Firstly think trees

Perhaps not the youngest tree around

Someone crazy about bricks and mortar?

There's two of these trees by the sound of it ?

Would you find this tree close to the sea?

There's nothing fancy about this tree

If you're up one of these, you definitely stuck!

Morecambe, San Francisco and Bengal have this tree in common

Now think flowers and plants

Who is the patron saint of gardeners, horticulture, florists, brides and brewers?

What is pomology the study of?

Vanilla flavouring is derived from which flower?

Which fruit was cultivated from crossing a blackberry and a raspberry? 

What colour is a Welsh poppy? 

Which football team is nicknamed the Cherries, after their stadium was built on a cherry tree orchard?

What is the biggest seed in the world?

These emojis might signal a tree or two

9⃣

Answers  here

A magnificent book about a woodland which dominates south London, even though only pockets of the woodland remain.  The author pulls off the trick of using the story of the Great North Wood to relate centuries of social history and much about woodland ecology.  It's gritty, too, and it soon becomes apparent that Christopher Schuler doesn't just volunteer in Dulwich Woods, a sizable remnant from the Great North Wood, but he also loves the woodland.

The Great North Wood was really big - several thousand acres in extent - stretching seven miles from Croydon to Deptford and even the remaining segments run from Dulwich to Norwood (a shortened version of "North Wood").  It was also an important resource for many centuries mostly for firewood, building timbers and of oak trees for naval building.  But Schuler demonstrates the richness of its history and the contradictions in the way it has been managed - in the 18th century cash payments were made by the parishes to anyone bringing in badger heads or other "vermin", which we would now consider valuable wildlife.

One tradition which Schuler explains went on for centuries, was the "beating of the bounds" where on a set day on April (25th, Rogation Day) every year the Parish boundaries were followed on foot by a formal group.  The members of this group would literally beat sticks against trees along the boundaries and mark some by carving crosses into them.  In order to make sure the boundaries were remembered they made sure that old men were included who remembered earlier "beating of the bounds" and teenage boys who would be expected to remember the boundaries for decades to come.  In order to help them remember more clearly their hands were sometimes pricked at key points so that they would be more likely to recall the spot. Often there was merriment and drinking on such occasions but there was also a seriousness as at certain notable points the priest would say prayers.  One of the more famous spots was the Vicars Oak at the end of the road which is now called Crystal Palace Parade.  This was a tree on the boundary of three different parishes and being at the top of a ridge was visible for miles around.

The North Wood

Many bodies influenced the course of the woodland - for a long period it was forbidden to cut any oaks for other than naval use in order to ensure the navy had enough timber which could be moved to a navigable waterway. The dominant owners over the centuries were various church organisations, although the freehold of most of Dulwich Woods now belongs to the Dulwich Estate and Southwark Council.  Both organisations tried to build housing on the woodlands in recent decades but this has been successfully resisted by conservationists, and the London Wildlife Trust (LWT) now manages most of the Dulwich Woods part of the Great North Wood.  Many people volunteer for the LWT and some have fought hard to stop oak trees being felled for bridge repairs or other expedient reasons.

Christopher Schuler's "The Wood that Built London" will be the defining work on the Great North Wood for a long time to come. It was through the industry of London's labourers, as Schuler states,  that "the Great North Wood fuelled - quite literally - the growth of the great city that would ultimately consume it."

I grew up in the woods in New England. My parents were South Africans who replanted themselves several times, first in Zimbabwe, then London (where I was born), and finally, and quite accidentally, Connecticut. We didn’t really fit in there, and people often treated us as strange and exotic. 

However, amongst the trees that surrounded our house, there was no judgment or expectation. There was no need to explain myself. The woods offered the joy of exploration, the comfort of sheltering branches, and a sense of having entered into another, quite separate, self-sufficient world. I’d dam tiny streams, spy on wildlife, discover endangered flowers, find out which trees were prone to caterpillar infestation and which had bark that tasted like spearmint that was good to chew. And I always felt that I was amongst friends. I was very lucky.

