plant which in turn is better for wildlife.

The image of a hazel bush alongside illustrates an old plant that has been coppiced many times before. The stems on this plant are now old and suffering from disease and the plant needs cutting again. The base of a coppiced plant like this is often referred to as a stool.

Coppicing is carried out in cycles where the length of the cycle will depend on the type of plant and the type of product that is sought. In much of the ancient semi natural woodland in the UK a mix of cycles are used. Typically a wood could be managed like this;

• Hazel cut on a 7 to 11 year cycle providing "rods" for fencing, handles, roofing etc.
• Ash cut on a 14 to 21 year cycle providing firewood and wood for charcoal.

These cycles would all coexist within a wood with only small areas of the wood being coppiced on an annual basis - thereby ensuring an ongoing supply of future resource. The image illustrates coppiced ash in the distance with young hazel in foreground.

In a wood not all trees and shrubs are coppiced. Some trees are allowed to grow on to become timber trees. These trees are known as "standards". Standards in a woodland environment are usually ready to harvest for timber sometime between 70 and 150 years depending on the variety and rate of growth. The image illustrates the straight trunk (bole) of a standard tree. In the background there are many stems of young freshly coppiced hazel that are about to come into leaf.

An unusual coppiced whitebeam. This species of tree is not known for its longevity but this example shows how coppicing has left us with both an old tree as well as one that has been productive. Trees that are continually coppiced can continue to live for many centuries and perhaps one of the most suprising facts about our countryside is that some of the oldest trees have already been cut down many times!

Well documented cases exist of coppiced limes which are believed to be several thousands of years old - often these have lived many times longer than had they been left to grow (and die) without intervention. A spectacular coppiced lime is illustrated. Looking more like a clump of trees this ancient tree is many centuries old.

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