The Sefton Coast Woodlands:

The history and archaeology

Nick Roche, June 2012

Supported by Heritage Lottery Fund

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This paper is written as a contribution to the ten year Sefton Coast Woodlands Forest Plan review being carried out in 2012. It is aimed at both the management planners and the interested public, providing a more detailed background than was available in 2002 when the first phase of the Plan was written. It draws on excellent archaeological and historical work, both older and more recent, undertaken on the Sefton Coast by a range of experts and enthusiasts, it extracts from their published material, specifically the information on tree cover on the Coast. The scope of the paper extends only to the area of blown sand―roughly speaking, west of the Liverpool to Southport railway line between Hightown in the south and Ainsdale in the north.

The information is presented as an overview from the perspective of an observer in 2012 who is only interested in changes in the one aspect of the coastal vegetation. If the reader has a wider interest than this, then there is extensive material to draw on detailing much more than just the tree cover and which also gives a fuller picture of the history and archaeology of human habitation on the Sefton Coast. Reference should be made to these sources and apart from the references, a limited bibliography is provided at the back.

To try to help in the understanding of changes in tree cover, the approach has been to look at how it has altered over time from the end of the last UK ice age (about 10,000 years ago), but only in the context of human habitation of the coastal belt. Subsequent developments in the natural history have been heavily influenced by human activity from a very early age, so the two are considered in parallel.

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Prehistoric Age

Up until 1086AD, there is no documentary evidence of changes in the Sefton area and the condition and extent of tree cover can only be implied from archaeological findings and by the use of pollen analysis in soil deposits and lake sediments. As the location being considering is dominated by wind-blown sand, the opportunities to do this are very limited and so some inference is drawn from surrounding and underlying peat and clay deposits.

Palaeolithic – about 200,000 to 9,500 before present (BP)

The Palaeolithic is not really dealt with here as in second half of the period (100,000 to 9,500BP), the land was subject to a series of glaciations, which in earlier phases, ensured that the UK and Sefton biological ‘slate’ was wiped clean. Although the most recent glacial periods only extended as far as the midlands it would still have effectively destroyed the resident flora (Tansley 1965).

As the climate improved towards the end of the ‘ice age’, there would have been a gradual biological re-colonisation, initially by a tundra flora that would have included some dwarf birch and willow. Further amelioration saw the dwarf birch being replaced with the more familiar birches that we know today and pine (again the familiar Scots pine) together with small amounts of hazel, oak, alder and lime (Tansley 1965).

The geomorphology of the UK was heavily influenced by the action of the glacial ice sheets, but for the Sefton Coast, the most significant impact was that it is probable that sea levels were between 20 and 40 metres below the current level. The actual coastline would have been much further west that it is today (Cowell 2008), to the extent that that the Isle of Man was probably part of the mainland (Gresswell 1953) with the link severed about 9,000 years ago (Cowell, Innes 1994):

Early post-glacial coastline (Reproduced with permission, Fig 6, Page 16, Sandy shores in south Lancashire)

Mesolithic or early Stone Age – about 9,500 to 6,000BP

This relates to an epoch in northwest England subsequent to the glaciation and begins about 9,500BP as the climate warms and the boreal vegetation is replaced by more familiar deciduous forest vegetation (Tansley 1965).

At the start of the period the sea levels were well below the current levels, but as the ice melted the sea level encroached into the coastal plain and by about 7000BP it is considered to have moved about eight kilometres inland as far as Downholland Moss (Cowell 2008). It eventually retreated again to the current coastline by the end of the period or early Neolithic. This was not a simple advance and retreat as the isostatic and eustatic movements of land and the climatic cycles meant that the coastline would have moved backwards and forwards a number of times (between four to five marine incursions), until some form of balance was reached in relation to today’s coastline (Gresswell 1953).

This dynamic process does mean that archaeological information will have been lost to erosion or will have been submerged under what is now the Irish Sea. The significance for this paper lies in that the low-lying coastal zone will have been important to human habitation as it was less harsh than the higher hinterland and would have provided an important supply of wild food and other materials to Mesolithic man (Adams, Harthen 2007)―apparently: ‘these freshwater wetlands are the second most productive sources of wild food in the world, after rainforests’. The tidal zones, salt marshes and estuaries would have also provided specific wild foods, which, when considered together would have enabled year-round living for hunter-gathers (Cowell 2008).

It is likely that the coastal landscape would have consisted of inter-tidal sand and mud flats that would have merged into a mosaic of freshwater swamp and fen woodland consisting mostly of alder carr. On the higher ground, where the water tables were lower, there would have been an open mixed pine and broadleaf woodland which, by about 7500BP, had changed composition to a pure deciduous woodland (Cowell 2008). Pollen analysis of some of the Formby foot-bearing sedimentary layers and nearby woodland soils (Sniggery Wood and Flea Moss Wood) show the woodlands to be dominated by oak and hazel with alder, birch and pine less well represented and finally small amounts of elm, lime and willow

(Cowell, Innes 1994). It is also important to note that some of the soil samples have thrown up dune heath vegetation (of which creeping willow may be an indicator) suggesting the presence of older stable dunes and sand dune ecosystems in the area from 9500BP (Roberts, Worsley 2008).

Although Cowell and Innes report evidence of small-scale clearance and some cereal-type pollen in the woodland soil profiles towards the end of this era, it is considered that man will have been too dispersed and limited in their technology to have much influence on the tree cover and will have hunted animals and gathered resources using their stone tools to hunt rather than modify their environment (Rackham 2006). This supports the idea that the open woodland cover of the coastal zone would have provided a more suitable habitation for man than the thicker woodlands on the higher and drier ground of the hinterland―though the nature of this woodland is questioned by some authors (Vera 2000) and Rackham goes on to argue that the inland ‘wild wood’ was perhaps more open and woodland savannah-like than is often portrayed in the older literature (Tansley 1965). Whatever the nature of the wild wood, the rivers and fens of the Sefton coast would have provided natural breaks for people to live in and for movement around the region (Cowell 2008).

