READING THE PASTORAL LANDSCAPE: PALYNOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL

EVIDENCE FOR THE IMPACTS OF LONG-TERM GRAZING ON WETHER HILL, INGRAM,

NORTHUMBERLAND

Althea L. Davies1 and Piers Dixon2

1 Department of Environmental Science, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, UK, FK9 4LA. Current

address: AHRC Centre for Environmental History, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, UK, FK9

4LA; email: ald1@stir.ac.uk2 Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, John Sinclair House, 16

Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh, EH8 9NX; email: Piers.Dixon@rcahms.gov.uk

Biographies

Althea Davies studied botany and then environmental archaeology, specialising in pollen analysis. She

has a particular interest in the interactions between upland farming communities and their environment,

and most of her work has been undertaken in the Scottish Highlands. She is pursuing interdisciplinary

research involving archaeology, history, ecology and conservation management.

Piers Dixon studied archaeology and history, completing a doctorate on 'The Deserted Medieval Villages

of North Northumberland' in 1985. He has continued to develop his interests in rural settlement,

publishing the results of excavations in the Scottish Borders and Northumberland, a book on rural

settlement in lowland Scotland entitled Puir labourers and busy husbandmen, as well as synthetic articles.

Abstract

Many upland environments are valued for their openness, which is often actively maintained by extensive

pastoral agriculture. Documentary sources indicate the complexity and longevity of regulations designed

to protect the hill grazing resource from over-exploitation but these systems leave relatively few traces on

the ground. Consequently pollen analysis is an important method for establishing the impact of centuries

of grazing on the quality of hill pastures. This is demonstrated at Wether Hill, Northumberland, where a

pollen sequence details changes in vegetation composition and diversity over the last c.1500 years. These

are correlated with historical evidence over the last c.800 years for a more complete understanding of the

socio-economic context that governed the use of hill grazing. Changes in grazing regimes had a profound

influence on these hill pastures, contributing to permanent changes in the relative abundance of heather,

grasses and herbs, and causing a severe decline in habitat diversity within the last c.200 years. The results

have many regional parallels, indicating extensive reductions in the biodiversity of upland habitats. This

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has implications for future management and conservation policies and shows the contribution that an

understanding of environmental and land-use history can make to debates surrounding current

environmental issues.

Keywords

Uplands, conservation, environmental history, heathland, grazing history, archaeology; ridge and furrow.

Introduction

To many, the openness of upland landscapes in Britain is an intrinsic part of their attraction and value, as

seen, for example, in the perceived ‘wildness’ of the Scottish Highlands or concerns that scrub could

invade the Cumbrian hills following the decline in livestock numbers during the Foot and Mouth crisis of

2001 (e.g. Luxmoore & Fenton 2005). Many upland areas have been treeless for centuries or millennia

but, far from being static, open hill habitats have experienced significant changes in vegetation

composition over this period (e.g. Stevenson & Birks 1995, Tipping 2000). The hills of Northumberland

provide a good example of the dynamics and variability of vegetation composition and related socio-

economic conditions over the last 1500 years.

There is a wealth of archaeological evidence for occupation in the Cheviot Hills and adjacent coastal

plains over the last 9000 years (Figure 1), including well-preserved field remains of cultivation from the

last c.4000 years (Topping 1989, 1991, Frodsham 2004). However, as in many upland areas, pastoralism

was probably always the most extensive form of agriculture. Documentary sources from the fifteenth

century A.D. onwards can provide detailed records of the multitude of laws governing grazing practices in

the western Borders of Cumbria (Winchester 2000). In the eastern uplands of the Cheviots, the most

significant historical aspect of this is the dominance of grazing by the landowning classes as communal

forms of transhumance were finally expunged (Dixon 1985, Vol. I). However, tracing the links between

changing patterns of use and regulation, and pasture type on the ground is a harder prospect since long-

term pastoralism may cause relatively few structural changes in the landscape and, indeed, often

contributes to the good preservation of older archaeological evidence, including cultivation ridges.

