A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



ously affects the growth of many species, but the 

 dense population, which is an inevitable accom- 

 paniment of these industries, mihtates against 

 the preservation of existing woods and timber 

 trees, and discourages the formation of new 

 plantations except on carefully inclosed land in 

 the vicinity of county seats. The enhanced 

 value of agricultural land in such districts also 

 tends to remove many inducements to plant 

 wliich exist in most rural localities wherever the 

 nature of the soil is not conducive to high 

 cultivation, and in consequence, brings in a 

 low rental. In colliery districts, again, the 

 value of grazing land is usually comparatively 

 high, and little of it can be spared for such 

 purposes as tree planting. 



The original condition of the county as 

 regards woodland in prehistoric times probably 

 differed little, if at all, from that found else- 

 where in the northern counties. The greater 

 part of the low-lying part of the county, and the 

 valleys running into the hill districts, were 

 covered with a forest growth of such trees as the 

 oak, ash, wych elm, hazel, alder, holly, yew, 

 &c. Although no actual remains of these forests 

 now exist, except in the buried trunks and 

 other portions which are occasionally found 

 under clay, peat, or gravel, their descendants can 

 be recognized with tolerable accuracy on any 

 piece of waste land which carries self-sown trees 

 of any kind. The steep banks of rivers, faces 

 of cliffs, and the various ' denes ' formed by 

 streams cutting through the clays, shales, and 

 softer strata in different parts of the east of the 

 county, which are specially marked along the 

 coast line, all carry fairly reliable evidence of 

 what we can safely assume to be types of the 

 original woodland of the county. Oak un- 

 doubtedly occupied a prominent place in the 

 composition of these woodlands, ash probably com- 

 ing next in importance, wych elm predominating 

 near rivers and rocky places, which gave it oppor- 

 tunities of competing with its taller neighbours. 



Of the precise condition of these woodlands, 

 so far as their density and the size of individual 

 trees went, nothing is known. The probability 

 is that the finest timber in prehistoric times 

 existed where the best timber is found to-day, 

 and there is the strongest evidence that the valley 

 of the Derwent and the lower parts of Weardale 

 and Teesdale possessed finer oak and other timber 

 trees than other parts of the county. 



In the hilly districts forest growth could only 

 have been of a stunted and irregular character, 

 consisting chiefly of birch, juniper, and possibly 

 Scotch pines, with alder, ash, willow, &c., in 

 the glens and ravines. Birch undoubtedly 

 covered large tracts at elevations up to 2,000 ft., 

 as its roots are found everywhere under the peat 

 at the present day. As to whether the Scotch pine 

 existed to any great extent in these districts 

 little evidence can be found one way or another. 



It is reported to have been found under the peat 

 in Weardale, but records of its existence are so- 

 few and doubtful that it is safer to leave it an 

 open question. 



Regarding the gradual disappearance of these 

 natural forests, the probability is that those in the 

 lowlands gradually gave way before the increase 

 of population and the advance of agriculture, 

 while primitive methods of mining and iron- 

 smelting hastened their destruction to some 

 extent. Although the Romans are credited with 

 the destruction of much forest growth in various- 

 parts of the kingdom, little is actually known of 

 the extent to which it proceeded, nor of the 

 results which followed it in the way of perma- 

 nently changing the character of the vegetation. 

 It is practically certain, however, that the forests 

 of Durham were not spared any more than 

 those of other counties, and in the vicinity of 

 their roads clearings would be made for strategic 

 and other reasons. 



In the hill districts the disappearance of what- 

 ever forest existed was due to other causes, 

 although many destructive agencies were com- 

 mon to both parts of the county. But there is 

 little reason to doubt that the final destruction of 

 these birch forests was mostly brought about by 

 the persistent grazing of sheep, which prevented 

 natural regeneration from following its usual 

 course, while the practice of firing the heather 

 from time to time and its accidental ignition 

 contributed to the same result. According to 

 Leland and the evidence afforded by old maps 

 of the seventeenth century, considerable tracts of 

 woodland existed in Teesdale and Weardale, 

 but these had disappeared by the end of the 

 eighteenth century, and it was not until the 

 passing of Inclosure Acts permitted the fencing 

 off of small patches of what previously existed as 

 enormous commons, that forest growth was 

 again introduced by artificial agency. 



The term forest has for so long a period been 

 appropriated to a great wood that it is necessary 

 to state in the briefest way that this term in its 

 earlier signification normally implied a wild dis- 

 trict or waste appropriated or reserved for royal 

 sport. A forest always included a certain amount 

 of woodland or thickets which were necessary as 

 cover for the game, and not infrequently had parks 

 or special inclosures within its limits. But in 

 several instances, as Exmoor, Dartmoor, and the 

 High Peak, the open stretches of woodland or 

 heath covered a very much larger area than the 

 woods or undergrowth.' This was, to a great 

 extent, the case with the widespread district of 

 Weardale in the west of Durham ; there were 

 several parks within Weardale, each containing 

 some timber, as well as patches of woodland 

 and cover in the hollows of the dales, but broadly 

 speaking, Weardale Forest was bare of trees. 



' Cox, Royal Forests, i . 



374 