A Shropshire oak eyes me skeptically.

I was also a voracious reader, devouring books at a monumental rate. Reading gave me a similar feeling to being in the woods: escape from an uncomfortable reality, discovery of complex and beautiful worlds that were open and accessible to me whenever I needed them. Many years later, after several other careers, I began to write fiction. And I knew that one day I would write a book for children set in a wood. 

That moment arrived in 2019.   After publishing poetry and two medieval novels set in the Welsh Marches, I had an idea for an adventure set in a scrap of  woodland near Much Wenlock in Shropshire. The wood is on a limestone ridge and therefore thick with fossils. It has a peculiar, other-worldly atmosphere. The trees are rather neglected, but the signs are all there. It’s a little pocket of ancient woodland, preserved because of the steep slope on which it grows. I’ve spent many hours walking it with my dogs, and I adore it. 

The wood on the limestone ridge that inspired ‘Greencoats’, with our dog in the foreground

I began researching the folklore and mythology of Northern European forests, and the world within the wood began to take shape in my mind. Having trained originally as an archaeologist, I’m really only interested in the past, so this story was set in 1940, during the Birmingham Blitz. The story emerged quickly – a chapter a day – and, each evening, I’d read the chapter to my thirteen year old son. The book became known as Greencoats, referring to some of the more sinister inhabitants of the woods. 

Greencoats developed into an historical fantasy, bringing nature, myth, and history together in a cathartic adventure. When the first bombs fall on Birmingham, ten-year-old Gwen is sent to stay with her eccentric aunt in a woodland cottage. As Gwen explores the depths of the ancient forest, she inadvertently conjures up the mischievous spirit of a Holly tree, along with other, more malevolent, creatures. When her aunt’s dog is stolen by elves, Gwen needs all her courage and cunning to get him back.

Sycamore, Holly and Hawthorn in Coed y Haearn, October 2020

The publication of Greencoats this year happened to coincide with the purchase of the wood-of-our-dreams through Woodlands.co.uk.  (My husband, Michael, loves trees as much as I do). It is a slope of restored ancient woodland in Pembrokeshire, named ‘Coed y Haearn’, or ‘Iron Wood’, as it is close to Castell Henllys – a reconstructed Iron Age fort. Nearby is the Nature Reserve of Pengelli Forest, part of the largest block of ancient oak forest in West Wales. Clear felling of the trees in this area took place from 1914, to supply the WWI trenches with timber. On the other side of the A487 is Pentre Ifan – a Neolithic burial chamber. Very recently it was discovered that the original circle of Stonehenge bluestones stood a few kilometers away.

Bluebells in Coed y Haearn - Photo by John Innes

When we received the keys to the gate, we were able to enjoy clusters of violets in April and glades of bluebells in May. We began surveying the trees and discovered many important folkloric species – Oak, Holly, Hawthorn, Ash. We were also excited to identify a Wych Elm near the camp clearing and Early Purple Orchids on the verges of the track. During our latest visit, bats treated us to aerial displays above our camping table. We hope to find out what species they are and encourage more wildlife with bat, owl and bird boxes. Our sons are keen on the promise of the power tools to come, and the dogs are enjoying the endless supply of sticks to chase.

Delphi waiting for the next stick - photo by John Innes

We are absolutely delighted with our wood and look forward to making more discoveries, learning the skills we need to look after this rare and special place, and getting to know its character and inhabitants (hopefully all benevolent!).

I expect there might be a sequel to Greencoats – and I know that I’ll find lots of inspiration in Coed y Haearn – for prose and poetry for many years to come. 

Kate Innes

Greencoats is aimed at readers aged 8 and above. It is available in paperback and ebook format.

Greencoats is available in paperback from https://www.kateinneswriter.com/shop/.