Some of the footprints that have been found on the Formby beaches date from between 7000 and 6000BP and include prints of aurochs, red deer, roe deer, wild boar, wolf, wading birds, unshod horses, cattle and goat/sheep interspersed with trails of human adults and children―the suggestion is that where the prints are associated this could reflect hunting or herding practices through their size, orientation, indentation and spacing. Wind-blown charcoal has been found in the profiles of the coastal mud flats near present-day Formby which indicates the burning of trees and swamp vegetation, possibly as a form of management by the people in nearby habitations (Roberts, Worsley 2008).

Neolithic or Stone Age – about 6,000 to 4000BP

The pattern of living for the people of the Neolithic will have changed little from early Stone Age, though the quality of tool improved. Some hint of change is suggested in that the sites that have been found in Crosby, on the Wirral and on the upper Mersey show the settlements to be larger and the stone tools and flint knives very different to early times. Although there is evidence of the presence of domesticated animals, the sites are still not considered to be permanent in the way that later farmsteads would be (Adams, Harthen 2007).

The ability to manipulate the environment using the better quality tools becomes apparent in the finding of a wooden walkway dated to about 5000BP on the beach near present-day Hightown. A 60m length of track, about 1.4m in width and 30cm deep was uncovered, originally laid across salt marsh, possibly to gain access to boats or fish traps. Analysis of the wood suggested predominantly hazel and oak, but with ash, elm, lime, probably hawthorn, alder and birch having been used in its construction and although the growing trees may not have been adjacent to the trackway itself, they will not have travelled far. However, only a very few pieces showed evidence of being worked by tools (Cowell 2008).

Gresswell and others report findings (one going back to 1636) of stumps of oak and birch, that are associated with this period, in layers of clay exposed by the erosion of the frontal dunes between Blundellsands and Hightown and on the Wirral, broken off at about one foot and sometimes with logs lying adjacent to the stumps, between twelve to fifteen feet in length and a foot in diameter. This broadleaf forest composed of oak, alder, birch and with low levels of elm, but in which pine was no longer represented, was probably promoted by the falling of sea levels and the rise of the freshwater table enabling the forest dwelling plants to develop (Cowell, Innes 1994).

Late Neolithic or Bronze Age – about 4500 to 2,800BP

It is in the early Bronze Age that more significant disturbance to the woodland cover can be seen together with increasing evidence of cereal crops through pollen analyses of soil

profiles. This suggests a major change to the way that humans were living, abandoning hunter-gathering, they would have cleared the woodland and settled into permanent homesteads together with domesticated animals. The peaty soils of the Sefton hinterland would have been used for growing cereals and the rich grasslands of the wetlands would have provided good grazing and was an ideal combination for the early agriculturalists. However, so far, no evidence of habitation has been found in the Formby area itself and inference has to be drawn from nearby settlements, such as Lathom near Ormskirk, which is mentioned in the next section.

It is possible that the smaller, more rounded charcoal fragments found in some of the soil profiles could be the result of early industrialisation. If this is correct, then the material can be associated with high-burning temperatures that would suggest the smelting of metals for weapons and tools that would have played a part in the clearance of woodland (Roberts, Worsley 2008).

The soil profiles seem to show the pollen of oak, alder, birch, elm and hazel predominating with ash and lime recorded and sycamore beginning to appear (Cowell, Innes 1994). It should be noted that there is not necessarily a direct correlation between the abundance of pollen in a soil profile and of the abundance of the parent species, as oak and pine will produce huge amounts of pollen (being wind pollinated), lime much less (being insect pollinated), poplar pollen is very poorly preserved and hazel easily mistaken for bog-myrtle and may not even produce pollen when an understorey shrub. There is also the suggestion that wind-borne pollen can travel huge distances (pine from Norway to Shetland), so any interpretation must be understood in this context (Rackham 2006).

Iron Age – about 2800 to 2000BP (800BC to 50BC)

Elsewhere in the UK, there is evidence of a gradual shift to iron tools and weapons and a growth in material belongings as suggested by the finding of pottery shards and other objects associated with settlement sites. As agriculture developed in sophistication and the settled pattern of living on more elevated ground became established―remains of permanent structures are found at Lathom, only about 10 or 11km northeast of Formby and dated to about 2200BP (Adams, Harthen 2007)―there was also an increase in forest clearance (Tansley 1965). The woodland vegetation will have changed little in composition from the previous era, though it is considered that there was a cooler and wetter phase encouraging an expansion of alder woodland or carr in the wetlands and which will have also had the effect of driving any remnant birch/pine woodland from England into the present Scottish retreats (Tansley 1965).

In the Sefton area, the occupants will have taken advantage of the rich agricultural soils of the mosses, but will still have utilised the wetlands as an important summer grazing area living in seasonal structures within the wetlands for several months at a time. Although currently there are no findings in the Sefton area, parallels can be drawn from structures found in the Severn estuary which has some similarity to Sefton (Roberts, Worsley 2008).

It is also noted that Hoylake on the Wirral was an important port for trade in items such as salt and for the movement of people (Philpott 2008) and with the Alt only 15 kilometres across Liverpool Bay there would have been a natural link providing good access to the hinterland.

Roman occupation – about 50BC to about 410AD

Although the Roman occupation of England is by no means undocumented, there is no information available on the Sefton Coast and very little in terms of archaeological findings to provide insight, hence it is placed in the pre-historical section for this paper. Generally, west Lancashire was considered to be sparsely populated through this period and west of the road between Coccium (Wigan) and Bremetenacum Veteranorum (Ribchester) the area was recorded as being ‘thick wood and marshland’ (Adams, Harthen 2007).

This lack of habitation is possibly supported by the fact that the climate is known to have been warmer and drier which, for the Sefton Coast, may have resulted in higher sea levels and an increased water-logging of the tidal flats making them less attractive for settlement or even seasonal habitation, but this is by no means certain and is disputed (Lewis 2002). It is probable that the River Alt would have provided access to the area as part of the west coast trading activities during the Roman period (as in the earlier Iron Age) and there is evidence of Roman settlement provided by a series of small finds at Ince Blundell associated with a farmstead (Adams, Harthen 2007).

