Gorse brings colour to moors and heaths across the Peak

One of the region’s most spectacular flowers is something we often take for granted and indeed, barely notice, the common gorse. In the Peak and North Derbyshire, we have two gorse species, the common gorse (a big, bold, brash shrub), and the western gorse (an altogether more subdued species). As its name suggests, the latter is rather restricted to western Britain and so we are on the eastern edge of its distribution, and it is not so common. The name ‘gorse’ comes from AngloSaxon ‘gorst’, and its alternative name ‘furze’ from ‘fyrs’, also Anglo-Saxon. Place-names like Fir Vale in Sheffield derive not from conifer trees but from ‘furze’ on the common, from a time when this plant was very important to local people and the rural economy. This was when most people, and especially the poorer ones, relied on the heath and common for their subsistence.

Being so abundant, gorse was significant to people and figured in folk culture. It was said that ‘when gorse is not in bloom, then kissing is out of season’, the reason of course being that this shrub flowers all year round. That said, its main flowering period is in spring when it can be truly spectacular. Indeed, in times past, before urban sprawl and ‘improved’ farming swept away most of our heaths and commons, the swathes of bright yellow across the landscape were amazing spectacles. It was said that Swedish botanist

Carl Linnaeus, one of the key founders of modern natural history and scientific botany, came to Britain and was profoundly affected by the vista when first seeing gorse in bloom. Not found as a native eastward into Europe, gorse is a denizen of the western seaboard. Linnaeus visiting from Sweden had never seen it en masse before. When shown an entire landscape covered in the yellow of common gorse on Putney Heath, he fell to his knees and gave thanks to Almighty God!

Along with being visually spectacular, gorse or furze, was also especially useful to medieval communities in some places until the 1900s. Many farms in Derbyshire and the Peak would have had ‘furze fields’ where gorse seed was scattered on poorer land to grow gorse. It grew in abundance on poor, sandy soils (because it ‘fixes’ or traps atmospheric nitrogen using nodules in its roots), and thus was a great provider of forage for grazing livestock. Put through a gorse shredder or cutter, the resulting greenery was fed to the animals. Along with this, gorse burns ferociously and cleanly to leave little ash. It was therefore good at starting fires (as kindling), and for communal baking ovens or cloams. The bottom slice of a baked loaf was cut off with its ash, but the rest was good to go. Gorse made good temporary fencing on open land such as common or heath, and when seen in hedgerows today, it often indicates a one-time heathland. Bundled up and tied to a long stick, you could use it to sweep your chimney, a practice described for the Hope Valley in Derbyshire.

Gorse is also excellent habitat for birds such as whinchats, stonechats, yellowhammers, and meadow pipits.