Woodland History

A very windy walk for me this afternoon but in lovely sunshine which was such a change from the very wet morning.  I'm really fascinated by the history of this strip of woodland.  Parts of it have been planted with birch and sweet chestnut, probably planting associated with the Wortley Hall estate, but the earth in this area, as you enter the woodland from Crane Moor Road, has clearly been excavated and then left piled up in mounds.  Now finding new use by youngsters with their bikes. 

 I'm guessing that shallow pit coal mining happened along this ridge where the coal would have occurred quite close to the surface.  The trees in this area are mainly sycamore which are `weed' trees here that would have colonised the area after the miners had left.   Lots of birch seedlings grow along here too, maybe given time the birch will take over from the sycamore.