Bourne Woods
Bourne Woods are situated near Bourne, Lincolnshire, England, and includes Bourne Wood and Fox Wood.
Bourne Wood (National Grid reference TF0821; Co-ordinates: O°24'W, 52°46'N) and Fox Wood are owned by The Forestry Commission and managed by Forest Enterprise (England) as part of Kesteven Forest.
The ridge of Jurassic land which lies to the west of Bourne in Lincolnshire, England, overlooks the town and the reclaimed fens to its east. This statement should not however, be allowed to give an impression of great altitude. This is a region of very gentle relief. The fen edge is at an altitude of about seven metres and 2½ kilometres away, the highest ground in the wood is at about 58 metres. The Jurassic beds (clay and sandy clay) are capped by glacial till or boulder clay, left from glaciations that occurred in the British Isles during the Anglian and Wolstonian stages respectively1. In former times, this till made the land too difficult for the early farmers to use as arable land and too wet and tenacious to be ideal for pasture. It is natural therefore, to find that much of it has been left as woodland, which was in itself, a valuable resource for fuel and constructional material. As far south as Bourne though, the remaining strip of glacial till is narrow and most of Bourne wood is on the Jurassic Kellaways clay and sand.
On the ridge and on the margin of the parish, the wood was conveniently placed so that heavy loads of timber were brought down the gentle slope to supply the rest of the parish. Also, it lay beyond the fields where the daily labour of ploughing, weeding and harvest required frequent attendance from the houses of the town. Going for wood was an important job; part of the initial endowment of Bourne Abbey was "two big faggots, such as might be carried on the back, of the larger branches, to be taken every day out of Bourne Wood without interference". Fetching timber was important but done less frequently than sod-breaking, crow scaring, weeding, ploughing, harrowing, sowing, reaping, stooking, straw-carting and pasturing in the stubble of the arable fields.
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