Palaeoenvironmental techniques such as pollen analysis are rarely applied in the historic period (Tipping

1998, 2004), but can provide an additional source of evidence for understanding changing patterns of

grazing. By choosing pollen sampling sites that are sensitive to changes in vegetation cover within a

radius of c.50-100 m, pollen analysts can reconstruct landscape history on local scales which are

comparable with site-focussed historical and archaeological records (Tipping 1997a, Davies & Tipping

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2004). This is the approach adopted at Wether Hill, in the eastern foothills of the Cheviots, where the fill

of an abandoned Iron Age ditch provides a record of changing plant communities on the surrounding hill

pastures since c. A.D. 430.

The purpose of this paper is to combine pollen-based (palynological), documentary and archaeological

evidence for the impact of pastoralism on plant composition and diversity in an area of the Cheviot

foothills that today lies in the Northumberland National Park (Figure 1). The record has implications for

the presentation of landscape history to visitors, future land management and conservation.

Wether Hill: context of research and methods

Northumberland Archaeological Group has undertaken excavations on Wether Hill since 1993 as part of

the Ingram and Upper Breamish Valley Landscape Project, which also involves Northumberland National

Park and the University of Durham (Figure 1). The results indicate that these hills have been in use for

around 8000 years (Frodsham 2004). The area includes a well-preserved Iron Age hillfort on Wether Hill

(National Grid Ref. NU 013 144; 1º 59”W, 55º 25”N; 290 m OD) (Figure 2, Plate 1). The fort and

adjacent prehistoric cord rig cultivation are located near a c.300 m long, linear cross-ridge dyke that lies to

the south-west of the fort (Topping 1994). The dyke consists of a ditch flanked by two banks and was

constructed around c.200 BC (all dates are calibrated), but after c. A.D. 430 it ceased to be maintained

(Topping 1996). There is little archaeological evidence for post-Roman and Anglo-Saxon activity, but

mixed farming was conducted in the medieval period, as indicated by nearby evidence for ridge and

furrow cultivation (Topping 1995).

Damp conditions within the ditch delimiting the hill fort allowed the accumulation of a 50 cm deep,

mineral-rich peat deposit which was sampled for pollen analysis. The ditch fill is ideally located to

provide a record of the changes in vegetation associated with land-use on the hill since it lies at the centre

of a multi-period archaeological landscape (Figure 2). The base of the ditch at 50 cm is dated to 1590

60 BP (calibrated to A.D. 260-620, mid-point A.D. 430). A second radiocarbon assay from 41.5 cm

produced a very similar date (1640 60 BP, cal A.D. 260-560, mid-point cal A.D. 420), indicating that

organic material is likely to have been reworked, possibly due to the erosion of soil from the adjacent

banks by grazing livestock. However, well-drained soils provide poor conditions for pollen preservation

and there is no evidence that pollen was also reworked. Dating evidence for the upper portion of the

sequence is provided by the appearance of (1) pollen from exotic trees and conifers in the post-

Agricultural Improvement landscape (Carter et al. 1997) and (2) spheroidal carbonaceous particles

(SCPs), a by-product of fossil fuel combustion since around 1900 (Rose et al. 1995), which were counted

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on pollen slides. The sequence therefore covers c.1500 years, from A.D. 430 to the present. Sediment

accumulation was very slow, at around 30 years/cm, and consequently the temporal resolution of the

sequence is relatively coarse.

Pollen data are presented in Figure 3. The record is divided into zones (WH1-3) that reflect periods of

similar vegetation composition. The record was analysed using a statistical technique called palynological

richness, which provides a proxy for changes in the diversity and heterogeneity of plant communities

through time (Birks & Line 1992). This curve is presented in Figure 4. Latin names are used in the text for

clarity since not all pollen types can be identified to a single plant species (see Bennett 1994), but a

representative common name is included the first time a pollen type is mentioned in the text.

Results and Interpretation

A rich pastoral resource: species-rich grassland

After the abandonment of the cross-ridge dyke at around A.D. 430, the vegetation on Wether Hill was

dominated by open, herb-rich, dry grassland (Figure 3: zone WH1). Extensive clearance during the late

Iron Age had already removed most trees and shrubs from the Cheviot uplands and much of

Northumberland (Davies & Turner 1979, Macklin et al. 1991, Tipping 1997b). Many of the herbs

recorded on Wether Hill are favoured by disturbance, particularly grazing. This includes Plantago

lanceolata (ribwort plantain), Ranunculus acris-type (buttercups), Rumex acetosa (common sorrel),

Cichorium intybus-type (e.g. dandelions) and Succisa pratensis (devil’s bit scabious), and possibly

Trifolium-type (clovers). Farmers were thus using high quality, species-rich grassland as a pastoral

resource. The ditch contained a damp Cyperaceae (sedge)-Filipendula (e.g. meadowsweet) community.

