Complex sentence: Historically the woodland was privately owned up until the 1950s when it was gifted to the then Willenhall Council to protect it from clay extraction who promptly placed a preservation order on all the trees.
Split into simpler sentences: Historically the woodland was privately owned up until the 1950s when it was gifted to the then Willenhall Council to protect it from clay extraction. The council promptly placed a preservation order on all the trees.