We are not historians or experts but the Copse can tell us something of its history. It has been a managed wood in the past, with trees planted for harvesting and coppicing.

Great Haughurst Copse amounts to about 26 acres.

It is an ancient wood with ground flora indicative of it having been here for a very long time. It has been recorded as woodland for over four hundred years.  It has been rich in wildlife, but due to a lack of management, the wildlife has left. We want to make it a good place for wildlife to return to.

It is largely oak canopy with hazel under story.  There are places (mainly in the NE corner) where Sweet chestnut has been grown for coppicing as can be seen from the multi- stemmed trees which grow there.  Silver birch is also found throughout the wood and appears to have been coppiced in the past too.

We recently had an email from a gentleman who confirmed that his father and uncles used to coppice hazel in this area - including our wood, he thought - throughout the winter months. However, we are told this practice stopped at least 40 years ago in Great Haughurst Copse.

We hope that by starting a hazel coppice rotation again, we will begin to see native Bluebell patches increase. These plants are so beautiful and under threat from cross pollination by imported Spanish Bluebells and loss of habitat - so much so that they are now protected by law.  Please do not pick or walk on them!

In the 1960's about 8 acres of it was planted up as a conifer plantation as wood was required in the UK. Joining the Common Market meant that we could import cheap wood from Scandinavia, so there was no longer a market for home grown pine. Sadly, coniferous forests do not provide much for wildlife in the UK so this is an area we will be looking at changing in the future as it is far too dense.

The Copse is surrounded by a number of ancient ditches and banks which are historic boundary markers. They were originally much higher, but have been eroded over time. 

We have also been puzzled by why there are two parallel banks quite close to each other on each side of the footpath in the north east area of the wood.  As the path comes out of the woodland and into the gallops, the bank on the eastern side bends away. Puzzle solved thanks to the Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre ecologist (Ian Ralph) and confirmed by County Archaeologist (David Hopkins) Apparently, this is typical of a ancient drovers route, channelling or funnelling cattle as they move from one area of common grazing to another and to prevent them escaping into the woodland through which they were being driven. The banks would have been far higher originally and this activity pre-dates the enclosure acts. So, the banks are many hundreds of years old and this is confirmation (as if we needed it) that the woodland really is ancient too! The lidar picture shows clearly how this drovers way funnelled stock into the drovers route, past the woodland and to the drinking water in the valley to the south.

We know that this woodland has been worked for centuries. It has the status of semi-natural ancient woodland because it has been recorded as being a continuous wood since before 1600.

While one of our volunteers was digging the boggy area recently, he uncovered evidence of people having been here - an earthenware pot with a broken top. Another volunteer took it home to research it and found that it was an old ' beehive shape patent top ginger beer bottle, circa 1890'. Perhaps the person drinking this was a woodland worker, having a refreshing drink to keep his energy up!

We have also found an ancient wedge, used to help fell trees in a controlled manner or for splitting wood once felled. This was found near a depression about 4m long and 1.5m wide - possibly an old wood working saw pit! Logs would have been laid over the pit and sawn using a very long saw. One man would have been in the bottom of the pit getting covered with the shavings (the under dog) and his workmate would have been found sitting above the log keeping clean (the top dog). Hence the origin of the expressions.

There are tracks through the woodland which some people have mistaken for footpaths. If you check the OS map you will see they are not marked. We now realise they were old forestry working tracks and we will be openning them to use them purely for forestry work over time. We may choose to make some of them permissive pathways at times of the year when to do so would not be harmful to wildlife in the future. But for now, the woodland is too dangerous to encourage anyone to walk there. Please keep to the Brenda Parker Way and the bridleway and other paths marked on the OS map.

The plantation is a more recent addition and also needs harvesting but the problem has been lumber extraction. We think we have now found a solution to this and so hope to begin serious work on the conifers very soon ready to plant new, broad leaved deciduous trees.