Cereal cultivation also formed part of the agricultural system, contributing pollen from barley and oats or

wheat (Boyd 1988, van der Veen 1992; the pollen of oats and wheat cannot be separated), as well as

arable weeds such as Papaver rhoeas-type (poppies), Brassicaceae (e.g. shepherd’s purse, kale) and

Chenopodiaceae (e.g. fat hen). Cereal pollen only travels very short distances from fields (Hall 1989), so

the cereal-weed assemblage suggests that some of the land around the hill was being cultivated (cf.

Archaeological Services, University of Durham 1997) (Figure 2).

Pollen diagrams from Northumberland and more widely across Northern England and the Scottish

Cheviots all indicate a long history of agricultural land-use. There are no obvious post-Roman or Anglo-

Saxon field monuments in the Breamish Valley around Wether Hill, but pastoral and arable land-use were

widespread by the seventh century A.D., when both monastic and Anglo-Saxon communities were

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established in Northumberland. At lower altitude sites to the east, woodland regeneration is recorded

between the fifth and eighth centuries A.D. (Davies & Turner 1979). However, in the Cheviots, both

around Wether Hill and across the Border in the Bowmont Valley (Tipping 1998) (Figure 1), agriculture

continued uninterrupted by political changes during the proto-historic period.

The hills in transition: heather and changing grazing regimes

Calluna vulgaris (heather) was initially only a minor component of the rich pastures on Wether Hill, but a

change in conditions allowed it to invade areas of grassland, forming a mixed grass-heath in zone WH2

(Figure 3). A change in the grazing regime is the inferred cause. Intermediate-level grazing pressures can

favour heather, particularly if this involves summer grazing, when stock preferentially consume grasses,

followed by the removal of the animals from hill-pasture during the winter, to limit grazing of evergreen

heaths (Hunter 1962, Welch 1984, Grant et al. 1987, Hobbs & Gimingham 1987, Milne et al. 1998). This

regime did not affect the range or diversity of herbs present in the pastures around Wether Hill, suggesting

that the new system of land management did not involve high grazing pressures. Higher charcoal values

(Figure 3) may indicate that fire was used to manage the pastures once heather had begun to spread, since

burning prevents heather from becoming too woody, so helping to maintain younger, more nutritious

growth (Hobbs & Gimingham 1987). This combination of burning and grazing maintained a patchy

heather canopy, providing open areas for herbs and grass to flourish and preventing Calluna from

permanently replacing the herb-rich grass community. It is possible that the pastoral regime became more

structured, thus giving rise to and maintaining a grass-heath mosaic. This also raises questions about the

nature of earlier, probably proto-historic grazing systems, which are more difficult to answer from

archaeological and historical evidence.

The chronology for the pollen sequence is poor between the basal radiocarbon date and appearance of

eighteenth to nineteenth century dating indicators, but palynological and documentary evidence from the

Cheviots, Northumberland and Cumbria suggests that the expansion of heather on Wether Hill may have

been a response to widespread changes in grazing practice from the twelfth to thirteenth centuries A.D. In

some instances this may reflect the expansion of monastic-controlled sheep rearing (Barber et al. 1994,

RCAHMS 1994, Tipping 1997a, 1997b, 2000), as occurred in parts of the Forest of Redesdale to the

south, but this cannot be the case in Ingram parish since no monasteries had grazing rights there (Dixon

1985, Vol. I). In addition, cattle remained the most common stock type in this area until the mid- to late

eighteenth century A.D.. However, it is likely that the regulation of summer grazing was established at the

same time as the medieval nuclear villages, which were certainly in place by the twelfth century A.D. at

the latest. Furthermore, Ingram parish possessed extensive rough grazing, which ran into the heart of the

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Cheviot hills, bordering upon the hunting forests of Chevy Chase to the north-west, Alnham to the south,

and probably Ilderton to the north, since Uhtred the forester of Ilderton was apprehended by the lord of

Hartside, which lay in the west of Ingram parish, in A.D. 1256 (NCH XIV, 471-6). It is not known for

certain if Ingram was within a hunting forest, but being surrounded by them makes it highly likely. In this

context, the regulation of grazing becomes especially sensitive, since the maintenance of the vert or

habitat of the deer was crucial to the successful management of the forest (Gilbert 1983).

