Category: Flora

Exmoor Flora Heritage Nature Uncategorized

The Hoar Oak Tree

There has been a Hoar Oak Tree from time immemorial, marking the boundary between the Royal Forest of Exmoor and Brendon Common.  The term ‘Royal Forest’ denoted a hunting ground or ‘waste’ belonging to the Crown; more often a treeless area and not as we understand the word forest to mean now.  According to McDermot, writing in the early part of the twentieth century, the original tree fell in 1658 and a replacement was planted close by soon after.  This survived until 1916 when the tree now standing was planted.  Despite being over 100 years old this tree remains small and stunted due to the poor soil conditions and the harsh and exposed upland climate.  However, despite its appearance it is healthy and remains in fine condition.

At the time of the First World War, Bill Hobbs was the shepherd living at Hoar Oak Cottage; when he went to war John Jones, his brother-in-law, temporarily took his place.  There is no evidence that either men planted the replacement tree but they certainly would have been aware of its planting.

The Hoar Oak Tree, as has been seen, has a long and important history and is marked on several maps including the current Ordnance Survey.  It also featured on the Ordnance Survey map of 1890 and before that (as Ore Oak) on the Benjamin Doon map of 1765.  An even earlier reference to Whore Oake Ball dates to 1651.

Extensive, natural oak woods do thrive on Exmoor along the coastal belt and also at Horner.  The coastal oak woods are renowned for their wildlife and rare plant communities; the relentless gales and poor growing conditions have also stunted their growth but in a very different way to that of the Hoar Oak Tree.

Oaks are a valuable resource for wildlife.  One of the most common yet overlooked sights are the Spangle galls created by tiny parasitic wasps.  Each gall hosts a larva that is feeding on the leaf tissue beneath it and a single leaf can carry very many galls.  In the autumn the larvae fall to the ground before the leaves and complete their growth cycle protected by the leaf litter, emerging in early spring.  Despite the huge numbers of galls an oak tree can carry the larvae do very little damage.

Regardless of its diminutive size, the Hoar Oak Tree continues to be an important Exmoor landmark.   Situated just yards upstream, it also stands as a living link to the shepherds of Hoar Oak Cottage and their families.

 

 

The Hoar Oak Tree of Exmoor, part of a series of blog posts exploring the flora and fauna that surrounds Hoar Oak Cottage.

 

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Exmoor Flora Nature Uncategorized

Heather on Exmoor

The vast tracts of open heather moorland are one of Exmoor’s glories.  At the height of its flowering in August, the moors seem washed with purple although on closer inspection the flowers vary in colour from darker shades through to pale lavenders and pinks.  The colour variation is partly due to the age of the flower but also to the species.  On Exmoor, all three species can be found: Bell Heather Erica cinerea, Common Heather (also known as Ling) Calluna vulgaris and Cross-leaved Heath Erica tetralix.

For the Scottish shepherds of Hoar Oak Cottage, the view from the parlour window would have not been dissimilar to their home in the Southern Uplands.  Was the sight of the heather hillside in full flower a comforting memory of a distant land or a trigger for home-sickness?  Perhaps they brought with them their traditional uses for the plants – making brooms, stuffing mattresses or as a herbal remedy for coughs and as a general tonic.  In the Highlands, heather was also used as roof insulation material but as the cottage was provided by their employer it is highly unlikely that this would have been carried out at Hoar Oak; no evidence of this was uncovered during the recent stabilising of the ruins.

To find out more of heather, or indeed many of the everyday aspects of the past life of Exmoor, it is often necessary to read through old books to glean information.  One of our favourite sources is Red Deer, written by Richard Jefferies in 1884.  About heather he mentions several things that we may have not appreciated such as how, when the weather is hot and dry, “the brittle, woody stems of the heather wear out the stoutest boots quickly.”  He also describes the burning (“swaling”) of the heather each spring.

Swaling, which appears to be a West Country dialect word, is now tightly controlled by legislation but the principal of deliberate burning the moorland vegetation to promote regeneration dates back centuries.  Recent research has found burnt deposits buried deep in the peat layers dating from the medieval period (source: ENPA).  Swaling, like many other farming practices is carried out on a rotational basis over a number of years.  In this way, there are heather plants ranging in age from the tasty, young growth of the newly burned providing food for the deer, ponies and sheep, and older growth giving cover and shelter to birds and other wildlife.  For more information on swaling and the results of recent research visit this link.

Heather on Exmoor, part of a series of blog posts exploring the flora and fauna that surrounds Hoar Oak Cottage.

 

 

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Exmoor Fauna Flora Uncategorized

The Flora and Fauna of Exmoor

Exmoor’s scenery: open windswept moorland; sheltered wooded combes; the highest sea cliffs in England; bog, fast-rushing rivers and man-made lakes.  With such varied habitats it’s not surprising that its flora and other wildlife are so diverse.  Living in one of the remotest parts of the moor and out in all weathers, the shepherds of Hoar Oak Cottage would have been intimately aware of the plants and creatures that they came across daily.

Country folk of the past utilised anything that could be readily harvested; not just those that could be eaten but also those that might make a hard life a little more comfortable.  These days worts (bilberries) and blackberries may still be gathered in the autumn for pies and jam but it’s doubtful whether anyone collects cotton grass seed-heads for stuffing pillows anymore. However, the great beech trees that still surround Hoar Oak Cottage continue to give shelter (and once firewood) and the trout in the river that provided the occasional tasty meal still dart for shelter whenever danger threatens.

The Hoar Oak Valley had been home to man for thousands of years from Neolithic and Bronze Age settlers through to the late 1950s.  Since then, Exmoor’s National Park status has protected the moor as well as many of the birds, mammals, wild flowers and insects they would have been familiar with.  Today, the wildlife provides a continuous and living link between ourselves, the shepherds and the earliest peoples.  In this occasional series of posts on the flora and fauna we hope to gather information from various sources; books and our research have already yielded many clues.  However, we would like these pages to also become a record of your Exmoor sightings and discoveries – new or old – especially if they should be from the Hoar Oak Valley.  If you have a photograph or story that we might share we’d love to hear from you – to reach us, click on the link at the foot of the page.

Posted by Bette Baldwin