BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?

Subject: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 24 May 01 - 07:56 AM

Some English kids last week told me about an ancient wood, which had once covered large parts of England, but is now a small but closely-guarded copse in Kent. They called it Andorider, but I can't find any mention online. Am I spelling it right? Any further news on this?

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: IanC
Date: 24 May 01 - 08:38 AM

The place name in Kent you are looking for is probably Anderide, near Pevensey, found in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. It is not a modern place, though it was apparently a largish settlement at the time. At that time, it would have been surrounded by woodland as most of England was originally covered by primeval forest. I think it is mentioned in Rudyard Kipling's "Puck of Pook's Hill", where I imagine your children may have got the name.

There appears not to be much primeval woodland left in England (see hereArchaeology), though there are some patches of old woodland in other parts of England ... Wychwood, Woodland Trust, Trails.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 24 May 01 - 04:10 PM

Not actually *children* as such - university students. They said that part of the wood is jealously preserved now, in Kent, and that it was once a huge forest. Thanks for the name; I'll ask on gardening lists.

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 01 - 05:42 PM

Here is one other spot you might write to: CountyfocusUK.

Please let us know what you find out. This is very interesting.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: vectis
Date: 24 May 01 - 06:36 PM

I'm sure it was spelt Anderida last time I saw it written down. It was the name of the original fort at Pevensey in East Sussex, just up the road from me. The name was current during the Roman occupation of Britain but had fallen into disuse by 500AD.
The forest or wood you asked about is north of Pevensey and is called the Ashdown Forest. It was called The Weald Forest by the Venerable Bede in 734AD when it covered the whole of what is now the county of Sussex.
The Pooh connection comes from the fact that the books were set in and around Hartfield in the Ashdown Forest, about 30 miles from Pevensey.
Hope this information is of some help.

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: vectis
Date: 24 May 01 - 06:41 PM

Just looked it up. Anderida was the Roman name for what is now Sussex.

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: GUEST
Date: 24 May 01 - 10:38 PM

Susan Cooper's excellent book The Dark is Rising calls it Anderida. In the book it is explained that it is a forest that, about five hundred years ago, was deliberately preserved by royalty, at the expense of smaller hamlets and villages, to breed boar and deer for the hunt.

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: IanC
Date: 16 Aug 01 - 10:24 AM

I just thought I'd tie in the Kipling reference to Anderida in Puck of Pook's Hill.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: Peg
Date: 16 Aug 01 - 10:32 AM

fascinating. I am now pining for the woods and copses of England.

Love that word, "copse." There is a lovely little one (actually there are a number of them mentined on the map) off the wide of the Ridgeway, not far from the Greywether Stones up the road from Avebury...

There are also three little round groves of beech trees along the trail there; slept in one one day; very magical places indeed. The trees are fairy large but do not not look much more than 150 years old...as for how old the locations ae, though...not sure.

peg

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 16 Aug 01 - 10:38 AM

For the record, Peg, a copse is a specific type of managed woodland - nowadays no longer managed, of course. The name derives from the fact that small woods were usually coppiced.

I reckon you'd find Dr Oliver Rackham's book very interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: IanC
Date: 16 Aug 01 - 10:49 AM

Dai

Coppice is usually the word reserved for that one and, though copse obviously derives from coppice it is used more generally as Peg describes.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient English wood: Andorider?
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 16 Aug 01 - 10:59 AM

I stand corrected; I must have misread Dr. Rackham's assertion. Oh well...