Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
BOURNE AREA GROUP NEWSLETTER
January 2025
Photo: Wild service trees on the track to Dole Wood mark the ghost boundary of former woodland, as does a cropmark in the field beyond.
In this issue:
Ghosts in the landscape / Fenland Black Oak Table / Launch of Bourne North Fen Reserve / ALDI planning application & the LWT / Future Bourne Area Group Events
Ghosts in the landscape
Midwinter with its long, cold dark nights is traditionally the time to gather around the fire and share stories, often about ghosts. Although the days are now lengthening, outside the landscape is still bare, the trees leafless, the vegetation sparse and the low sun casts long shadows – it’s a good time to look for other types of ghosts often revealed by lumps in the ground rather than bumps in the night.
Over time, there have been significant changes to our landscapes driven by demands for increased food or timber production with, for example, meadows being ploughed or ‘improved’, hedges uprooted, and ancient woodlands cleared or planted with conifers. The intensity of this habitat loss and land-use change increased significantly from WWII onwards leaving a long and familiar litany of wild nature that we have lost. Gone also are more traditional forms of land management such as water meadows or medieval strip-farming.
Yet the shadows of these lost habitats and former land-uses often remain in the landscape, if you know what to look for. Locally, Dole Wood provides a good example of some ‘ghost woodland’, the present wood is now but a fraction of its former size. Compare, for example, the map of the woodland in 1896 with the post-1920 present-day woodland (Figure 1); maps from 1920 and subsequently show that over half the woodland disappeared in that period. Yet the shadow of the former woodland boundary can still be seen.
If you walk west up the track to Dole Wood from Obthorpe Lane, at the dogleg and beyond, a few wild service trees are present in the verge between the track and the arable field to the north (i.e. on your right); bluebells and greater stitchwort are visible in the spring. Both bluebells and wild service trees in Lincolnshire are good indicators of ancient woodland, wild service often being a feature of the edge of ancient woodlands together with the grass, wood melick (Melica uniflora).
And, from satellite photos (look at Google maps or similar) a dark green line (a cropmark) can be seen in the vegetation across the field which matches precisely the former boundary of the wood, presumably tracing the infilled (possibly medieval) boundary ditch where the soil is now deeper and richer. From the ground this line might appear as a line of slightly taller, darker (or paler) green grass depending on the season.
Both the service trees and the cropmark mark the former boundary of this ghost woodland (see Figures 1 & 2 below) cleared during WWI by Italian prisoners of war. They also cleared an area, west of the former railway line, which was acquired by the Trust in 2005 and is now being restored to woodland. Fortunately, this land wasn’t ploughed and survived as pasture; as a result, it retained a scattering of relic bluebells which can now act as the nuclei of a future woodland ground flora.
Ironically, post-WWI, the government decided to create the Forestry Commission to establish a strategic timber reserve for the country. Locally, the FC planted trees to enlarge the original Temple Wood and, in doing so, connected the two ancient woodlands of Temple and Keisby Woods. In the northern part of Temple Wood, you can still make out the corrugated ridges and furrows of the former pasture, evidence of medieval strip farming now covered in woodland, more shadows from the past.
The short-term gain at Dole Wood (of timber and some arable land) for the country led to a longterm loss for nature; who knows what plants we lost when the woodland was cleared. We can’t recreate ancient woodland but what the FC did at Temple Wood shows the way forward. We can make our woodlands bigger again and join up the fragments of ancient woodland that remain.
Figure 1. The Ordnance Survey map (c1890s) showing the previous extent of Dole Wood (and current woodland outlined in yellow) with a current satellite image of the same area. Old maps of the UK are available online here enabling you to compare old with new.
Fenland Black Oak Table
Many of us are used to seeing the piles of ‘bog oak’ lifted by the plough and heaped in piles at the edges of fenland fields. These sub-fossil bog ‘oaks’ (ancient yews as often as oaks) have been buried at the base of the fenland peat for thousands of years and are only exposed as the peat ‘shrinks’ due to agricultural drainage. Once the timbers are exposed, and no longer protected by the waterlogged and often acidic conditions which preserved them, they begin to decay. Note the peat does not actually ‘shrink’, once it dries the organic matter is oxidised (it is decomposed into carbon dioxide & so vanishes, literally, into fresh air). The continued loss of peat from the Fens and elsewhere is a major contributor to the UK’s CO2 emissions.
The history of how these former forests of oak, yew and other species were submerged by rising sea levels and then buried in peat is nicely described in this paper (look at Figure 6 if you don’t want to read it all). The piles of bog oaks are more ghosts from the past - evidence of landscape-scale changes that have happened locally – and a warning too of the potential future impacts of sea-level rise arising from global heating if we do not curb our carbon emissions.
Occasionally, an exceptional piece of bog oak emerges. If you haven’t been to Lincoln cathedral to see the beautiful Fenland Black Oak Table, then you have until the spring to do so (check the cathedral website for details). This table has been beautifully crafted from a 13m long oak trunk unearthed in Norfolk. The tree from which it originated has been estimated to have originally been 55m tall (though how the height was estimated is not explained). This would have been a giant of a tree – the tallest UK oak currently is a 40m-high tree in Wiltshire whilst the tallest oaks in Europe reach 44m – most oaks we see now reach c20m if that. Is this an example of ‘shifting baselines’, was it normal in those primary forests to have such giant trees but, like so many other species, the maximum size that many organisms can attain has shrunk due to human influence. Regardless, go to Lincoln and have a look – the table is very beautiful and skilfully crafted.