Population expansion is thought to have been the driving force behind the spread of agriculture even

further into uplands during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D. in many parts of northern England

and southern Scotland (e.g. Weardale, Co. Durham (Roberts et al. 1973), the forest of Bowland,

Lancashire (Anson & Tallis 1994) and Liddesdale, Roxburghshire (Dixon 1997)). North Northumberland

is no exception (Dixon 1985). Here it pushed into the fringes of the Cheviots massif. Despite the use of

the upper part of the Breamish as a hunting forest by the Lords of Alnwick, settlement had spread to the

cultivable parts of the valley, as high as 380 m OD at Bromley in the neighbouring parish of Alnham by

1300 A.D.. As elsewhere, rough grazing was being progressively taken into cultivation through the

benefits of summer grazing, as happened at Greenside further up the valley; while Hartside township to

the west marks the limits of the medieval expansion in Ingram during the thirteenth century A.D. (Dixon

1985, Vol. II, No. 102). Indeed rig cultivation had visibly spread very close to this part of Wether Hill in

the medieval period (Dixon 1985, Vol. I), leaving only a relatively small area of unimproved rough

grazing in the township (Figure 2). The changes in vegetation cover and inferred grazing management in

zone WH2 may result from these processes of expansion and consolidation.

From the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries A.D., the Anglo-Scottish Borders were affected by successive

outbreaks of war and plague (Dixon 1985, Lomax 1996). Instability caused by Border warfare extended to

the valleys around Wether Hill with the burning of nearby Ingram church in A.D. 1296 (NCH, 1893-1940,

XIV, 465). Agricultural recession is indicated by the extensive remains of abandoned rig and deserted

settlements in the upper parts of Ingram parish (which includes Wether Hill), in neighbouring Alnham

parish, as well as elsewhere in the Cheviots. This is supported by contemporary late medieval

documentary sources (Dixon 1985) and the evidence of excavation at Alnhamsheles (Dixon & Brown

1981). The reduced population and the decline in the amount of land under cultivation had several

consequences that are relevant here. First, there was the creation of enclosed pastures on former arable

land, called ‘ox pastures’ on the Percy estates, where the cattle of the plough team were grazed. This

increased access to good pasture and reduced the traditional reliance upon shieling for summer grazing - a

practice that landowners finally eradicated in the early seventeenth century A.D. in this part of

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Northumberland, in order to exploit the grazing of the summer pastures for their own cattle and sheep.

Second, some former communal arable was converted to demesne land and was leased to a single farmer,

who maintained it as pasture in upland parishes like Alnham (Dixon 1985).

Through this period, the palynological evidence indicates the continued use of pastures accompanied by

reduced arable production and there are numerous fluctuations in the balance between heather and grass,

as well as changes in the amount of burning (zone WH2). It is unfortunate that the slow rate of sediment

accumulation and relatively poor dating evidence do not allow these vegetation changes to be interpreted

in their appropriate historical context. It is not possible to establish whether they reflect the impact of

medieval expansion, later medieval insecurities and population decline, or the effects of subsequent

changes in land-holding patterns. It could be speculated that a combination of summer pasturing with

expanded arable during the twelfth to thirteenth centuries A.D. are reflected in the continuous record for

cereal-type pollen in the transition from zones WH1-2, preceding the subsequent recession in cultivation

with continued grazing recorded in zone WH2. More closely regulated management of hill pastures

following late medieval agricultural recession may have contributed to the maintenance of grass-heath.

However, it remains problematic that the present pollen record cannot be more closely compared with

other records of agrarian and social change.

