Chilterns Box
Woodland History
Sarah Wright
Conserving and celebrating box
heritage
Music event involving boxwood historic instruments played
amongst the old box trees at Tring Natural History Museum
Recognising Buxus sempervirens
© C Smith
Evergreen glossy box leaves and flowers
Trees managed and used by people
over the centuries
© C Smith
Shaped box tree in Monks Risborough, Bucks
Long-lived trees, historic places
Long-established box trees at Ashridge, Herts
Historic records of box
Estate map of 1626
near Ellesborough in Bucks
Piecing together the story of box
in the past and for the future
New box plantations, cultural
events and education materials
can draw on historic information
Highlights of the box
timeline – from the Ice
Age to the present
Sarah Wright
Cast your mind back to.....
200 – 300 000 years ago!
Five known ‘ice ages’ in Earth’s history. The current interglacial is called the
Flandrian (which began 10 000 years ago or 8200 BC), with earlier interglacials
known as the Ipswichian and Hoxnian (200-300 000 years ago).
History of the British Flora, Sir Harry Godwin (1975)
Pollen records indicate box was flowering during the Hoxnian
at three English sites and three Irish sites and associated with
species of fir, grape, holly and walnut .
Pollen and macroscopic records indicate
box was flowering at a time before man
could have been responsible during the
Flandrian. Pollen records as far north as
Lake District - limestone scars as potential
sites for box.
Evidence of early uses - 4000 BC
Box charcoal found at the
Neolithic site of Whitehawk
Camp, Brighton.
Egyptians known to have
clipped box hedges in their
gardens.
Uses up to the Middle Ages (15th century)
Boxley, Kent – ‘ley’ is derived from the
Anglo Saxon word ‘leah’ which means
permanent clearing in woodland.
In Northern France, a study suggests a
relationship between medieval castles
and locations of box. Decocq et al, A
practical approach to assess the native
status of a rare plant species: the
controverse of Buxus sempervirens L. in
northern France revisited (2004).
In the Chilterns, there are place names
such as Bix and Boxmoor. Numerous box
locations are rich with archaeology
including hill forts and warrens. The
nature of these associationsis yet to be
resolved.
16th and 17th century uses
Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the
Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's
Dominions by the English writer John Evelyn
is published as a book in 1664. It is widely
recognised as one of the most highly
influential texts on forestry ever published. He
writes:
Sailors on the Mary Rose used
nit combs made from boxwood.
The ship sank in 1545.
‘Of box are made wheels or shivers (as our
ship-carpenters call them) and pins for blocks
and pullies; pegs for musical instruments; nutcrackers, weavers-shuttles, hollar-sticks,
bump-sticks, and dressers for the shoemaker, rulers, rolling-pins, pestles, mall-balls,
beetles, topps, tables, chess-men, screws,
male and female, bobins for bone-lace,
spoons’ as well as combs and inlays.
16th and 17th
century music
Chalumeau, a single reed instrument made
from boxwood, becomes established in
Europe as a late Baroque, early Classical
folk instrument. Later, the English flageolet
is developed and is made from boxwood.
Katherine Spencer plays the
chalumeau at an event in the
Chilterns.
1600AD is a key date for woodlands
In England, a wooded site is considered to be ancient if it has been continuously
wooded since 1600 AD. The boxwoods at Ellesborough in Bucks are considered
ancient.
Historic lease of 1602 relating to Box Hill in Surrey states ‘the tenant is
commanded to use his best endeavours to preserve Yew, Box and other trees
growing thereupon , as also to deliver half-yearly an account of what hath been
sold, to whom and at what prices’. In 1608 a number of trees were cut down and
earned £50.
W. Dallimore, Holly, yew & box,
with notes on other evergreens
(1908)
1696 deed referring to the ‘box
wood’ near Ellesborough.
Box and the landscape designer Gilpin
William Gilpin, in his book Remarks on
Forest Scenery published in 1791,
described the picturesque appeal of
twisted trees, exposed roots and
irregular land forms. This book was
popular and proved to be highly
influential. He, amongst others,
encouraged evergreen plantings.
William Gilpin described Box Hill as
‘shivering precipices and downy
hillocks, everywhere interspersed with
the mellow verdure of box, which is
here and there tinged, as box
commonly is, with red and orange’.
18th century cont....
General History of Quadrupeds with prints by
Thomas Bewick is published in 1790. Bewick made
his blocks from boxwood which he would obtain as
logs shipped up from London. London markets were
being supplied by Ashridge in the mid 18th century
(Photo C Smith; items courtesy of Graham Carlisle).
In demand in the 19th century
G Wilkinson in 'Trees in the Wild' (1975) writes ‘The boxwoods near London
became immensely valuable around 1830-40, for the wood was used for
engraving illustrations to periodicals like the Penny Magazine and the Illustrated
London News, which were printed in the new steam presses. Copper
engravings, which had been the fashion, could not be printed alongside type in
the machines.....Until the 1890s, when photo-engraving on metal became
general, tons of boxwood blocks were used in printing.....The trade in boxwood
reached many thousands of pounds a year in London. Trees were so expensive
that they were sold bit by bit. It is only surprising that any boxwoods remain, for
the trade must have dwindled gradually and there would be no incentive to
replant.
Loudon in Arb Frutic suggests that trees were cut down at Box Hill to the value
of £10,000 in 1815. In the Chilterns, however, John Stuart Mill was still able to
write in 1855 that box 'helps to adorn the hills between Tring and Dunstable‘.
In demand in the 19th century cont...
In 1895, the Diplomatic and Consular Report No 1717 dealing with the trade of
Batoum on the Black Sea coast stated ‘although all the private forests of Boxwood have been exhausted the Government up to the present still refuse to sell
or allow Box-wood to be cut in their extensive forests throughout Abkhasia,
consequently the total exports from the Caucasus have not exceeded 1200tons
; and further this wood is fast losing its importance to the English
manufacturers owing to the fact that in recent years other hard woods have
been discovered which are equally suitable for making many articles for which
Box-wood was formerly used. ‘
W. Dallimore, Holly, yew & box, with
notes on other evergreens (1908)
Boxwood was used to make early lacemaking bobbins . Lace-making peaked in
the early 1900s.
Conservation for Chiltern box
thanks to Charles Rothschild
In 1915, the
Rothschild Reserves
list identifies 284
places worthy of
preservation for the
nation due to their
natural interest,
including
Ellesborough and
Kimble Warren
boxwoods (referred
to as Cad’s Dene).
The boxwoods are
subsequently
protected by a law of
1949 as a Site of
Special Scientific
Interest.
Recent key events
Box blight observed at Box Hill in 2001 and the new fungus
Cylindrocadium buxicola named in 2002.
First box woodland planted under WGS in the Chilterns.
Launch Chiltern Box Woodland Project! Lots of people
already involved.
© Dr Beatrice Henricot, RHS
Summary
Rosary bead,
Waddesdon
Collection ©
Trustees of the
British Museum
Summary
Building understanding.
Starting points are historic box
locations in the Chilterns.
Information will be made
available to assist conservation
and enjoyment of box heritage in
the Chilterns and beyond.
Questions and comments
Sarah Wright
swright@chilternsaonb.org
www.chilternsaonb.org/box
07775 010 414 or 01844 355500
Meet at 1.15pm outside the
Museum to walk to the Centre
for Buckinghamshire Studies
for afternoon session