becomes to replace the trees. In Epping Forest this conflict was stabilized by
having definite plains, with few or no trees, on which much of the grazing took
place, and by pollarding. Pollarding benefited the trees by reducing the
problem of replacement, for pollards (unlike timber trees) have an indefinite
life-span, and benefited the livestock because the vegetation springing up
between the trees after pollarding afforded more sustenance than the scanty
herbage which grows in shade.
Although woodcutting and grazing coexisted successfully for at least 800
years, their combined effect permanently altered the vegetation, both from the
natural wildwood of prehistoric times and from the coppice-woods which have
been managed by felling, but with much less grazing, for a similar length of
time.
In most Forests grazing has not been a constant factor. Periods of severe
grazing, in which trees can regenerate only by growing up through the
protection of thorn or holly thickets, have alternated with slack periods in which
saplings have become established on the edges of plains or in gaps in wooded
areas (54). It is possible that future research may define such periods in Epping.
Owing to grazing and infertile soils the Forest has never had a well-
developed woodland ground vegetation. Plants such as primrose (Primula
vulgaris), bluebell (Endymion non-scriptus), and butcher's-broom (Ruscus
aculeatus) appear always to have been uncommon. There are few of the species
characteristic of ancient woods (the service-tree (Sorbus torminalis) is one
such).
Tree species
The medieval Forest differed from the prehistoric wildwood. Recent
reinterpretation of the pollen evidence shows that the commonest wildwood tree
over most of Lowland England was lime, Tilia cordata. Two recent pollen
studies (43) suggest that this was true of Epping Forest, where lime was
abundant apparently as late as the Anglo-Saxon period (two radiocarbon dates,
after applying the Suess tree-ring correction (30), come out as 650 and 950
A.D.).
Lime gave way to hornbeam and beech. It disappeared too early to be
commemorated by place-names. It is now extinct as a native tree in the Forest
and almost extinct in South Essex, but is still dominant in some ancient woods
in North Essex. It declined probably because of the rise of the wood-pasture
system: it is very sensitive to grazing. Other trees which are rare in the Forest
mainly for this reason are ash, hazel, and elm, all of them favourite foods of
deer and other animals. The 1544 survey describes Crekelwood, just outside
Hainault Forest but a coppice and thus protected from grazing, as having
"muche fayre Springe (i.e. underwood) for herdelinge", which implies either
hazel or ash.
Oak has always been present; it is over-represented in the records because
of its value as timber. It is favoured by wood-pasture: it tastes nasty, the
seedling easily recovers from damage by browsing (29), and it is a pioneer tree,
49