Available in paperback and ebook format from Amazon https://amzn.to/3yZ6Awe

"In Greencoats the magic feels real and the reality magical. Tense, compassionate and lyrical, I devoured it in a weekend. Highly recommended."  Caroline Lawrence - author of 'The Roman Mysteries'

Christmas is a good time to go for a woodland walk .... and for presents.

For children, there's nothing better as a motivator than a quiz.

So we are offering to send entrants a prize of a woodlands notebook and tree poster which we will post to you as soon as we get your entry if it's valid - maximum 40 prizes.

The quiz: Take a photo of any 6 (any six) of these:

• A gastropod
• A leaf with a tooth edge
• A leaf with parallel veins
• A fern frond
• A beetle
• A named conifer
• A bracket fungus
• An amphibian
• An earthworm
• A samara (winged fruit)
• A lichen
• A leaf with spines
• A named yellow flower
• A fruit or seed dispersed by an animal
• A fungal fruiting body
• A cone from a conifer
• A one-seeded fruit
• A nettle or  a dead nettle
• An oak tree
• An arachnid
• A woodlouse
• A compound leaf
• A plant gall
  

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Please post or email your photos to us at:

melanie@woodlands.co.uk Woodlands.co.uk,

19 Half Moon Lane, London SE24 9JU

Don't forget to give us your postal address!

Happy Christmas!

The answer is that we don't fully know but we probably soon will.  The land registry has been pushing for all the unrecorded parts of England to be registered and Guy Shrubsole and others have been pushing the Land Registry to put more of the information freely into the public domain.  What we do know so far is very well documented in Guy's book which is both analytical and full of relevant anecdotes.  England is 32 million acres in size with over half being agricultural and several million acres is natural waste such as mountains and bog so the urban area is only around 12% - less than 4 million acres.  The book establishes that there are some very chunky landowners such as the government, but there are also large holdings that go back, in effect, to the year 1066 such as the many estates where the owners can trace the titles back to the Norman conquest to say nothing of the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster which are "sort of" owned by the Royals.  With help from ace researcher and collaborator Anna Powell-Smith, Guy Shrubsole was able to work out that about 12% of England is owned by public sector bodies if you include the Crown and Church and conservation charities.  A further large proportion (around 5%) is held by the top 100 land-owning companies in England and Wales where the biggest owners including utility companies (United Utilities 140,000 acres and Welsh Water 78,000 acres).

A table of land owned by British Dukes shows that just a couple of dozen of them own over a million acres and a comparison with 1873 figures shows that the holding of just those 24 estates has dropped from about 3.7 million acres.  This demonstrates how enduring land ownership can be but also how the "feudal" owners have been much reduced, albeit over a long 140-year period.  If anything Scotland is even more concentrated than England - with its 20 million acres but "Who Owns England?" only ventures into the Scottish position in passing, recognising that there are many different challenges in Scotland and that it has been well covered by other writers such as Andy Wightman ("Who owns Scotland").

As the author says, "I soon realised that a proper understanding of land ownership in this country can only really come by walking through it... trespassing across England I started to appreciate how the control of land affects the psyche..."  Guy Shrubsole is a land reformer who rails against our highly concentrated land ownership but also about how opaque some ownership is.  Much is held offshore and through trusts and in jurisdictions where it's hard to track down the beneficial owner.  This has evolved largely as a way for wealthy families to reduce inheritance tax and other taxes but also in order to avoid estates being broken up - most large land-owning families still follow the principle of primogeniture - where the land is passed down to the eldest son or eldest child to avoid the estates being broken up.  Egalitarian and environmentalist that he is, Guy resents the large government and EU subsidies that these estates receive and he points out that the twenty four non-royal dukes pick up over £8 million each year in farm subsidies.  He also hates the way that landowners can make money from landfill and allow "their" land to be systematically degraded.