At a regional level, palynological evidence for the medieval period onwards is scarce and chronologies are

poor (Young 2004), but there is evidence for both continuity and woodland regeneration across the north

of England around this time. Widespread but patchy woodland regeneration recorded elsewhere in

Northumberland, Cumbria and Weardale during the fourteenth century A.D. has been attributed to war

and plague, especially the decline in population density due to disease (Roberts et al. 1973, Davies &

Turner 1979, Barber et al. 1994). However, more securely dated pollen sequences from the Scottish

Cheviots indicate the continuity of grazing activities through this period (Tipping 1997b, 2000),

comparable with the evidence from Wether Hill. Livestock may have provided a form of ‘moveable

wealth’, which allowed farmers the flexibility to maintain the grazing regime through periods of social

and political upheaval (cf. Topping 1999, Campbell et al. 2002).

Landscape degradation: over-exploitation of the resource?

Changes in peasant land tenure in the seventeenth century A.D. were one stage in the process that led to

the final demise of communal agriculture in Northumberland. As late as A.D. 1604 there were still twelve

small tenant farmers at Ingram village who worked 1600 acres that were still intermixed townfields in

A.D. 1663 (Dixon 1985, Vol. II, 368-9). A survey of A.D. 1734 indicates that the inhabitants of Ingram

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were poor, but still engaged in mixed farming. By A.D. c.1800 the set-up had changed. There were a few

enclosed rectilinear fields used for cultivation near the farmstead, which had replaced the village, and the

rest of the farmland was converted to pasture (Dixon 1985, Vol. II, No. 125 Ingram) (Figure 2). The

implication is that the clearance of the village was carried out in the mid-to-late eighteenth century A.D..

This appears to be associated with the most significant vegetation changes of the last 1500 years (the

transition to zone WH3, Figure 3), when heather virtually disappeared, grasses dominated the pollen rain

on Wether Hill, and the small amount of remaining tree and shrub growth was lost, resulting in the

formation of a predominantly treeless landscape. Exotic species like Fagus (beech), Juglans (walnut) and

Acer (e.g. sycamore) appear, followed by Picea (spruce) and the expansion of Pinus sylvestris (Scots

pine). These park and plantation species suggest that heather had disappeared by the mid- to late

nineteenth century A.D., an inference supported by the subsequent appearance of soot particles from the

widespread combustion of fossil fuels during the late nineteenth century A.D..

By A.D.c.1900 the landscape had altered radically. The diverse range of herbs that had characterised the

pastures had disappeared (Figure 4), resulting in the formation of the present species-poor dry grassland.

While the disappearance of many species could be interpreted as an absence of grazing pressure (Tipping

2000), the two most common herbs remain ribwort plantain, which survives grazing pressure, and

Potentilla-type, possibly tormentil, which is unpalatable to stock. This suggests that the pollen sequence

reflects intensified grazing pressure. Bedstraw pollen (Rubiaceae) is the only herb pollen type to show

increased representation and grazing experiments have shown that heath bedstraw (Galium saxatile) is

favoured by high grazing pressure from sheep (Welch 1984). This species is common in dry grassland and

may be the source of the Rubiaceae pollen recorded at Wether Hill. This would correlate well with the

evidence for a move from mixed farming to a predominantly sheep grazing regime that was focussed on a

few enclosed fields near the farmstead on the site of Ingram village, which was specifically designed as a

sheep-farm. The combined impact of this new, intensified grazing regime, the cessation of burning and the

senescence of heather (Hunter 1962), are likely to have culminated in the loss of first the heather and then

the herbs from these hills.

The ecological changes recorded on Wether Hill during the past few centuries were not confined to this

part of Northumberland: similar changes have been observed across many upland areas of Britain and

Ireland (Roberts et al. 1973, Stevenson & Thompson 1993, Stevenson & Birks 1995, Chambers et al.

1999, Davies 1999, Stevenson & Rhodes 2000, Tipping 2000, Tipping et al. 2001). The deterioration of

upland pastures is linked with a significant intensification in land-use over the last c.500 years,

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particularly since the age of Agricultural Improvement (Dodgshon & Olsson 2006). At a national level, no

single cause can be identified (Stevenson & Rhodes 2000), but higher grazing pressures and the

introduction of heavier breeds of sheep to satisfy the demands of expanded markets are significant factors

in the degradation of upland plant communities. This evidence indicates a need to question the origin and

antiquity of current ‘degraded’ heaths, since both the formation of these upland heaths and their

subsequent contraction are a direct result of changes in management; they are not remnants of natural

communities (cf. Chambers et al. 1999).

