Though most of us will have enjoyed strolling through beautiful British woodlands, we might not be aware of the ancient - and often complex - origins of our surroundings. From medieval times, woodlands were carefully managed commodities with hotly contested resources: conflicting demands from landowners, the Crown, the peasantry and local and national wood-based industries have all left their marks on today's woodland. Ian D. Rotherham here explains the various uses of British woods and their industries, such as coppicing, charcoal-burning, basket-making and bodging, and helps the reader to seek out the clues to their woodland's past.

Ian D. Rotherham, ecologist and landscape historian, is Reader in Tourism and Environmental Change at Sheffield Hallam University. An international authority on cultural and historical aspects of landscapes, especially peat bogs and peatlands, he also wrote Peat and Peat Cutting for Shire.

i"?Introduction / What is an 'Ancient' Wood? / Woods, Parks and Forests / Worked and Working Trees / Woodland Crafts and Other Industries / Woodland Archaeology and Ecology / The Future: Re-discovering the Old Crafts / Further Reading / Places to Visit / Index