Launch of Bourne North Fen reserve
On 19th September, the Trust officially launched the newly-acquired Bourne North Fen reserve at an event attended by Julia Bradbury (with an inspiring and informative after-dinner interview) and generously hosted by Thetford Farm Barn wedding venue (their launch too!). The site still awaits formal planning approval from SKDC for a change of land use from agriculture to nature reserve but, given the benefits of the site to wider society, such approval is (hopefully) likely.
Participants at the launch included a wide range of statutory bodies and other individuals from the agricultural, conservation and other sectors with an interest in the fenland environment and included Vin Fleming & Amanda Jenkins from the Bourne Area Group (plus LWT staff of course).
On a site visit to the Fen, we had an obligatory flyover by two cranes and had the plans for the site explained to us by Tammy Smalley (Head of Conservation for the Trust) and Mark Tartellin (as project officer). Mark also showed us, using his measuring pole, the former height of peat cover on the site and, more alarmingly, the level that a high tide would reach (if sea defences were ever breached – see Figure 3 below).
The site will achieve a wide range of objectives: restoring fenland and contributing to nature recovery (cranes will surely colonise it very quickly); raising water levels and thus reducing flood risk whilst potentially, also making more water available during the summer; preventing further peat loss (thus reducing CO2 emissions) and beginning to sequester and store more carbon; and to clean or ‘polish’ poor-quality water from the Bourne Eau by running it some through reedbeds on the reserve. Lots of ecosystem services and benefits to society there. There won’t, unfortunately, be open public access though.
ALDI planning application & the LWT
Those of you based in Bourne will be aware of the planning application made by ALDI to build a supermarket to the west of Bourne on land adjoining Bourne Woods. The Trust objected to the application on nature conservation grounds and many others objected also for a variety of reasons. The application was subsequently refused.
However, it was suggested on local social media that the Trust had somehow ‘done a deal’ with the developers and had withdrawn their objection if some mitigation measures were taken. This is categorically not the case. The Trust’s objection to the proposal stood throughout the process and still remains. However, staff at the Trust did meet the developers to discuss what measures might be taken to benefit nature (and achieve the now statutory requirement for new developments to achieve biodiversity net gain) IF the development were approved (just because you object doesn’t mean an application will be refused). Nothing more, nothing less. Don’t believe everything you read on social media.
At the time of writing, ALDI have appealed against the refusal of their application.
Future Bourne Area Group events
Over the rest of the winter we are continuing to run a series of indoor talks (see current programme below) and, from the spring, we’ll also have our two traditional open days and we plan to have some outdoor walks. Your ideas and suggestions for walks and talks are always welcome – where would people like to go or what would they like to see?? Normally we stay quite local but perhaps members would prefer that we were more adventurous. Let us know and we’ll try and put them into effect.
Don’t forget all our events are posted on the Bourne Area Group pages on the LWT website (click on the events tab – note these might not be posted until close to the time so check regularly for any updates or changes to the programme, such as the ones below!). Non-members are always welcome.
Likewise, don’t forget our WhatsApp group which will provide participants with reminders about upcoming events. If you want to be part of this group, please let one of the Committee know, either at an indoor event or by sending a message to Amanda Jenkins (07903 028607) or me (Vin Fleming 07968-729169).
2025 (NB programme change below – AGM now in March not April)
Wednesday JOHN CLARE COUNTRYSIDE THROUGH THE EYES OF A 21ST CENTURY
12 February NATURALIST - Sarah Lambert
Sarah is the botanical recorder for south Lincs and a superb photographer of plants, fungi and other wildlife. She’ll give a contemporary naturalist’s view of the landscape and area that John Clare wrote about in his poetry.
Wednesday AGM & DONNA NOOK & THE GREY SEAL COLONY - Matt Blisset or Ruth Taylor
12 March
After dealing with the formal business of the AGM as swiftly as possible, Matt and/or Ruth (the Trust wardens for Donna Nook and Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe dunes reserves) will talk to us about the Donna Nook seal colony, its history and other
wildlife, and the challenges of managing the thousands of visitors the colony attracts. NB AGM from 7pm; talk from 7.30pm
Wednesday NB there will not now be a meeting on this date (AGM originally scheduled now 9 April moved to the March meeting above)
Sunday
27 April
DOLE WOOD OPEN DAY*
Our regular open day on this reserve timed to coincide with the bluebells in flower. As always, there’ll be guided walks, activities for children, cakes & refreshments and plant sales. More details to follow closer to the time.
Sunday
DEEPING LAKES OPEN DAY*
1 June Our regular open day on the reserve with guided walks, activities for children, plants for sale, and cakes and refreshments. More details to follow closer to the time
Saturday MORKERY WOOD – walk to look for purple emperor and other butterflies
19 July Meet at 0930am in the FC car park – success might depend on the weather…
* Can you help on the open days?? Volunteers are always needed to help with the open days, and we are often short of having sufficient home-baked cakes and savoury items to sell (and from which we raise much of our funds). Get in touch if you can help – contact numbers above and / or via the WhatsApp group.
Note the content of this newsletter is produced by the Bourne Area Group of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust – it does not necessarily represent the views of the Trust itself.