As stated, there is not much known about the landscape in Roman times as much of the evidence and writing concerns settlements and interlinking road systems. Peripheral areas such as the Sefton Coast are unlikely to feature in any account of life at the time. However, it is suggested that England was becoming recognisable in its later, medieval form with cities, towns, villages and farmsteads in place, linked by a network of roads, many of which form the basis of today’s byways. Perhaps England was already at a point where woodland dotted a populated landscape, rather than there being habitation distributed in a wild landscape which would have been the feature of previous ages. The woodlands in England by the Roman period were generally managed to serve a timber-based economy (Rackham 2006), but this would not have extended into this remote part of the coast, so the remaining tree cover in the Sefton area is likely to have been more ‘wildwood’ in nature and it would have comprised of areas of open canopy woodland, either oak or alder dominated, depending on the water table, with some hazel understorey and birch mixed in.

Early Medieval Age – about 500 to 1000AD

It is not clear at what pace the Anglo-Saxon incursion from AD500 onwards proceeded into the Sefton area with the subsequent displacement of native Briton population. Some indication of their presence is provided in place names such as Melling, 12km east of Formby (and on the Wirral), which is thought to be derived from a people who were followers of Maella, possibly from the Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Co-existence with the Britons was probably peaceful until the Anglian victory at the battle of Chester in AD614-616 at which point interactions would have become more aggressive. It is thought that the Anglos-Saxons sited their settlements at 30 to 40 m above sea level, avoiding both marsh and hill-tops, which would have made the Sefton area largely uninhabited (Adams, Harthen 2007). There was also thought to have been a deterioration of climate at this point with an increase in dune formation which would have put pressure on any remaining settlements in the coastal plain.

A Norse incursion into Sefton from Ireland began about AD 900 but was not part of the invading armies from Scandinavia, as in the east of England (reaching as far west as Manchester), but was more of an agricultural settlement by farmers forced to leave Ireland. Again place names provide evidence of this migration, such as meols of Ravenmeols derived from a Norse word for sand dunes, also the suffix byr as in Formby and Crosby. It is probable that the Alt again provided a natural point for incursion into land that was sparsely populated having been abandoned due to the changing Anglo-Saxon settlement patterns and more adverse climatic conditions (Adams, Harthen 2007).

Recent Historical Age

It is not until the Domesday survey of AD1086 that, for the first time, there is documentary evidence of how the land was being managed.

Medieval Age – about 1000 to 1400AD

The Norman invasion of 1066 and defeat of the Saxon king Harold at Hastings led to the establishment of the Norman kingdom and the occupation of English land by the Norman barons. It is thought that periods of Saxon revolt and their quashing and threats to the Norman homeland led William, Duke of Normandy to establish a commission to survey

England to help reinforce his administration and as a basis for raising money for the defence of his realms (Chibnall 1986). The Forest Law of 1072 and subsequent survey of 1086 recorded a quarter of the land and all forest in the title of William, a further two-fifths held by the barons, with the remainder held by the church.

Most of the land north of the Mersey was awarded to the baron Roger de Poitou, but by the time of the 1086 survey, the land, part of ‘the West Derby Hundred’, was listed as belonging to King William. After the king, it was said that Uctred held more land in West Derby Hundred than any other individual. His group of six manors at Roby, Knowsley, Little Crosby, Kirkby, Maghull and Aughton included woodland ‘two leagues long and wide and two hawks' eyries’. It was felt that Uctred controlled much of the woodland in the area and in addition to that assessed, with his block of six manors, he had woodland in Lathom, Lydiate and Little Woolton. As part of this land lay adjacent to the royal ‘demesne’ at Aintree, it would seem that Uctred occupied a favoured position. However, the precise location of this woodland and whether any survives as woodland today is unknown, if so, it is likely that it would lie in the swathe running between Little Woolton through Kirkby and up to Melling, Lydiate and Lathom (Lewis 2000).

There is therefore not a lot of detail about the actual Formby area, except that the manor was held by three thanes (free men) and Formby itself was in the hands of the family of Roger son of Ravenskil, which may then have passed to the Formby family in the 1400s (Adams, Harthen 2007).

Archaeological work on the lost settlements of the Sefton Coast suggests a process of early reclamation from the moss on the eastern side but also of loss to sand and sea incursion on the western edge, with whole settlements and field systems that were recorded in 1086 survey being subsequently abandoned―Argarmeols at today’s Birkdale lost in the 1300s, Ainsdale abandoned in the 1800s and Ravenmeols which had undergone a process of attrition (50% by 1286, 75% by 1503 (pers comm. Reg Yorke)) was fully lost by the 1700s (Philpott 2008).

That settlements and associated agriculture in this area were noted in the Domesday Book gives rise to the thought that the tree cover over much of it will have been cleared by the time that the commissioners were recording the landholdings. It is considered that woodland cover in England had dropped to about 15% of the total land area by 1086 (Rackham 2006). Work in the Sefton area using estimates of cultivated land to the whole confirms this broad estimate, with local variation: Altcar 1%, Sefton 22% and Melling 11% (Lewis 2000).

It is thought that the area would have been dominated in the 1300s by the monastic houses or granges that grew up in Ainsdale, Ravenmeols and Altmouth over this next period. These granges were established by the Cistercian order who were known to be prolific sheep farmers and it is possible that any remnant tree cover was cleared as part of the management for the extensive sheep grazing (Tansley 1965). There is still evidence of a grange at Altmouth (Houston 1999).

Post Medieval – 1400 to1860AD

It is in the 17th Century that the first known contemporary description of the Lancashire coast is made with reference to people active on the foreshore in a poem by the Reverend Richard James BD written in 1636 called Iter Lancastrense, part of which is quoted below (Corser 1845):

Let us varie sportes

Whoe are at leasure, and seeke view resortes

For recreation. Ormeschurch and ye Meales

Are our next jorney, we direct no weales

Of state, to hinder our delight. ye guize

Of those chaffe sands, which doe in mountaines rize,

On shore is pleasure to behould, which Hoes

Are calld in Worold : windie tempest blowes

Them up in heapes : tis past intelligence

With me how seas doe reverence

Vnto ye sands; but sands and beach and peobles are

Cast up by roveling of ye wanes a ware

To make against their deluge, since the larke

And sheepe within feede lower then ye marke

Of each high flood. Heere through ye wasshie shole~

We spye an owld man wading for ye soles

And flukes and rayes, which the last morning tide

Had stayd in nets, or did att anchor ride

Vppon his hooks; him we fetch vp, and then

To our goodmorrowe, " Welcomme gentlemen,"

He sagd, and more, "you gentlemen at ease,

Whoe money hane, and goo where ere you please,

Are never quiett ; wearye of ye daye,

You now comme Nether to drive time away. Examination of 19th Century estate plans to determine field patterns and names led to the conclusion that extensive drainage programmes in the 17th Century continued to open up large areas of the mosslands to the east for agriculture, whilst the western edge was very much subject to the vagaries of sand blow and dune instability―as hinted at in the extracts reproduced above. A 1428 record indicates the shifting of the village centre of Formby further east as the old centre was inundated with sand, but also gives information on the presence of poorly drained agricultural land. However, this does not go as far as talking about cropping patterns or of giving any information on pastoral agriculture (Adams, Harthen 2007).

