Peatmoor Community Woodland

History is all around us here in West Swindon and just up the road from Lydiard Park is a survivor from the ancient forest of Braydon.

Back in the day our neck of the woods was the property of the King. The ancient woodland at Braydon had become a royal forest by 1135 and in 1228 enclosed an area of around 46 square miles.

While the forest was the playground of the privileged, for the ordinary folk it provided vital resources and the right to common pasture to graze their animals.

In 1270 Robert Tregoze received a royal licence from Henry III to create a deer park at Lydiard but the march of progress had already begun. By 1300 several of the local woods had been disafforested including those owned by John de Clinton and Robert Russell of Lydiard Millicent called ‘Spersolt’ (Sparcell) and William de Grandison’s wood at Lydiard Tregoze.

Thankfully Peatmoor Copse was preserved during the 1980s development when sensitive planning saw the copse and the newly constructed lagoon incorporated into a west to east environmental corridor across West Swindon.

Volunteers have maintained this ecologically important six-acre site since the formation of the Peatmoor Community Woodland in 1988.

The copse appears on the first Ordnance Survey map dated 1818, close to Roughmoor and Ridgeway Farms, two areas of intensive modern development.

Roughmoor Farmhouse was demolished some thirty years ago and a development of executive homes now stand on the site named Roughmoor Farm Close.

Building on 700 homes at the controversial Ridgeway Farm estate on the Purton parish boundary looks likely to continue for another four years, but thankfully the ancient coppice land survives.

Although neglected for many years prior to the establishment of the Peatmoor Community Woodland, today the copse is once again a thriving area of managed woodland. The copse is divided into seven compartments where oak, ash, hazel and willow are coppiced in a seven-year cycle.

The volunteers meet on the first Sunday of the month (next meeting is June 2) between 10 am - 1 pm, and an extra pair of hands are always welcomed.

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My neck of the woods

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