Beech on th edge of the South Downs

[Graham]

Thanks for sharing. I love old pollarded beech. Bags of character.

The first lot of pictures appear to show beech pollards along a wood bank which was the traditional way of marking out woods from 12th century onwards. They were always pollarded and originally the bank would be very substantial with a ditch and palings along one side. Love to see a bit of living history.

 

Could also be a Saxon boundary or medieaval deer park boundary. Later enclosures of the 18thC tended to follow field strips or were straight with only a small bank thrown up if a ditch was dug. Nice trees.