It was also in this period that reference is made to rabbit warrens and wardens in the records. It is generally thought that it was the Normans that introduced wild rabbits into the English countryside for meat and pelts (Adams, Harthen 2007) although this is disputed and the alternative theory of a Roman introduction is given small credence by the finding of rabbit bones in Roman archaeological digs, as it is probable that the Romans kept the animal entirely domesticated. Henry Blundell and Robert Formby established formal rabbit warrens in the Sefton dunes in 1667, an ideal site with light sandy soils and plentiful vegetation. Maps from the 1818 Greenwood Map up until the 6 inch Lancashire OS XC SE sheet of 1909 still show some of this legacy by depicting rabbit warrens.

Despite the recording of tree planting by Nicholas Blundell, Lord of Little Crosby (a different family to the Ainsdale Blundells) in his ‘Great Diurnall’ of 1702-1728, the Yates Map of 1786 shows no woodland vegetation on the coast between Ainsdale and the Alt. It is necessary to go further south to Little Crosby before coming across Sniggery Wood and the park at Ince Blundell. Much of the planting that Nicholas Blundell records was either in orchards, gardens, in hedgerows or was around Crosby Hall and in the park. Some planting and woodland work was carried out in Sniggery Wood (which is still there today as a small, isolated sycamore woodland), ‘Vistow Wood’ and ‘New Plantation’ (the locations of which are unknown) using elm, oak, walnut, willow, poplar, hornbeam, beech, ash, alder, fir and Scotch fir. He records sowing seed and planting root stock in his own nurseries and of bringing planting material from adjacent landowners.

The following diagram is a facsimile of the western edge of the 1786 Yates Map of Lancashire in which it is possible to see Sniggery Wood and the planting around Crosby Hall―the map is considered to be the first accurate modern representation of the landscape:

Part of the Lancashire Yates Map of 1786 (Reproduced with permission, Lancashire Records Office)

It is recorded that a Dr J Aikin in 1795 talked of sand hills, ‘in some places more than half a mile broad’ and with few or no trees within the landscape and any that did exist were bent over against the wind ‘shorn on the west side, and bent the opposite way, would be apt to conclude that none would grow’ (Adams, Harthen 2007) somewhat reminiscent of exposed trees found on the frontal dunes today that have been battered by the predominant westerly gales.

The Greenwood Map of 1818 and Hennet Map of 1829 (a portion shown below) both confirm what is shown on the Yates map―there being no woodland cover in the area, with the exceptions of Sniggery Wood and the Ince Blundell park. The maps also show rabbit warrens along the coast line:

Part of the Lancashire Hennet Map of 1829 (Reproduced with permission, Lancashire Records Office)

It was only in the late 18th Century that anyone made a concerted effort to put a tree cover back into this dune landscape and it is reported that in 1795 that the Reverend Richard Formby planted up an area of just over one hectare at the south western edge of Formby, now know as Firwood (Yorke, Yorke, 2008). The woodland still exists as a mixture of pine and various broadleaves surrounding the remnants of a house that was built by his son Dr Richard Formby (Gray, 2003), though whether it is still the original planting is not so clear as modern (but by no means definitive) records give the age as 1900 (JCAS, 1999). Interestingly the Firwood woodland is not shown on any of the maps subsequent to the planting until the Formby Tithe Map of 1845 and the six inch 1850 OS map, which otherwise shows the same landscape pattern as the older 1818 Greenwood and 1829 Hennet Maps.

The importance to the narrative so far, is that it is possible to surmise that tree cover on Sefton Coast was reduced to about 15% by the time of the Domesday survey and then virtually nothing by, perhaps, the 1300s but at least by the late 1400s, early 1500s. A tree cover has then been introduced into the modern day landscape only after 1795 and in earnest after 1860 (as discussed in the next section). It so happens that the introduction of trees into the landscape coincides with the decline of rabbit ‘farming’ and the upsurge of asparagus cultivation, beginning in the 1700s (noted in Nicholas Blundell’s diary) for which Formby was ideally suited and subsequently became famous.

Modern Age

1860 to 1990AD – The expansion of tree cover

A certain amount of the following information has been gleaned from estate records held in the Liverpool Record Office and from interpretation of the OS maps that span this period, it has also greatly benefited from work undertaken by local historians.

The spread of tree cover along the coastal dunes in this period has been linked with dune stabilisation and efforts to reduce sand-blow into the asparagus growing areas and onto the Liverpool to Southport railway line which had been built in the 1840s (Yorke, Yorke 2008). Prior to this, land reclamation and dune stabilisation had involved marram grass (or sea reed or star grass) planting and the placing of gorse faggots into moving sand to trap it and subsequent grass planting to stabilise it. The planting of willow has also been associated with this stabilisation work from the early 1700s. Land reclamation was undertaken at the mouth of the Alt, to the extent that today’s Altcar Rifle Range is largely sited on what was reclaimed poor quality agricultural land (Smith 1999).

It is in 1885 that extensive tree planting began to play a part in dune stabilisation when Dr Richard Formby renewed his father’s experiment at Firwood on a larger scale by the planting of about seven hectares of Austrian and maritime pine on Shorrocks Hill. This coincided with Charles Joseph Weld-Blundell inheriting his estate in 1887 from his father and immediately beginning the planting (about nine hectares) of Scots pine south of Victoria Road in what he called Jubilee Wood (Walmesley-Cotham, 1934). It is the first planting in the area now known as the National Trust squirrel reserve on Formby Point and in all some 25 hectares were established over the whole area in the period up to about 1893.

