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Of Squirrels & Pilgrims
At the end of the last ice age when most of the UK
was covered in wildwood, a squirrel could have
travelled through the treetops from the Highlands
of Scotland to the coast of Sussex. Although in the
Middle Ages massive numbers of trees were felled
to build the great cathedrals (a thousand oaks for
Salisbury Cathedral alone), it is said that a squirrel
could still travel entirely at treetop level from the
Severn to the Wash. Pilgrims, it was claimed, might
ride all the way from the old capital of Winchester
to Canterbury in the shade.
The name Boughton Aluph means
the settlement
of Aluf where the beeches grow
. At the little church
here, near Wye and Ashford in Kent, the huge
chimney to draw smoke from the fireplace in the
porch (above) is a reminder that woodland could be
a dangerous place for a passing traveller. Pilgrims
on their way to Canterbury are said to have gathered
by the fire here to form protective groups before
venturing together through King's Wood. Large
sections of King’s Wood are now coppiced sweet
chestnut, probably first planted around 200 years
ago to provide poles for the hop industry.
Wood was still power
To steal a march on her Muslim neighbours and
establish Mediterranean supremacy Venice (itself
built on water-tough alder like our canal lock gates)
had built large numbers of high quality ships but
rapidly expanding sea power came at a high price
and in the 15
th
century a shortage of timber cost the
Venetians their maritime power. Likewise building
the Armada left large parts of Spain devoid of trees
heralding the decline of Spanish supremacy at sea and
giving the advantage to the English, French,
Portuguese and Dutch who throughout the 15
th
and
16
th
century vied with each other for maritime power
and new lands for empire. Conflict was inevitable.
In the Tudor period trees were felled on a vast scale.
Timber from the forests of Kent and Sussex was
brought to Henry’s shipyards on the Thames at
Deptford and Woolwich. Just one of Henry VIII’s
warships like the Mary Rose (below) meant felling a
small forest. We needed the timber to gain new empire
and new territories. We needed more timber to protect
our new empire and territories. Before long we needed
our empire and territories
for
their timber because by
the 1620s we were, unsurprisingly, really quite short
of timber. It was a problem that was here to stay and
a hundred years later this shortage of timber was to
bring about a new revolution.