Wistman's Wood is one of only three remote high-altitude oakwoods on Dartmoor, Devon, England. ( The other two are Black-a-Tor Copse on the West Okement at SX565892 and Piles Copse on the River Erme at SX644620. ) Geography It lies at an altitude of 380–410 metres in the valley of the West Dart River near Two Bridges, at grid reference SX612774. Description The wood is split into three main blocks (North, Middle  and South Groves or Woods), which in total cover about 3.5 ha (9 acres) . These occupy the sheltered, south-west facing slope of the valley, where a bank of large granite boulders ("clatter") is exposed, and pockets of acid, free-draining, brown earth soils have accumulated. Additional copses of scrub extend beyond the main body of the wood, suggesting that it originally extended over the entirety of the clatter deposits on the hillside. In the present day, the clatter outside of the main wood is covered in bracken, bilberry, and occasional gorse.Tansley, A.G., The British Isles and their Vegetation, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1965. P. 299–302. Wistman's Wood is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and has been managed since 1961 under a nature reserve agreement with the Nature Conservancy Council, English Nature and Natural England. There is no active management, but many people visit the site on foot (mostly accessing the southern end of South Wood), and cattle and sheep have free access where the terrain permits, outside of a small fenced exclosure in South Wood. Flora The trees  are mainly pedunculate oak, with occasional rowan, and a very few holly, hawthorn, hazel, and eared-willow. The oaks are distinguished by their dwarf habit, and rarely reach more than 4.5 m (15 ft) in overall vertical height. The trees also developed highly contorted forms with procumbent trunks, and their main branches tend to lie on or between the rocks on the forest floor. A few trees reach 6–7.6 m (20-25 ft) in height; these also tend to have more vertical trunks and spread crowns. History Wistman's Wood has been mentioned in writing for hundreds of years. It is likely to be a left-over from the ancient forest that covered much of Dartmoor c. 7000 BC , before Mesolithic hunter/gatherers cleared it around 5000 BC . Photographic and other records show that Wistman's Wood has changed considerably since the mid-19th century; at the same time climatic conditions have also generally become warmer.Proctor, M.C.F., Spooner, G.M. and Spooner, M. 1980. Changes in Wistman’s Wood, Devon: photographic and other evidence. Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science Volume 112, Pages 43-79.Mountford, E,P., Backmeroff, C.E. and Peterken, G.F. 2001. Long-term patterns of growth, mortality, regeneration and natural disturbance in Wistman’s Wood, a high altitude oakwood on Dartmoor. Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science Volume 133, Pages 231-262. Over this period, the older oak trees have grown from a stunted/semi-prostrate to a more ascending form, while a new generation of mostly straight-grown and single-stemmed oaks has developed. The oldest oaks appear to be 400–500 years old, and originated within a degenerating oakwood that survived in scrub form during two centuries of cold climate. In c. 1620 these old trees were described as "no taller than a man may touch to top with his head". Tree height increased somewhat by the mid-19th century, and during the 20th century approximately doubled (in 1997 the maximum and average height of trees was around 12 m and 7 m respectively). In addition, a wave of marginal new oaks arose after c. 1900, roughly doubling the area of wood. Part of the evidence for these changes comes from a permanent vegetation plot located in the southern end of South Wood. This is the oldest known of its kind in British woodland, with a small part having been recorded by R. Hansford Worth in 1921.Christy, M. and Worth, R.H. 1922. The ancient dwarfed oak woods of Dartmoor. Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science Volume 54, Pages 291-342. The Buller Stone, a boulder to the east of the wood, commemorates an attempt in 1866 to date the trees, when Wentworth Buller (with permission from the Duchy) felled an oak. It was estimated to be 168 years old. Myths, art and literature The wood has been the inspiration for numerous artists, poets, photographers and appears in hundreds of nineteenth century accounts. One tradition holds that it was planted by Isabella de Fortibus (1237–93). The wood is described in detail and discussed as a point of great interest in The Tree , a 1978  essay on naturalism by English novelist John Fowles.  References Further reading 