The initial use of Scots and maritime pine was superseded when a very limited success in establishment prompted a visit by Charles Weld-Blundell to Les Landes on the north-west coast of France to see the much more successful Corsican pine grown there by the French foresters. Both estates subsequently used Corsican pine together with a nurse crop of French hybrid black poplar (Yorke, Yorke 2008). The origin of the Corsican pine would have been France in the first instance, but was later sourced from a number of places and eventually the Weld-Blundell estate developed its own tree nursery to raise planting material from seed brought in from Denmark (Walmesley-Cotham, 1934).

In the subsequent decade between 1890 and 1900, about 157 hectares of dune were planted on the Weld-Blundell estate, largely of Corsican pine and included significant areas of frontal dune from Lark Hill lane up to Fisherman’s Path.

The next tranche of planting was undertaken in the decades leading up to the 1930s when nearly 120 hectares were planted of, again, mostly Corsican pine. The areas included some in-filling but also a new block north of Fisherman’s path and some areas on the Formby estate including about five hectares on the dunes at Ravenmeols. With the death of Charles Weld-Blundell in 1927, the estate passed to Captain EJ Weld-Blundell who was subsequently advised by the estate manager not to continue tree planting for the time being for adverse tax reasons (Yorke, Yorke 2008).

The last major push to plant the dunes occurred in the period after the war and up to the mid 1950s, with another 100 hectares planted, again in-filling with Corsican pine north and south of Fisherman’s Path. It is probable over this time that some 20 or so hectares of what was perhaps open dune scrub began to evolve, or was allowed to evolve, into more identifiable birch woodland. This phase drew to a close with the death of EJ Weld-Blundell in 1958 and saw the break-up of the Weld-Blundell estate and sale of the land and trees to the Nature Conservancy Council and the National Trust (Smith, 1999).

The other significant areas planted subsequent to the 1960s have been on the Altcar Rifle Range and Formby Golf Courses which have introduced about 35 hectares of small blocks of predominantly pine planting in unused sections of the range and courses to provide shelter and wind breaks for their activities. The bulk of the planting was carried out between 1970 and 1990. Finally, just over seven hectares were planted between 2000 and 2005 by the National Trust, Sefton Council and Altcar Rifle Range to provide wind breaks and protection within or in front of areas of deteriorating pine woodland. It was also in these last decades that a further area of about 55 hectares of dune scrub developed into what is now considered to be woodland cover―this is distinguished from those areas that have also developed thick scrub but are not designated as ‘woodland’, some of which have been

subsequently cleared under various dune scrub management programmes. It is worth noting that this woodland of birch, alder with some oak in it, probably resembles the prehistoric woodland that existed in the area from 6000BP up to 1000AD.

The piecemeal expansion of tree cover has resulted in a woodland makeup partly summarised in the table below (The Mersey Forest 2007).

Analysis of woodland type

Woodland Type Area, ha.

% of total

Bare 21.32 5%

Scrub 15.13 4%

Pure pine woodland 234.97 56%

Predominant pine 34.47 8%

Predominant broadleaf 20.03 5%

Single species broadleaf 31.45 7%

Mixed broadleaf 62.14 15%

Total 419.51

More detail of current species make-up can be found in either the Sefton Coast Woodland Forest Plan (The Mersey Forest 2003) or in the report that disaggregates the data (The Mersey Forest 2007).

The following six diagrams clearly show the changes using the available series of OS maps: 1850, 1893, 1908, 1927 and 1956-70―the time line is dictated by the mapping period and has no other significance. These diagrams are not definitive as contemporary woodland management plans and maps were not available to verify boundaries. They are, however, considered to be a reasonable representation as they coincide well with the woodland as it exists today (The Mersey Forest 2003), despite some small differences with Gresswell’s maps which can be accounted for by the fact that he depicts only the pine plantations (Gresswell 1953):

From 1850 OS Map From 1893 OS Map

From 1903 OS Map From 1927 OS Map

From 1956-1970 OS series From 2004 OS Map

This expansion in tree cover is also represented in a graph in the following diagram which shows the rate of increase over two centuries (it should be noted that it includes the decrease in area associated with fellings that are discussed in the next section):

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

1790 1880 1890 1900 1930 1950 1990 2005

Date

Incre

ase i

n t

ree c

over

(ha)

Rate of increase in tree cover from 1780 to 2005

1930 to 2012AD – Management of the tree cover

A significant development occurred in the period between 1940 and 1970 in which some 55 hectares of frontal woodland, established in the late 1800s and early 1900s, were returned to open dune, either directly because of coastal erosion (Gypsy Wood on the National Trust property is often mentioned in accounts of change on the coast) or was damaged by German bombing raids during the Second World War or was subsequently cleared in anticipation of the shore-line moving inland.

Over the whole period since the planting of the pine woodlands, a further 20 hectares have disappeared along the coastline for a variety of reasons and an examination of the maps shows woodland in private hands that has been built on, an illegal fell of nearly 2 hectares on Shorrocks Hill in 2004 and finally other parcels and blocks of woodland that have either decreased in size or disappeared over time.

In 1970 coastal erosion created a need to realign the portions of the Formby Golf course sited within the frontal dunes and this led to clearance of some six hectares further back to create new playing areas within the original plantation.

Between 1991 and 1996, in two phases, another 28 hectares of frontal woodland were felled on the National Nature Reserve to restore the open dune vegetation in that area.

