Forum Meeting
30th June 2010
Moccas, Herefordshire

The Forum held its first field meeting on 30th June, celebrating the International Year for Biodiversity, highlighting the important contribution that trees and woodland make to biodiversity whilst contributing to the West Midlands economy and everyone’s quality of life.
 

Forum members hugging the Old Man of Moccas
Forum members hugging the Old Man of Moccas


With kind permission of Woodland Trust and Natural England, this took place in Moccas Hill Wood and Moccas Park, Herefordshire, with a series of stops and short presentations.   With 40 people in attendance, there was a very full programme including the following:

  • Chairman’s Welcome: Launch of the Manifesto, 2010-13 Delivery Plan, Annual Report 2009-2010
  • International Year of Biodiversity – National and local fit: Paul Cobbing, GOWM
  • Biodiversity and the historic environment: Neil Rimmington, Herefordshire County Archaeologist
  • Wood pasture restoration: Jeremy Evans, Woodland Trust & Lewis Goldwater, Natural England
  • Managing trees and woodland with multiple objectives: Graham Taylor, PRS & Bede Howell
  • Design landscape and archaeology: Neil Rimmington
  • Connecting the landscape: Justin Milward, Woodland Trust
  • Opportunities for woodland creation: Ewan Calcott, Forestry Commission
  • Climate change and plant health: Keith Kirby & Suzanne Perry, Natural England
  • Pests and Predators – grey squirrels: Bede Howell
  • Deer management on a landscape scale: Greg Jones, Forestry Commission
  • Butterfly and Moth Conservation: Jenny Joy & Dave Gundy, Butterfly Conservation
  • Ancient & Veteran Trees: Justin Milward

Venue: Moccas Park
The small rural village of Moccas, north west of Hereford toward Hay and close to the Welsh border and the Black Mountains, was a monastic settlement back in the 5th century. Evidence of its long history can be found at the 12th century church, and at the medieval Moccas Deer Park, part of the Chester-Master Estate and one of the most important sites of surviving woodland pasture in the country.  Nestling just 12 miles west of Hereford, the Park is internationally renowned for its wildlife and forest fauna and is second only to Windsor among forests and parkland in Britain.

The park has probably been in existence since 1290.  It was landscaped by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in the late 1700s, Humphrey Repton did further work in the 1790s with Richard Payne Knight and Uvedale Price, founders of the Picturesque Movement, advising during the 1800s.

Reference to the park, which is still home to a herd of deer, is made in Reverend Francis Kilvert’s famous works. Managed by Natural England and designated a National Nature Reserve, there are over 1,700 veteran trees here, including beech, sessile oak, pendunculate oak, sweet chestnut and horse chestnut. More than 500 ancient trees stand in the grassland of the Lower Park, whilst the densely wooded slopes of the Upper Park boast over 1,000 specimens. All of the trees are tagged and numbered. The park is designated a SSSI, not just due to its superb trees but also due to its historical value and rare insect life, and an English Heritage Grade 2* Scheduled Park of Special Historical Interest.