Roman Industry and Woodland
It is thought the area has been woodland at least since Roman times, and very probably for much longer than that, possibly dating to the original woodland growth after the last ice age. However it was not left undisturbed by the Romans.
There are many archaeological features visible within the woods, including medieval wood banks, small quarry pits, signs of Roman industrial use and a Roman dwelling place. The first archaeological excavations were carried out by Edmund Tyrell Artis (1789–1847), the Steward of the nearby FitzWilliam estate, in the first half of the 19th century. He suggested a Roman villa site, and the presence of iron working and furnaces within the wood, and in 1965 the Peterborough Museum Society found and excavated furnaces within the woods. Little was then investigated until Time Team's 2011 series which included a LIDAR survey and an archaeological dig within these woods. They confirmed that iron extraction from pits within the woodland, Roman iron smelting sites, and other evidence of Roman industry implied an industrial centre that was significant for Roman British iron supplies. A Roman bath-house, with surviving painted wall plaster may indicate an overseer's residence.
Could the woodland have survived this level of industrial use? The two resources that the Romans needed were ironstone and fuel. With both available on one site, this would make it an attractive location, but to ensure continuity of fuel supply, it would seem most likely that they encouraged re-growth through a coppice-style system. That would mean that there was continuity of woodland trees and habitats throughout and after the Roman period, and possibly since the ice receded.
Read more about this topic: Bedford Purlieus National Nature Reserve
Famous quotes containing the words roman, industry and/or woodland:
“Brutus. Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true.
Messala. Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell,
For certain she is dead, and by strange manner.
Brutus. Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“... we’re not out to benefit society, to remold existence, to make industry safe for anyone except ourselves, to give any small peoples except ourselves their rights. We’re not out for submerged tenths, we’re not going to suffer over how the other half lives. We’re out for Mary’s job and Luella’s art, and Barbara’s independence and the rest of our individual careers and desires.”
—Anne O’Hagan (1869–?)
“I already, and for weeks afterward, felt my nature the coarser for this part of my woodland experience, and was reminded that our life should be lived as tenderly and daintily as one would pluck a flower.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)