Today we think that in order to get timber from a tree it must be cut down, and that is the end of that tree. With conifer trees that is true, because when it is felled, it dies. This is because a conifer grows only from a single growing point. But most of the broadleaved trees, like oak, hazel, ash, willow and lime, which naturally grow in this country (native trees) do not die when cut down. The stump of the tree is still alive and will send up new shoots. These replace the trunk cut down with several smaller trunks. This is called coppicing.
From Neolithic times people have realised that these smaller trunks
can be useful. They provided very useful sizes of timber for house building,
fences and firewood. So, even though many woods disappeared altogether to make
way for farms. Others were changed from wildwoods into farmed or managed woods.
These managed woodlands were looked after, and each year some of the trees would
be coppiced to provide the timber needed.
Coppiced woodlands provided wood to make charcoal which was used in the early iron industry in the 16th and 17th centuries. Coppicing of woodlands continued until the end of the 19th century, when cheap coal began to replace wood, or charcoal, as a fuel.