One of the charms of the book is how Guy casually mentions his own direct action to try to bring about change - in the early hours one day he chained himself to a digger to oppose large scale coal mining, but he uses this to illustrate how large many private estates are and how valuable mineral and other landowners' rights can be.  He also ventures without permission into government property such as the underground tunnels in Westminster to show how extensive and varied is the Ministry of Defence estate.  I have done some work with Guy and he is the most honest, lucid and thoughtful colleague you could wish for - this book exhibits all these qualities.  If you want to know about English land ownership this is now surely a must-read.

Three quarters of the way through Macfarlane’s dazzling book he recounts a conversation with Robert Mulvaney – a palaeoclimatologist and ice-core expert at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. After handing Macfarlane a phial containing grains of sand, Mulvaney explains that they were extracted from a kilometre deep inside a glacier and they prove that  below the ice there was once a Sahara. “They’re beautiful” says Macfarlane. “ Desert diamonds from the bottom of the world”

“I can tell you are not a scientist” replies Mulvaney. 

It is an unfair jibe. Scientist or not, Macfarlane serves science brilliantly well in his latest work, Underland - A Deep Time Journey. With every chapter he demonstrates his talent for explaining science and communicating the sheer wonder of the world through scientific goggles. The ambitious scope of his storytelling steps lightly from geology to linguistics to geomorphology onto folklore via nuclear physics and meteorology – all brought into focus with elegant prose and sprinklings of poetry. Like a skilled mixologist he serves up cocktails of scientific knowledge that delight and deliver more than the sum of the factual parts.

Tree lovers and forest folk will especially enjoy his research into the ‘wood wide web’ –  the mutually beneficial system that helps trees communicate and heal each other below their understorey via mycorrhizal fungi.  Macfarlane cleverly enthuses that the idea is “so powerful in its implications that it unsettles the ground you walk on.” In typical style he deals with the complex subject by walking and talking with a new expert friend, in this case, Merlin Sheldrake, a young mycologist. Throughout his writings Macfarlane has developed a knack of finding and describing vivid characters that add verve and passion to his explanations. True to form ‘Underland’ comes with its own dramatic cast of colourful personalities . Merlin Sheldrake doesn’t disappoint with his tales of ash forests communicating via ‘tree snogging”, 8,000 year old honey fungus extending four-square miles under Oregon soil and melanized dark fungus thriving on the extreme levels of radiation after the disaster at Chernobyl. 

This multi-layered way of reading the environment is very engaging, but Macfarlane’s most impressive skill is to combine this depth with live, action-packed, travel journalism. In his previous nature writing, most noticeably ‘The Old Ways’ and ‘Mountains of the Mind’, Macfarlane has always managed to take the reader with him as a passenger on his quests and adventures.  In Underland he raises the stakes, thrilling us with his on-the-spot reports straight from the coalface (literally in some cases)  deep down below the earth’s crust. Like a literary Indiana Jones he dangles and drops into bottomless ice holes in Greenland, crawls through minuscule rock cracks beneath the Paris Metro and scrambles through mountains in ice storms to view cave drawings in Northern Norway. The claustrophobia, tears and occasional loneliness are all honestly communicated in a first person style that makes us anxious for the author’s survival. Geography lessons have never been so exciting, personal or terrifying. 

It all adds up to a nail-biting account but Macfarlane leaves the most frightening underworld experience to the last, when he visits a nuclear waste processing plant deep below the ancient rocks of Finland. Here he highlights evidence and his concerns that we are destroying the ecosystem of our own planet. Encounters with climate change and experiences of hell-bent mineral extraction are recounted throughout the book. Like the underworld he explores they lie as a thread of imminent danger just beneath the surface of the boundless curiosity of this wonderful book. Read it tonight.

• Underland by Robert Macfarlane is published by Hamish Hamilton (£14).

Some further woody related words to impress your scrabble playing friends with!

