Woodland plantations

Plantations are characterised by blocks of trees that are all of one age often consisting of only one or two species of tree within each regular block of planting. Very often the species planted were non-native species and in particular conifer, but many plantations were of broadleaves such as oak or beech and often plantations were a mix of conifer and broadleaves. Whatever the species, the end result was very much concerned with a ‘crop’ of trees. The most woodland plantations are found in the Chiltern and Wycombe districts for commercial forestry. Growth in these rectilinear woodlands is found in the Vale of Aylesbury most notably areas of fox hunting country where a number of woodland coverts proliferate. Plantations were also commonly placed on commons, wastes and heaths.

Deliberate plantations were very rare before the 17th century although the majority in Buckinghamshire date to the 19th century and 20th centuries. Research on fox hunting in Whaddon Chase has shown the local significance of coverts as part of a hunting landscape.