Limekiln Meadow at Llanerch-y-Coed

When William fitz Osbern built Clifford Castle occupation of the area was already well established, and had left traces in the form of bronze age burial mounds on Little Mountain, to the north-east of Llanerch-y-Coed.  Such burial mounds were usually constructed close to agricultural land, and sometimes on land which had previously been ploughed.

Climactic deterioration led to the abandonment of Bronze Age upland agricultural land.  Edges of these areas became literally marginal, as cycles of economic pressure and climatic variations led to them being re-utilised for arable land and abandoned again by turn throughout succeeding centuries.  Land was, however, always utilised for some purpose.  Steep slopes, which could not be ploughed, were used as woodland, providing fuel, building timber and wood, and pannage for pigs.  Unwooded uplands were used for grazing.

Llan-y-Coed farm is situated at the eastern edge of Little Mountain, an area of upland common.  It is variously called Llan-y-Coed or Llanerch-y-coed on modern maps; the sign on the farm gate is Llan-y-Coed.  The name is recorded as Lanercoyt in the early 14th century and Bruce Coplestone-Crow (1989) suggests no other etymology than the straightforward Welsh ‘church of the wood’.  The 1841 census records that Theophilus Barnet, aged 52, was the farmer at Lanycodde.  In 1846 the tithe apportionment records Richard Williams as the occupier of Llanycoed Farm and the 1851 census records him as the farmer at Llanicoade.  The 1861 census has George George at Llanycoed.

The woodland at Llanerch-y-Coed is composed of two distinct elements, a strip of ancient woodland to the west and a later 20th century larch plantation to the east.

Remains of a Bronze Age bowl barrow at Llanerch-y-Coed

The Woodlands

The woodland at Llanerch-y-Coed is composed of two distinct elements, a strip of ancient woodland to the west and a later 20th century larch plantation to the east.

The Ancient Woodland

The ancient woodland at Llan-y-Coed lies on very steep west facing slope.  Woodland on steep slopes is common land utilisation in pre-industrial Britain.

The eastern side of the northern part of the wood is the only part which is not steeply sloping.  Here, a shoulder of Little Mountain slopes gently down to north-west, carrying a trackway.  This ridge is heavily rutted with up to five distinct gullies, some over 60cm deep in places.The wood, which is not named on the tithe apportionment, was owned in 1846 by the Reverend John Webb, and occupied as part of Llanycoed Farm by Richard Williams.

The 20th Century Plantation

Running east from the ancient wood is a strip of larch plantation dating from early in the second half of the 20th century.

The northern boundary of this wood has a bank with the remains of an old hedge.  This bank and hedge formed the boundary between three pieces of meadow (783, 787 and 788 on the tithe map) known collectively as Lime Kiln Meadow which also formed part of Llan-y-Coed farm in 1846, and Newhouse Wood to the north. 

The southern boundary of this piece of woodland, a wire fence, dates from the creation of the plantation in the period following the Second World War.   Within this wood the old hedge-lines which original divided Lime Kiln Meadow into three, are visible as a fossil with a bank and trees.

Just inside the south-eastern boundary of the plantation, and each side of the south-western of the two fossil hedge-lines, are the remains of two Bronze Age Bowl Barrows.  The eastern barrow has a number of large pieces of stone on the southern side.

The core of the western barrow is exposed and appears to be composed of stone.  Both barrows show evidence of having been robbed at some time.  The entries in both cases having been made from the southern, downhill, side, leaving platforms of spoil which now form slight terraces.  Both are Scheduled Ancient Monuments, a protection which extends for two metres around both.

Reporting

Unpublished Report - Llanerch-y-Coed, Clifford, Herefordshire: A Tier Two Archaeological Survey - Huw Sherlock and P J Pikes, 2001. A copy of this report is held in the reference section of Hereford City Library.

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