Searching for “shadows” and “ghosts” in the landscape

Abstract

Recent research has highlighted both the presence of “ghosts” of “lost woods”, and the presence of “shadows” of one-time tree’d landscapes in the British countryside. This short research note presents an update on current findings. “Shadow woods” are those previously overlooked remnants and relicts of what we believe were former wooded commons and wood pastures, whilst “ghost woods” are the fragmented remains of one-time enclosed and named “woods”, and date back to the time of the Act of Commons or Statute of Merton, around 1235 AD. The shadows, we think, are fragments of the great and often expansive wood pasture landscapes with origins pre-Domesday, and of former wooded commons of the medieval feudal system. Both these overlooked landscape features are hugely relevant in discussions of re-construction of landscapes and of wilder futures.