The assart thread

[AHPP]

I can't find the conversation I had on here  a while ago (probably with openspaceman) about assart hedges so now we have a thread for it.

 

A friend just posted these pictures from Dartmoor. I'm not sure they're true assarts but definitely in the genre.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by AHPP

[Pete Mctree]

I had to google Assarting - interesting thanks.

 

Assarting is the act of clearing forested lands for use in agriculture or other purposes. In English land law, it was illegal to assart any part of a royal forest without permission. This was the greatest trespass that could be committed in a forest, being more than a waste: while waste of the forest involves felling trees and shrubs, which can regrow, assarting involves completely uprooting all trees—the total extirpation of the forested area.

The term assart was also used for a parcel of land assarted. Assart rents were those paid to the British Crown for the forest lands assarted. The etymology is from the French word essarter meaning to remove or grub out woodland. In northern England this is referred to as ridding.

 

[manco]

kate beckinsale in those tight trousers in van helsing, now there was some ass art.

[Stere]

So an assart hedge means  an unplanted hedge made  from an un "assarted" or un- cleared wood strip left from a  woodland....

 

Wikipedia references come from this book

 

Quote

The cleared land often leaves behind an assart hedge, which often contains a high number of woodland trees such as small leafed lime or wild service and contains trees that rarely colonise planted hedges, such as hazel.^[2] Examples are in Dorset, where there is a difference in the hedges in the west and the east of the county, at Hatfield Broad Oak in Essex where the modern hedges still follow the boundaries of an ancient forest, and at Shelley in Suffolk where there is an unusually long hedge made up of coppiced lime trees that is the remnant of a nineteenth-century woodland clearance.^[3]

 

Hedge Britannia: A Curious History of a British Obsession: Amazon.co.uk: Barker, Hugh: 9781408831120: Books

WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK

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Buy Hedge Britannia: A Curious History of a British Obsession by Barker, Hugh (ISBN: 9781408831120) from Amazon's Book...

 

 

Some maps  & info on Surrey assarts:

 

https://www.waverley.gov.uk/Portals/0/Documents/services/planning-and-building/Appeal Inquiries/Land at Waverley Lane/Core docs/CD5/CD5.9 Surrey Historic Landscape Characterisation 2001.2017.pdf?ver=GMsxYex7eugZTpslL53y8Q%3D%3D&timestamp=1681477031468

 

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Stere

[sime42]

13 hours ago, AHPP said:

I can't find the conversation I had on here  a while ago (probably with openspaceman) about assart hedges so now we have a thread for it.

 

A friend just posted these pictures from Dartmoor. I'm not sure they're true assarts but definitely in the genre.

 

 

 

Interesting topic.

 

That first photo doesn't look like an Assart Hedge. More like a wall or earth bank hedge where the trees have been left to grow up. You can see the stones underneath the moss and roots.

 

Pretty special place that; Teign Gorge / Fingle Woods.

[Stere]

Maybe pics are old  track boundaries relating to:  

 

 

Sunken lane - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

 

 

 

Also:

 

 

Dartmoor's Alluring Uplands: Transhumance and Pastoral Management in the Middle Ages: Amazon.co.uk: Harold Fox, Matthew Tompkins, Christopher Dyer: 9780859898652: Books

WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK

---

Buy Dartmoor's Alluring Uplands: Transhumance and Pastoral Management in the Middle Ages Illustrated by Harold Fox...

 

[AHPP]

1 hour ago, sime42 said:

 

Interesting topic.

 

That first photo doesn't look like an Assart Hedge. More like a wall or earth bank hedge where the trees have been left to grow up. You can see the stones underneath the moss and roots.

 

Pretty special place that; Teign Gorge / Fingle Woods.

No, I don’t think it is but it made me think of them. I know one in Suffolk that I’m 85% sure is one (hard to be totally sure). Might have photos. Will certainly get some. 

 

It's a lovely thing when you notice them. You get more out of the lansdscape, you sense more. Proper cork-sniffing enjoyment of the countryside.

Edited November 1, 2023 by AHPP

[openspaceman]

Just now, AHPP said:

No I don’t to ink it is but it made me think of them. I know one in Suffolk that I’m 85% sure is one (hard to be totally sure). Might have photos. Will certainly get some. 

I don't remember the discussion  and had to be reminded of the meaning of assart.

 

I think the picture shows a beech hedge on a boundary bank that was previously laid and managed. The leading shoots have then grown up to form trees that have shaded out suppressed parts of the hedging.

 

I worked on an estate where just this happened, the hedge protected beech coppice (for charcoal making and the hearths could be seen throughout the hillside) from animals traveling along the track (part of the pilgrims way). When we felled some stems they were 90 years of growth dating them to the 1890s.

[AHPP]

1 minute ago, openspaceman said:

I don't remember the discussion  and had to be reminded of the meaning of assart.

 

Don't worry about it. Let's get you back to your chair and I'll put the kettle on.

[sime42]

18 minutes ago, AHPP said:

No, I don’t think it is but it made me think of them. I know one in Suffolk that I’m 85% sure is one (hard to be totally sure). Might have photos. Will certainly get some. 

 

It's a lovely thing when you notice them. You get more out of the lansdscape, you sense more. Proper cork-sniffing enjoyment of the countryside.

I agree. Who doesn't enjoy a bit of cork-sniffing? We're getting into the realms of Oliver Rackham now.