Wistman's Wood is one of only three remote high-altitude oakwoods on Dartmoor, Devon, England. The other two are Black-a-Tor Copse on the West Okement at SX565892 and Piles Copse on the River Erme at SX644620. Geography The wood lies at an altitude of 380–410 metres in the valley of the West Dart River near Two Bridges, at grid reference SX612774. Description The wood is split into three main blocks (North, Middle , and South Groves or Woods), which in total cover about . These occupy the sheltered, south-west facing slope of the valley, where a bank of large granite boulders ("clatter") is exposed, and pockets of acid, free-draining, brown earth soils have accumulated. Additional copses of scrub extend beyond the main body of the wood, suggesting that it originally extended over the entirety of the clatter deposits on the hillside. In the present day, the clatter outside of the main wood is covered in bracken, bilberry, and occasional gorse.Tansley, A.G., The British Isles and their Vegetation, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1965. P. 299–302. Wistman's Wood is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and has been managed since 1961 under a nature reserve agreement with the Nature Conservancy Council, English Nature and Natural England. The wood has no active management, but many people visit the site on foot (mostly accessing the southern end of South Wood), and cattle and sheep have free access where the terrain permits, outside of a small fenced exclosure in South Wood. Flora The trees within the wood are mainly pedunculate oak, with occasional rowan, and a very few holly, hawthorn, hazel, and eared-willow. The oaks are distinguished by their dwarf habit, and rarely reach more than in overall vertical height. The trees also developed highly contorted forms with procumbent trunks, and their main branches tend to lie on or between the rocks on the forest floor. A few trees reach from in height; these also tend to have more vertical trunks and spread crowns. History Wistman's Wood has been mentioned in writing for hundreds of years. It is likely to be a left-over from the ancient forest that covered much of Dartmoor c. 7000 BCE , before Mesolithic hunter/gatherers cleared it around 5000 BCE . Photographic and other records show that Wistman's Wood has changed considerably since the mid-19th century; at the same time climatic conditions have also generally become warmer.Proctor, M.C.F., Spooner, G.M. and Spooner, M. 1980. Changes in Wistman’s Wood, Devon: photographic and other evidence. Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science Volume 112, Pages 43-79.Mountford, E,P., Backmeroff, C.E. and Peterken, G.F. 2001. Long-term patterns of growth, mortality, regeneration and natural disturbance in Wistman’s Wood, a high altitude oakwood on Dartmoor. Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science Volume 133, Pages 231-262. Over this period, the older oak trees have grown from a stunted/semi-prostrate to a more ascending form, while a new generation of mostly straight-grown and single-stemmed oaks has developed. The oldest oaks appear to be 400–500 years old, and originated within a degenerating oakwood that survived in scrub form during two centuries of cold climate. In c. 1620 these old trees were described as "no taller than a man may touch to top with his head". Tree height increased somewhat by the mid-19th century, and during the 20th century approximately doubled (in 1997 the maximum and average height of trees was around 12 m and 7 m respectively). In addition, a wave of marginal new oaks arose after c. 1900, roughly doubling the area of wood. Part of the evidence for these changes comes from a permanent vegetation plot located in the southern end of South Wood. This is the oldest known of its kind in British woodland, with a small part having been recorded by R. Hansford Worth in 1921.Christy, M. and Worth, R.H. 1922. The ancient dwarfed oak woods of Dartmoor. Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science Volume 54, Pages 291-342. The Buller Stone, a boulder to the east of the wood, commemorates an attempt in 1866 to date the trees, when Wentworth Buller (with permission from the Duchy) felled an oak. It has been estimated to be 168 years old. Myths, art and literature The wood has been the inspiration for numerous artists, poets, and photographers. It appears in hundreds of 19th century accounts. One tradition holds that it was planted by Isabella de Fortibus (1237–93). The wood is described in detail and discussed as a point of great interest in The Tree ( 1978 ), an essay on naturalism by English novelist John Fowles. See also References Bibliography External links
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