Old maps used in efforts to protect ancient trees
Historical maps are helping to find and protect Northamptonshire's ancient trees.
Evocative maps, showing details from towns, villages and countryside from 1843 to 1893, have been added to the Ancient Tree Hunt website, run by the Woodland Trust, the UK's leading woodland conservation charity.
One of Northamptonshire's most remarkable old trees is an ancient oak with a girth of seven-and-a-half metres in Old Sulehey Forest, near Nassington, in the north of the county, a site which is known to have been forested since the 13th century.
The oak has been coppiced – or harvested – in the past, but it continued to grow resulting in its current multi-stemmed form. The tree is actually found in a section called "King's Oaks" and, according to records, was in an area where trees were reserved for the Royal Navy.
To show the history behind today's landscape, the Ancient Tree Hunt teamed up with Landmark Information Group, home of the UK's largest digital archive with nearly a million historical Ordnance Survey maps from the 1840s.
On the Ancient Tree Hunt website, these old maps are overlaid with the current road network so woods, copses, parkland, buildings and streets that existed in the past can be located.
It aims to record at least 100,000 surviving ancient trees throughout the UK by 2011. More than 4,000 ancient trees have been recorded and verified since the launch of the project six months ago.
Nikki Williams, project manager for the Ancient Tree Hunt, said: "These wonderful maps are helping us identify some of the best places to search for remaining ancient trees.
"People joining the Ancient Tree Hunt can step back in time to see former landscapes of parks, gardens and tree-lined avenues, all strong clues to follow up to find surviving ancient trees as well as a fascinating glimpse of local history."
The website is at www.ancienttreehunt.org.uk.
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