West Yorkshire Woods by Chris Goddard
(Shipley Baptist Church/Zoom)
Wednesday 23rd February 2022
Chris started by summarising the history of woodland cover in the UK. There is currently approximately just 8% woodland cover in West Yorkshire which compares to 10% woodland cover in England. In West Yorkshire there is more woodland in the Calder Valley than in other parts of West Yorkshire.
Chris talked about the reasons for our loss of woodland habitat in the UK. For centuries, woods were a working environment and part of the industrial landscape. They were, for example, important for charcoal making and in the tanning industry. Chris said coppicing was common in the Aire Valley in medieval times, mainly for producing charcoal for smelting iron. If you find a flattened circular area in a wood, it is an indication it could have been used for charcoal burning. As these industries needed a continuous supply of wood, woodlands were managed and maintained. The decline of these industries led to a reduced need for the woodlands. By the mid 18th century, charcoal was replaced by coking coal, the last charcoal burners being in operation in the early 20th century. However, the main cause of deforestation in the UK was clearance for agriculture. The UK had already lost the majority of its woodland by the time of the Domesday Book. Mass planting of conifers hasn’t happened in West Yorkshire so the current pattern of woodland is largely unchanged since the Domesday Book.
Chris talked about two lost woods of West Yorkshire, Farnley Wood and Moseley Wood. According to old maps, Farnley Wood was once the largest wood in the region, originally covering approximately 350 acres, but it disappears from maps between 1850 and 1890. Chris talked about some of the possible reasons for the loss of this wood, but it may just have been cleared for agriculture as the area is now largely fields. Moseley Wood once covered 400 acres in an area north-east of Horsforth. Large parts of the wood were felled in the First World War, replaced by quick growing timber. After the war all of the wood was eventually felled for residential housing.
Chris has written a series of walking guides to several areas of Yorkshire including the Aire Valley and the Calder Valley. In writing these books he has tried to draw attention to the woodland we have left close to home. The beautiful hand drawn maps are illustrated with many features of interest, found from Chris’s research, a lot of which are not found on modern OS maps.
Chris gave a good amount of his time to answering questions. He said woodland history is difficult to research as little is written about it. There is disagreement on the present percentage of woodland cover, which indicates how difficult it is to determine the extent of woodland in the past. A lot of beech was planted in the 19th Century as it was fashionable at the time. Bradford has very little woodland compared to other cities in England.
Tom