The diagram opposite shows all the combined effect of these areas, about 109 hectares in all:

Management of the woodlands has not been limited to removal of trees. The plantations have also been actively managed for their commercial potential up to the 1950s and it is reported that during the Second World War, areas that needed thinning or were mature enough, were thinned and felled to provide timber for the war effort and to provide an income for the estates. It is suggested that some of the poles that were cut were put into the sands of the beach as upright posts to prevent the possibility of enemy aircraft using the foreshore as an invasion landing site (Yorke, Yorke 2008). Some of those areas felled were replanted and the changes can be traced by looking at the reported age structure of the relevant compartments (JCAS, 1999). An indication of the effect is given in the diagram below which summarises the existing age profile (The Mersey Forest, 2007):

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01-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 91-100 101-110

Age Class

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Analysis of age profile

By taking account of this felling and thinning work and including the areas of scrub that has developed into broadleaf woodland, it is possible to see that the Gresswell diagrams coincide well with the previous diagram:

Pine Plantations on the Sand Belt from Ainsdale to Formby Point

(Reproduced with permission, Figs 21&22, Sandy shores in south Lancashire)

The Forestry Commission wrote a management plan for the Weld-Blundell woodlands in 1957 in preparation (it is assumed) of their intention to purchase the land and trees. Details of management prior to this are not readily available to specify changes in tree cover. A paper written by I. Walmesley-Cotham (Blundell estate manager) in 1934 for presentation to the Liverpool Botanical Society talked of dune stabilisation, timber and landscape value as major objectives behind the establishment and management of the woodlands, but also talked of the problems encountered in establishment: fire (from the steam trains running on the Liverpool to Southport Railway), insect and rabbit damage and talked of ways that the estate mitigated against each issue. Other matters touched on included the increasing problem of trespass and overcrowding on bank holidays―up to 11,000 vehicles coming down onto the foreshore on some days. Mention was made of the consequent damage to fauna a flora and the need to stop ‘wanton killing’ of birds on the foreshore (Walmesley-Cotham 1934), a practice going back some time to provide families with additional income from the sale of trapped birds as food in local markets. All the issues, except perhaps the very last, seem familiar from the 2012 perspective.

Between the 1960s and 1990s management tended to be more reactive than proactive, with the exception of the removal of the frontal woodlands on the National Nature Reserve (NNR) in the 1990s and the new planting on Altcar Rifle Range. Thinning of the older plantations on the National Nature Reserve and felling and re-planting on National Trust and Sefton Council land in the 1990s are among the limited maintenance activities undertaken by land owners, otherwise much of the work appears to have been to do with maintaining safety for public access.

It was the clearance in two phases of the 28 hectares of frontal woodlands on the NNR in the 1990s that prompted a public outcry among the local population as to why there were significant changes being made to the landscape without prior consultation. In response, a woodland strategy was written for the Sefton Coast woodlands and scrub by Sefton Council (JCAS 1999), the NNR also commissioned several management plans, but in the end the sensitivity of the whole issue of woodland management and woodland clearance led to the Forestry Commission declaring a moratorium in 1999 on all tree work in the area, leaving all the woodland owners (32 in number) in ‘limbo’ until 2003 when a new plan was put in place and approved by the Forestry Commission.

The Mersey Forest, based in Warrington, offered to coordinate the development of the new management plan for all the woodland owners with the view to providing a clear statement of intent for the woodlands as a whole. This, in conjunction with Natural England (at the time called English Nature) commissioning a review and Environmental Assessment of the policy to clear all the frontal woodlands on the NNR, has provided the basis for continuing management of the woodlands up to 2012. The new plan focussed on four overarching aims: to ensure that the woodland continues to be a viable habitat for the nationally endangered red squirrel and maximise opportunity for other rare and important species to thrive within the woodland area; to maintain the integrity of an historically important landscape (this paper clearly puts this in the context of the past two hundred years); to ensure that, for the huge adjacent urban and peri-urban population (in excess of two million), there remains opportunity for quiet enjoyment of the countryside; and to continue to provide economic opportunity to local businesses and landowners. The mechanism to achieve these aims has been to restructure the age profile of the older plantations, opening up the mature woodland canopy by felling small coupes and replanting them with a mixture of pine and small-seeded broadleaf species. By reinvigorating the seed production and coning vitality of the woodlands it should ensure that the 420 hectares of remaining woodland continues to be a viable habitat for the red squirrel without loosing its existing character within the landscape or as an amenity resource.

Another piece of the management jigsaw has been the writing of a Nature Conservation Strategy and Biodiversity Delivery Plan for the whole Sefton Coast in 2006 which provided an overview of coastal conservation and biodiversity issues, highlighting the need for finding a way through the competing demands, balancing national and international conservation priorities with local interests and cultural perspectives―a complicated task requiring, perhaps, decades to find a suitable balance. Finally (in terms of this paper), the Landscape Partnership Scheme, put in place in 2007, has taken advantage of Heritage Lottery funding adding value by incorporating landscape, people’s use and community participation in management initiatives and projects that are being carried out across the area by the Sefton Coast Partnership.

Changes in Land Ownership – 1300 to 2012

Land ownership has had an important effect on land use along the Sefton Coast and the very fact that there are 32 different owners of the current 420 hectares of woodland, where 150 years ago three major land owners owned most of the land now covered by the woodlands, suggests a complex story. It appears that the break-up of this ownership is fairly well documented for the Weld-Blundell estate, but less well described for the Formby land. The following is a summary of what is currently more easily understood:

Up to the 1300s, the land was increasingly cleared and drained for farming, however, the period following this saw the effects of Black Death and various wars leaving the land less populated and therefore less well managed with the consequence that it was enclosed and many ownerships consolidated. From the 1300s, once the church began to dominate English society, the Cistercian granges at Ainsdale, Ravenmeols and Altmouth were established from the Abbey of Merevale in Warwickshire (Kelly, 1982). They would have had significant influence over the region, managing their landholdings predominantly for sheep grazing to enable them to engage in the lucrative wool trade (Houston 1999).

However, as discussed earlier, it is known that by 1400s the Formby family had land holdings in Formby. It appears that the Halsall family (whose lands were centred on Downholland Moss) had holdings further north in Formby, Ainsdale and Birkdale. Finally, the Molyneux family, the Earls of Derby who had substantial landholdings further east on the Merseyside (Croxteth Hall), gained ownership shortly after dissolution of the monasteries in 1543, of an area of land at the southern end of the area at Altmouth (Simpson 1996).

The Halsall lands on the coast were passed to Henry Blundell in lieu of debts run up by Cuthbert Halsall in 1633 (Harrop, 1985). In 1667 Henry Blundell and Richard Formby signed an agreement to divide up the ‘hawes, sandie hills and coney warrens’ of Formby, with the Blundells taking the majority (about three-quarters) north of Wicks Lane, and the Formbys the remainder south of the Lane (Houston 1999).