I:

Iceni: A tribe of ancient Britons inhabiting an area of south-eastern England in present-day Norfolk and Suffolk. Their queen, Boudicca, led an unsuccessful rebellion against the Romans in AD 60. SCORE = 7

Igneous :  A type of rock, formed from solidified lava or magma. SCORE : 8

Ingle: A domestic fire or fireplace. SCORE: 6

Inglenook: A small recess that adjoins a fireplace. SCORE: 14

J:

Jasper - Middle English (originally denoting any bright-coloured chalcedony other than carnelian): from Old French jasp(r)e, from Latin iaspis, from Greek, of oriental origin. SCORE = 15

Juniper - An evergreen shrub or small tree that bears berrylike cones, widely distributed throughout Eurasia and North America. Many kinds have aromatic cones or foliage. SCORE= 16

K:

Keel - The lengthwise timber (or steel) structure along the base of a ship, supporting the framework of the whole, in some vessels extended downwards as a ridge to increase. SCORE = 8

Kiln - A furnace or oven for burning, baking, or drying, especially one for calcining lime or firing pottery (also for producing Charcoal). SCORE = 8

Kite - A medium to large long-winged bird of prey which typically has a forked tail and frequently soars on up draughts of air. SCORE = 8

Knoll - A small hill or mound. SCORE = 9

L:

Lath - A thin flat strip of wood, especially one of a series forming a foundation for the plaster of a wall. SCORE = 7

Leat - An open watercourse conducting water to a mill. Late 18^th century. SCORE = 4

Lime - A deciduous tree with heart-shaped leaves and fragrant yellowish blossom, native to north temperate regions. The pale timber is used for carving and inexpensive furniture. SCORE = 6

Linden - Another term for the lime tree, especially in North America. Old English (as an adjective in the sense ‘made of wood from the lime tree’): from lind ‘lime tree’ (compare with lime) + -en, reinforced by obsolete Dutch lindenboom and German Lindenbaum. SCORE = 7

M:

Maple - A tree or shrub with lobed leaves, winged fruits, and colourful autumn foliage, grown as an ornamental or for its timber or syrupy sap. Old English mapel (as the first element of mapeltrēow, mapulder ‘maple tree’); used as an independent word from Middle English. SCORE = 9

Marl – Middle English. An unconsolidated, sedimentary rock or soil consisting of clay and lime, formerly used as fertilizer.

‘the ancient right to dig marl for fertilizer’ SCORE = 6

Mazer – A hardwood drinking bowl. SCORE = 16

Megalith - A large stone that forms a prehistoric monument (e.g. a standing stone) or part of one (e.g. a stone circle) SCORE = 14

Muntjac - A small SE Asian deer, the male of which has tusks, small antlers, and a doglike bark. Also known as the Barking deer. SCORE 18

N:

Ness - A headland or promontory. SCORE = 4

Nest - A structure or place made or chosen by a bird for laying eggs and sheltering its young. SCORE= 4

Noctule - A large golden-brown bat native to Eurasia and North Africa with long, slender wings, rounded ears, and a short muzzle. Late 18th century: from French, from Italian nottola ‘bat’, literally ‘small night creature’. SCORE: 9

Nymph - A mythological spirit of nature imagined as a beautiful maiden inhabiting rivers, woods, or other locations. ‘nymphs and shepherds’ or ‘a wood nymph’ or An immature form of an insect that does not change greatly as it grows, e.g. a dragonfly, mayfly, or locust or A mainly brown butterfly that frequents woods and forest glades.  From late Middle English: from Old French nimphe, from Latin nympha, from Greek numphē ‘nymph, bride’; related to Latin nubere ‘be the wife of’' .     SCORE = 15

O:

Ochre - An earthy pigment containing ferric oxide, typically with clay, varying from light yellow to brown or red.  SCORE = 10

Otter - A semiaquatic fish-eating mammal of the weasel family, with an elongated body, dense fur, and webbed feet. SCORE = 5

Osier - A small Eurasian willow which grows mostly in wet habitats. It is usually coppiced, being a major source of the long flexible shoots (withies) used in basketwork. Also, a shoot of willow. SCORE = 5

Ox - A castrated bull used as a draught animal (sometimes historically used for timber haulage). SCORE = 9

P:

Parrock - An enclosed area of ground; a small field or paddock, especially one close to a farmhouse. Also figurative. In early use also (occasionally): a fence or set of hurdles for enclosing an area of ground (obsolete). Now chiefly English regional. SCORE = 15

Pelham - A horse's bit which combines the action of a curb bit and a snaffle. SCORE = 13

Pellet - A small mass of bones and feathers regurgitated by a bird of prey. A small round piece of animal faeces, especially from a rabbit or rodent. SCORE = 8

Pleacher - A bough or sapling with which a hedge is pleached. SCORE = 15

Purlin - A horizontal beam along the length of a roof, resting on principals and supporting the common rafters or boards. SCORE = 8

Q:

Quarry – Noun - A place, typically a large, deep pit, from which stone or other materials are or have been extracted. ‘a limestone quarry’. Verb – To cut into, extract, stone or other materials. SCORE =18

Quiver - An archer's portable case for holding arrows or to tremble or shake with a slight rapid motion. SCORE = 18

Quoit - The flat covering stone of a megalithic tomb. e.g. the Stone Age burial at Zennor Quoit. SCORE = 14

COMPILED by Bella (13) and Stuart.

NB : Proper nouns are now allowed in Scrabble

Best known as an actor, and a "national treasure", Judi Dench has had a passion for trees since she was a young girl and she owns a small 6-acre woodland which she's had for about 30 years.  This ultimate woodland programme can be seen on BBC catch-up TV - just search "Judi Dench my passion for trees".  It's a single one hour programme and takes us through a whole year, mostly in Surrey and often looking at older oak trees.  As Judi says, at one point, "my life now is just trees ... trees and, er, champagne."

Shakespeare has always been a big part of Judi Dench's life and she has acted in some thirty Shakespeare plays starting in the late 1950s and culminating, according to some, in her playing "M" of MI6 in James Bond.  Dench points out that Shakespeare made dozens of references to trees and woodlands, perhaps because he grew up in the countryside.  Unlike other writers of the time he was a rural person working in an urban setting so he imported the countryside.  Judi Dench quotes extensively from Shakespeare to illustrate the programme.

Alex, a researcher helps Judi use a 'tree stethoscope" to listen to a tree through its bark, the sounds that it captures  - “rumbles and pops or clicks” are due to water moving up the tree and the occasional breaking of the water columns in the xylem vessels.  Tony Kirkham, who is in charge of the arboretum and gardens at Kew, is also brought in as an expert and explainer.  Judy responds with admiration and wonder, often exclaiming "Oh, my goodness" or "good gracious", or “oh, I say", or "it's riveting".  But she does it with total sincerity and her wonder is infectious even when she is responding to new technology measuring photosynthesis or working out the total length of all the branches on her oak tree (12 kilometres !).

One dimension of her 'passion for trees' is the length of time they live, putting even Judi Dench's 83 years into perspective: we see her climbing into a 1500 year old yew tree and studying her own 200 year oak, planted at about the time of the Battle of Waterloo.

"My Passion for Trees" comes up with some great ideas for the owner of a small woodland including planting a tree in memory of a relative or a close friend, observing the woods in collaboration with experts, and using technology to view trees from new angles (high walkways, drones, visualisations).  The BBC has produced a masterpiece which anyone interested in woodlands should watch.  I watched it twice.

Featured image from Wiki Commons : thanks to Caroline Bonarde Ucci : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JudiDenchFeb07.jpg

At this time of year, the scrabble board is often brought out and ‘battle’ commences.  People often play with ‘variants’ of the rules and sometimes a themed approach can be fun.  Here is a selection of woodland related words, many of which are names of woodlands that owners have purchased from woodlands.co.uk over the years.    Words have been selected via a number of different categories including interesting meanings of the words, good scoring words, common woodland words and short words with good scoring letters.  My daughter, Imogen and I came up with the words and checked them on the dictionary and scrabble checker.

