The ancient woodlands of Park Wood and Ten Shilling Wood, both in Canley, are 15 minutes by bus from the city centre, yet have survived unchanged for at least the last 200 years (the earliest map of the area dates from 1776).
With a rich and varied history of ownership they are at present under Council control and available to the public for recreational use. They are now both designated Local Nature Reserves.
The woods differ greatly in size - Ten Shilling being a wood of 12 acres, while Park Wood covers an area of 48 acres. They provide an urban setting for plants and wildlife and, due to increasing environmental pressures, it is important that they are treated with respect so they keep their rural character.
Woodland Management
Management is aimed at creating a woodland consisting of trees of various ages. This is achieved by selectively felling and coppicing a small area at certain times. This will allow more light to the woodland floor and encourage natural regeneration of native tree species, wild flowering plants and insects.
Woodland Rides
The survival of many wild plants and insects depends on the existence of open areas within a woodland. To achieve this, many of the rides have been widened and in some places bays or glades have been created to encourage wildflowers and butterflies.
History
Forest of Arden
In 1153 an order of monks swapped their lands in Radmore, Staffordshire, for the Stoneleigh Estate, in the heart of 'Arden' (the ancient word means high forest) woodlands. The estate had been the property of the Crown since the days of the Norman conquest, but passed to the newly founded Cistercian Abbey at Stoneleigh (or Stanley as it was then).
Henry VIII and the Leigh Family
The estate and the woodland it included remained the property of the church until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, between 1536 and 1539, when King Henry VIII seized all the lands of the church
The King granted the estate to the Duke of Suffolk and, in 1561, it was sold in part to the then Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas Leigh.
Recent History
By the year 1800 the Leigh family had over 20,000 acres of land in the Stoneleigh estate and it remained their property until, 1926, when almost 2,500 acres were bought by Coventry Corporation, including approximately 350 acres of woodland.
Past Use
Ten Shilling Wood gets its name from Ten Shilling Field; the reference relating to the cost of a shooting permit per gun per season. We also find local reference to Park Wood as Fifty Shilling Wood and at £2 per licence we can see why only the wealthy could afford such hobbies.
Pheasants would have been reared in the woods until the start of the season (1 October) when they would be driven towards the shooters in nearby fields.
Although shooting no longer continues in these woods, pheasants can still be seen around the field boundaries where they feed during the day, entering the wood to roost at dusk.
The Doomsday Book tells us that Arden woodlands, including those in Canley, were used for the grazing of 200 pigs, which fed on acorns and beech seed. During this period large trees (mainly oak) were used for building work, with the smaller pieces being used as firewood.
Since the Council bought the land there has been occasional use of timber, especially during the Second World War when an area of conifers (mainly Larch and Scots Pine), planted in Park Wood at the turn of the century, was felled for pit-props in the mines. Recently the woods have been managed for recreational use with only selected felling on individual trees.
New Woodland Belt
A new strip of woodland was planted along the west boundary of the woodland in 2002. This belt of trees is about 17 metres wide and a mixture of native broadleaved trees and shrubs. There is also some Scots Pine. These trees form part of a 40 metre wide buffer strip between the mature woods and the Westwood Heath Housing Development. The remainder of the buffer strip was sown with wildflowers in 2001.
The trees
English Oak
This tree is known to all due to its massive crown and great height. The English Oak can be recognised by both its acorns (which are its seeds) and by the wavy outline of its leaves. Prized for the quality and durability of its timber, the Oak has been used for everything from ship building to coffins. One of our most common and useful trees, it also provides a staple food (the acorn) to many woodland birds and animals.
Sweet Chestnut
The Sweet Chestnut is aptly named as its seed is a delicious nut, several of which are found enclosed in a prickly shell. This nut was used to make polenta by the Romans, who introduced this species to Britain. Polenta was a ground up form of the fruit which, when baked, produced a nutritious biscuit. Widely coppiced, it is also notable for the way it attracts lightning strikes, the scars of which can clearly be seen. It is identified by its large saw toothed leaves which are often as long as 9" and by the spiralling bark on large trees.
Silver Birch
The white bark and slender twigs of this graceful tree are easily recognisable. The first tree to spread over Britain after the Ice Age, it is extremely hardy and is often regarded by foresters as a 'nurse' - providing shelter to slower growing, more valuable trees. In the centre of Park Wood a fine Birch Avenue can be seen which was planted in the 1930s.
Larch
Larches are remarkable in that they are both coniferous and deciduous trees. They bear cones but also shed their needles in the autumn, making them easy to tell apart from other conifers in the cold months. In summer they are attractive with featherlike, light green foliage.
Scots Pine
The Scots Pine first arrived in this country in about 10,000 BC. Immediately recognisable by its blue-green foliage and flaky orange upper bark, this tree is one of the world's major timbers, being used extensively in modern houses as joints and rafters.
Walking
Canley Wood provides pleasant and easy walking with a good choice of rides and footpaths.
Ten Shilling Wood
Ten Shilling Wood is especially suitable for the elderly, due to the flatter nature of the ground. Access to Ten Shilling Wood is from Charter Avenue (on the main Canley bus route).
The slow draining red clay soils in this area mean both woods can become muddy in wet weather.
Park Wood
Park Wood slopes gently to the south. A path for people with disabilities was made in 1995 in the west side of the wood and this was extended in 2002 to link with the open space on the west edge of the wood. Access to Park Wood is from Charter Avenue (on the main Canley bus route) and also by the public footpath from Westwood Heath Road.
Coppicing in Canley
When walking in Park Wood you can see evidence of previous coppicing, most notably the large Sweet Chestnuts. When a tree is coppiced (the word comes from the French 'couper' - to cut), it is referred to as a coppiced stool and is easily recognised by the many shoots growing from the one stool. When a tree is felled it sends up new shoots from the old stump and these are generally left for between 7 to 15 years before being cut again. This coppicing process ensures a regular supply of small timber for a variety of uses.
Coppicing with standards refers to the practice of allowing some trees to grow to maturity, thus providing timber and shelter for the young coppice growth. This results in a graduation from open glades to closed canopy woodland.
As the coppicing cycle progresses it provides a varied environment, especially suited to herbaceous plants, butterflies and other animals living in the woodland edge and to nesting birds. When coppicing is discontinued, as in the case here, the wood closes in, seriously affecting the open and grassland environments with a noticeable loss of woodland plants, but it also has advantages, with the increase in dead and dying wood helping hole-nesting birds - the nuthatch, woodpeckers and tree creepers.
Coppice produces the following items;
Silver Birch:
- besoms, bobbins etc. (A)
- brush heads (B)
Sweet Chestnut:
- walking sticks (A)
- fencing (B)
A = wood up to 12 years old
B = wood between 12 and 15 years old
Main Bus Routes
18 or 18A - Pool Meadow to Charter Ave, 19 - Westwood Way (National Express West Midlands - Telephone 0871 200 2233).
Don't forget the Country Code
- Enjoy the countryside and respect its life and work.
- Guard against all risk of fire.
- Fasten all gates.
- Keep dogs under control.
- Keep to public paths across farmland.
- Use gates and stiles to cross fences, hedges and walls.
- Leave livestock, crops and machinery alone.
- Take your litter home.
- Help to keep all water clean.
- Protect wildlife, plants and trees.
- Take special care on roads.
- Make no unnecessary noise.
Horse riding is not permitted in any of these woodlands.