The first modern change in ownership patterns came with the death of the Reverend Richard Formby who, in 1832, split his land in his will between his four children, which included, unusually, his daughters (Yorke, Yorke 2008). The family retained a strong commercial interest in the combined influence of the land and in 1875 the Formby Land Building Company was incorporated in an attempt to develop a rival to the fashionable resort growing up in Southport and 68 hectares of land (pers comm. Reg Yorke) was transferred to the company. The endeavour failed and although the company was finally wound up in 1902 it retained a role in the management of the land until remaining areas―Shorrocks Hill and Firwood among others―were sold off to pay for death duties of various family members. The remaining land continued to be held in trust and eventually Lifeboat Road and Ravenmeols were leased in 1978 to the Merseyside County Council (1974-1986), which, when broken up into the unitary Metropolitan Borough Councils, passed to the Sefton MBC (Brockbank, Houston 1999).

Further south, the Altcar Rifle Range, which covers 250 hectares of beach, dune and fields, was, only a couple of hundred years ago, an area of dune, marsh and mud flats. Comparison between the 1850 and 1893 OS maps clearly shows a significant area of tidal flat brought into rough pasture and although the original intention was to create agricultural land, it was quickly realised that the quality was very poor (Smith 1999). By 1860 moves were afoot to lease the land from the Earl of Sefton and use it as a practice area for rifle shooting and it was finally purchased as a rifle range in 1912 (the foreshore was owned and purchased from the Blundell family), by the West Lancashire Territorial Association, later known as the Territorial Army Volunteer Reserve Association (TAVRA)―now the Reserve Forces and Cadets Association (RFCA). It is worth noting that a significant area of land to the north of the established ranges continued to be leased to local farmers to cut grass from the rough pasture until 1992 when it was finally returned to be used for more general military training (Simpson, 1996).

The first changes to the ownership of woodland area on the Weld-Blundell estate appears to have come during the war when land was purchased by the government in 1941 to create an aerodrome, still in existence and known as RAF Woodvale. The land, which included small areas of woodland (some dating back to earlier pine plantings), is all east of the railway line and had, for some years, been leased for use as a golf course (Freshfield Golf Club (Smith 1999)). Interestingly it is still possible to see the foundations of buildings where the club house stood (clearly indicated on the 1927 OS map). The major changes to the estate came

with the death of EJ Weld-Blundell in 1958 when the estate was finally broken up. One of the first sales being made to the Formby Golf Course, which although founded in 1884, was also on land leased from the estate. Subsequently, in 1965, some 558 hectares (1,378 acres) were sold to the Nature Conservancy Council (the predecessor to Natural England and subsequently English Nature) to create a National Nature Reserve in recognition of the value of the dune habitat. Records show that the original negotiations were with the Forestry Commission who offered £26,600 for the land and trees, but who later withdrew interest in favour of the Nature Conservancy Council. The block of land south of Fisherman’s Path to Wicks Lane was sold to the National Trust in 1967, now often known as Formby Point or The Squirrel Reserve.

Finally, an unused section of RAF Woodvale, known as Freshfield Dune Heath was bought by the Lancashire and Merseyside Wildlife Trust from the MoD in 2004 as a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) to be managed for its dune heath vegetation, however there are areas of pine and birch woodland on this land and it probably remains the most easterly example of the Formby / Weld-Blundell sand dune tree planting experiment.

A number of smaller areas of woodland have changed hands over recent years, the largest of which is Shorrocks Hill woodland, though others, often associated with private houses and farms, have remained in the same ownership for many years, most notably Lark Hill Farm since 1907 (Yorke, Yorke 2008).

Clearly this covers only the main blocks of land in any detail and there many gaps in understanding exactly when the smaller areas changed hands and their subsequent history. It can only be hoped that local historians will be interested and able to piece together a complete picture over time.

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The tree cover on the area of blown sand of the Sefton Coast has gone through radical transformations throughout geological and human history from a complete lack of woodland during the last ice age 100,000 years ago to colonisation by a mixed broadleaf and pine woodland from about 10,000 to 6,000 years ago, followed by a period of warmer climate in which the woodland became pure broadleaf―a blend of oak, birch, alder, with hazel and hawthorn understorey and small amounts of ash, elm and lime, the exact composition depending largely on the level of the water table.

A gradual reduction in cover through clearance for grazing and agriculture over the ensuing centuries, with little change in composition of the remnant woodland, left the area with less than 15% tree cover by the time of the Domesday Survey in AD1086. Early maps and historical evidence suggests that certainly by the AD1500s and possibly as early as the 1300s there was, once again, no tree cover left on this area of the coast, probably individual trees, but certainly no woodland.

A small area of Scots pine planted by one of the key landowners (the Formbys) in AD1795 saw the beginning of an experiment that is on-going to today with the eventual planting of some 400 hectares of a pine mix and the development of a mixed broadleaf woodland on about another 100 hectares. In the last 100 years changes in ownership, policy and legislation has seen that area fall back to about 420 hectares in total―mostly pine and pine and broadleaf mixed woodland.

In conclusion there is abundant material in the libraries and archives available on the history and archaeology of the Sefton Coast, a little of it summarised in some of the papers listed as references and in the bibliography. Any gaps and doubts that appear in this particular narrative can, in part, be resolved by going back to source material, but there are areas that would warrant more detailed research by landscape historians using the original documentation related to the family ownerships held in the Lancashire Record Office.