Neither of us is a “scrabble wizard” but we have checked all words are in the Oxford online dictionary and that they are compatible with the scrabble word checker but if you notice anything incorrect ……… please say.  Scrabble is one of those games that people are very passionate about so no doubt if we have made any mistakes, they will be mentioned in the comments section!

Some words are longer than 7 letters,  however, you may be able to connect to other words or letters already on the board.    Feel free to add any other good A – H words in the comments section (below)!

Aconite: A poisonous plant of the buttercup family, bearing hooded pink or purple flowers. Score: 9

Adze – tool for cutting and shaping pieces of wood. Score: 14

Agger – archaeology term for a heap of stones, earthwork etc. Score: 7

Arrish – A stubble field, after growth of grass clover.  Score: 9

Aspen: A poplar tree with small rounded long-stalked leaves that tremble in the breeze. Score 7

Axe (or Ax) – a tool used for chopping wood. Score: 10

Bark - The tough protective outer sheath of the trunk, branches, and twigs of a tree or woody shrub. Score: 10

Beech - A large tree with smooth grey bark, glossy leaves, and hard, pale fine-grained timber.  Score: 12

Bilberry - A small dark blue edible berry. Score: 15

Blackberry - An edible soft fruit consisting of a cluster of soft purple-black drupelets. Score: 23

Bodger: a person who makes or repairs something badly. It is also an historic term for a skilled craftsman that made chair legs and braces. Score: 10

Bough- A main branch of a tree. Score: 11

Branch: Part of the tree Score: 13

Buzzard: A large hawk like bird of prey with broad wings and a rounded tail, often seen soaring in wide circles. Score: 28

Catkin: A downy, hanging flowering spike of trees such as willow and hazel, pollinated by the wind. Score: 12

Charcoal – A porous black solid, consisting of an amorphous form of carbon, obtained as a residue when wood, bone, or other organic matter is heated in the absence of air. Score: 15

Chestnut - A glossy hard brown edible nut which develops within a bristly case and which may be roasted and eaten. Score: 13

Cleave: Split or sever (something), especially along a natural line or grain. Score: 11

Clough: Northern English; A steep valley or ravine. Score: 12

Collier – Maker of charcoal. Score: 9

Coppice: An area of woodland in which the trees or shrubs are periodically cut back to ground level to stimulate growth and provide firewood or timber. Score: 15

Culvert- A tunnel carrying a stream or open drain under a road. Score: 12

Coney – An historic name for the rabbit. Score: 10

Dew: Tiny drops of water that form on cool surfaces at night, when atmospheric vapour condenses. Score:  7

Ditch – a narrow channel dug to carry water away. Score: 11

Drover – A herd or flock of animals being driven in a body. Often old Drover’s paths run through woodlands.  Score: 10

Elm - A tall deciduous tree that typically has rough serrated leaves and propagates from root suckers. Score: 5

Ermine - A stoat, especially when in its white winter coat. Score: 8

Flume - A deep narrow channel or ravine with a stream running through it. Score: 10

Fox – A carnivorous mammal of the dog family with a pointed muzzle and bushy tail, proverbial for its cunning. Score: 13

Froe - A cleaving tool with a handle at right angles to the blade. Score: 7

Furze – meaning ‘gorse’ or place of gorse. Score: 17

Goshawk - A large, short-winged hawk resembling a large sparrow hawk. Score: 18

Harvest – Cutting of a crop of timber. Score: 13

Hazel - A temperate shrub or small tree with broad leaves, bearing prominent male catkins in spring and round hard-shelled edible nuts in autumn. Score: 17

Hazelnut: -A round brown hard-shelled nut that is the edible fruit of the hazel. Score: 20

Helve - The handle of a weapon or tool. Score: 11

Hew – Chop or cut (something, especially wood or coal) with an axe, pick, or other tool.Score: 9

Holly – A widely distributed evergreen shrub, typically having prickly dark green leaves, small white flowers, and red berries. Score: 11

Howlett – Scottish, an owl or owlet. Score: 12