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Around 12,000 years ago, Britain was emerging from an ice age. As the ice retreated from its southern boundary (a line across Britain stretching from roughly the Bristol channel to the coastline of Kent), trees began to grow and cover the land in dense and extensive forests and woodlands.
The first trees to emerge and grow were Birch and Pine, followed by the Aspen and Willow. These were quickly followed by Hazel, Oak, Alder, Lime, Juniper and Elm. Seeds blown by the wind or carried to Britain by settlers and traders brought more diverse trees and vegetation, some lived happily side by side with the indigenous trees, some became so rampant as to almost wipe out what was originally here. But all have made this land green and lush, with trees in particular providing a welcoming habitat for wildlife.
Forests are areas where a specific species of tree grows.
Woodlands are where mixed broadleaf trees grow and exist together.
Wild woodlands are those where nature has been left to nurture what lives there without hindrance from mankind. These are places where the diversity of native wild flowers, animals, insects and trees is not geared towards any particular aim or end, but is left to nature herself.
A click on any one of the trees listed to the left of this page will lead you to lore on that particular tree. This is by no means a finished project, and the information, and the list, will be added to until we have a valuable database of the lore of the woodsman, the herbalist and the folklorist to delve into and learn what we can about the beautiful and much loved trees that share this land.
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