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Roman occupation

Saxon invasion

Norse incursion

Norman invasion

English civil war

Nominally 100% tree cover

Mixed broadleaf/conifer forest

Possible area of tree cover

Broadleaf forest

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Adams, M, Harthen, D, with a contribution by R Cowell. 2007. An Archaeological Assessment of the Sefton Coast, Merseyside – Parts 1 & 2. National Museums Liverpool. Blundell, N. 1702-1728. The Great Diurnall of Nicholas Blundell of Little Crosby (three volumes). Liverpool Record Office 920 MD/74. Brockbank, A, Houston, J. 1999. The Sands of Time, a History of the Sefton Coast. Coastlines, Winter 1999, Sefton Coast Partnership. Chibnall, M. 1986. Anglo-Norman England 1066–1166. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publishers. Corser, TE. 1845. Iter Lancastrense; A Poem, written AD 1636 by the Rev. Richard James BD, Chetham Society 8. Cowell, RW. Innes, JB. 1994. The Wetlands of Merseyside (North West Wetlands Survey). University of Lancaster. Cowell, RW. 2008. Coastal Sefton in the Prehistoric Period. Sand and Sea, Sefton’s Coastal Heritage, Proceedings, ed JM Lewis, JE Stanistreet. Gray, TC. 2003. Dr Richard Formby Founder of the Liverpool Medical School. Royal College of Physicians. Gresswell, RK. 1953. Sandy Shores in South Lancashire, the geomorphology of south-west Lancashire. Liverpool University Press. Harrop, S. 1985. Old Birkdale and Ainsdale life on the south-west Lancashire coast. Birkdale and Ainsdale Historical Research Society. Houston, J. Coastal Heritage, An introduction to the history of the Sefton Coast. Sefton Coast Partnership Website. http://www.seftoncoast.org.uk/hist_intro.html. JCAS. 1999. The Sefton Coast Woodland and Scrub Management Strategy. SMBC. Kelly, E. 1982. Viking Village, the story of Formby. The Formby Society. Lewis, JM. 2000. The Medieval Earthworks of the Hundred of West Derby: Tenurial Evidence and Physical Structure. BAR British Series 310. Lewis, JM. 2002. Sefton Rural Fringes. The Archaeology of a Changing Landscape: The Last Thousand Years in Merseyside. Journal of the Merseyside Archaeological Society 11, 5-88. Philpott, RA. 2008. Searching for Lost Settlements – the example of Meols. Sand and Sea, Sefton’s Coastal Heritage, Proceedings, ed JM Lewis, JE Stanistreet. Rackham, O. 2006. Woodlands. Collins Roberts G, Worsley A. 2008. Evidence of human activity and the mid-Holocene coastal palaeoenvironments of Formby, North-west England. Sand and Sea, Sefton’s Coastal Heritage, Proceedings, ed JM Lewis, JE Stanistreet. Simpson, D. 1996. The Altcar Rifle Range. Coastlines, Summer 1996, Sefton Coast Partnership. Smith, PH. 1999. The Sands of Time, an introduction to the Sand Dunes of the Sefton Coast. National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside.

Tansley, AG. 1965. The British Islands and Their Vegetation. 4th impression. Cambridge University Press. The Mersey Forest. 2002. The Sefton Coast Woodlands, a 20 Year Woodland Working Plan, 2003-2023. Volume 1, Overview. Sefton Coast Partnership. The Mersey Forest. 2002. A 20 Year Woodland Working Plan, 2003-2023. Disaggregating the Forest Plan Data. Sefton Coast Partnership. Vera, FWM. 2000. Grazing Ecology and Forest History. Wallingford, CABI. Walmesley-Cotham, I. 1934. Forestry at Formby. Paper for presentation at Liverpool Botanical Society, Liverpool Record Office M920 WBL/8/4. Yorke, R, Yorke B. 2008. Pine Trees and Asparagus – the development of a cultural landscape. Sand and Sea, Sefton’s Coastal Heritage, Proceedings, ed JM Lewis, JE Stanistreet.

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Ashton, W. 1920. The Evolution of a Coastline. E Standford, London. Bale, A. 1995. A Management Plan for the Rearward Woodlands, Ainsdale Sands National Nature Reserve. Unpublished. English Nature. CMACS. 2000. Review of Dune Restoration – Ainsdale Sand Dunes National Nature Reserve. Final Report. University of Liverpool. Cook, ALM. 1989. Altcar, the story of a rifle range. TAVRA. Ennion, R. 1986. A working Plan for Woodlands on the Sefton Coast. Joint Countryside Advisory Service. Forestry Authority. 1998. England Forestry Strategy: A New Focus for England’s Woodlands, Strategic Priorities and Programmes. Furness, RR. 1978. Soils of Cheshire. Soil Survey Bulletin No.6. Greenough, A. 1997. Long Term Woodland Management Plan for Ainsdale Sands National Nature Reserve. Unpublished. English Nature. Greenwood EF (ed). 1996. Ecology and Landscape Development: A history of the Mersey Basin. Liverpool University. Jones CR, Houston JA, Bateman D. 1993. A History of Human Influence on the Coastal Landscape. The Sand Dunes of the Sefton Coast. National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside. Leege LM, Murphy PG. 2001. Ecological Effects of the non-Native Pinus nigra on Sand Dune Communities. Canadian Journal of Botany, Vol 79 pp429-437. Lewis, JM. 1986. Archaeology of the Merseyside. Medieval Landscapes and Estates. Journal of the Merseyside Archaeological Society volume 7. Lewis JM, Stanistreet JE, Eds. 2008. Sand and Sea: Sefton’s Coastal Heritage - Archaeology, History and Environment of a Landscape in North West England. Proceedings of the conference Sefton’s Coastal Heritage, 2004. SMBC Tech Services, Sefton Libraries.

Nesbitt, A. 1981. The Distribution and Abundance of Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) at Ainsdale and Birkdale Local Nature Reserve, Merseyside. Unpublished thesis, Liverpool Polytechnic, Pethick, J. 2001. Assessment of Coastal Defence and Sand Dune Response to Erosion Processes. Centre for Coastal Management, University of Newcastle. Shuttleworth, CM. 1997. The Impact of Woodland Management on the Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) Population in Ainsdale National Nature Reserve. English Nature Research Report GL 73. Smith, PH. 1994. Scrub on the Sefton Coast. Formby Council Offices, report 2/HAB/SCR No 249. Tooley, MJ. 1985. Sea-level changes and coastal morphology in North-west England. Pp. 94-121, The Geomorphology of North-west England – ed. JH Johnson. Wheeler DJ, Simpson DE, Houston JA. 1993. Dune Use and Management. The Sand Dunes of the Sefton Coast. National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside. Wild RD. 1988. Scrub Encroachment and Soil Eutrophication at Ravenmeols Dunes, Formby. Unpublished thesis, Liverpool University. Worsley AT, Lymbery G, Holden VJC, Newton M, Eds. 2010. Sefton’s Dynamic Coast – proceedings of the conference on coastal geomorphology, biogeography and managemen, 2008. SMBC Tech Services, Sefton Libraries.