Heritage Trail - Riverside Path near Jackdaw Crag


Riverside path near Jackdaw Crag with coppiced hazels.	View up river from the riverside plantations, with the prehistoric flint site, now an arable field, just visible on the distant bend
Coppicing trees means cutting all the poles that grow up from the stool on a regular cycle of every few years. It has been carried out since prehistoric times to provide different sized poles for fencing, building and other needs. The practice largely died out in the second half of the C20th, but is making a come-back in recent years. Coppicing regenerates the tree and provides a regular harvest or wood.



Working on coppice hazels to re-generate the plants and open up views along the river.	The finished stool. Normally this would be cut much closer to the ground, but on the steep river bank it was left taller for safety reasons.

	A former coppiced beech alongside the path near Jackdaw Crag, now ‘lapsed’ after management ceased and since grown away into a large tree.