During the Neolithlic and Bronze ages, the first farmers cleared areas in West Cambridgeshire that had been covered in prehistoric forest since the last ice age. This continued through to the Anglo-Saxon times. However the heavy boulder clay soil of this area was too difficult to farm and so some areas of the forest were left - these include my local ancient woodland, Hardwick Wood. The Domesday Book shows that the pattern of woodland fragments in 1086 looked very similar to the pattern of woods that still exist today as ancient woodlands.
When I walk deeper into Hardwick Wood I feel the pressures and worries of our times evaporate. I hope these IR pictures something of that Ancient Woodland mystery.
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