Conclusions: the legacy of pastoral exploitation

The sequence of vegetation changes recorded at Wether Hill is by no means unique and this adds to

existing evidence that, far from being a natural wilderness, open upland habitats in Britain and Ireland

have undergone significant changes over the last 1500 years. Using historical evidence it is possible to

establish how decisions made within changing social and economic contexts have shaped the landscapes

reflected in palaeoenvironmental sequences. Agriculture, specifically grazing, has been the most important

factor shaping the present landscape in this area of Northumberland. It is also significant at a national

scale because of the widespread use of upland and Highland areas for sheep grazing. As a consequence of

this long exploitation, and especially the more intensive management of the last c.200 years, many upland

landscapes have suffered a decline in biodiversity. Although perhaps less ecologically damaging, the data

also indicate a need to examine more closely the processes and effects of agrarian and social changes

during the twelfth to seventeenth centuries A.D.. This must raise questions about the sustainability of

current land-use practices and the conservation value of the plant communities in these ancient, cultural

landscapes.

The environment is a fundamental resource, yet without understanding and acknowledging the extent to

which it has been influenced by humans, it is difficult to evaluate the possible impacts of climatic change

or establish sustainable land-management and conservation strategies. Combining pollen records with

historical and archaeological sources provides a valuable insight into the relationship between society,

economics and landscape development.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Paul Frodsham (Northumberland National Parks) for funding the second

radiocarbon date, Tim Gates for permission to use the aerial photograph, and Peter Topping, Richard

Tipping, Erlend Hindmarch and James Hepher for advice and assistance.

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12

Captions for figures and plate

Figure 1. Location of Wether Hill within Northumberland, NE England.

Figure 2. Plan of the Iron Age hillfort on Wether Hill, showing the location of the pollen core from the

adjacent cross-ridge dyke, and the extent of the surrounding ridge and furrow cultivation throughout the

township of Ingram.

Figure 3. Pollen data from Wether Hill, with estimated ages for transitions between pollen assemblage

zones. The oldest pollen lies at the base, progressing to recent pollen rain at the top of the diagram. The

clear curve represents a ten times exaggeration to show more clearly the trends in rarer pollen types.

Figure 4. Estimated palynological richness or diversity around Wether Hill, with 95% confidence

intervals, mean diversity and pollen zone boundaries. Note the long-term decline in diversity within zone

WH3 after a period of relative stability.

Plate 1. Aerial photograph of Wether Hill from the south-east, showing the hill fort, the cross-ridge dyke,

the cultivation ridges and present mosaic of grass, bracken and heath. Photo by Tim Gates, copyright

reserved.

13

Figure 1. Location of Wether Hill within Northumberland, NE England.

14

Figure 2. Plan of the Iron Age hillfort on Wether Hill, showing the location of the pollen core from the

adjacent cross-ridge dyke, and the extent of the surrounding ridge and furrow cultivation throughout the

township of Ingram.

15

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Depth

below

surfa

ce (c

m)

c. AD 1900

c. AD 1750

c. AD 1100-1400

c. AD 430

Acer c

ampe

stre-t

ype (e

.g. sy

camore

)

Alnus

glutinosa

(alder)

Betul

a (birc

h)

Fagus

(bee

ch)

Frax

inus e

xcelsio

r (ash

)

Juglan

s (walnut)

Picea (

spruc

e)

Pinus

sylve

st ris

(Sco

ts pine)

Quercus

(oak

)

Sorbus

aucu

paria

(rowan)

Ulmus (

elm)

Corylus

avella

na-typ

e (cf. h

azel)

Myrica

gale (b

og myrt

le)

Salix

(willo

w)

Viburn

um opulus

(gueld

er rose

)

20 40 60

Callun

a vulgari

s (he

ather)

Erica

(hea

th)

Vacc

inium

-type

(e.g. b

ilberr

y)

20 40 60 80 100

Poac

eae (w

ild gras

ses)

Avena

/Triticu

m grou

p (oa

ts/whea

t)

Hordeum

group (e

.g. barl

ey)

20

Cyperace

ae (s

edge

s)

Achille

a-type

(e.g. y

arrow)

Agroste

mma gith

ago (c

orn co

ckle)

Apiac

eae (

e.g. co

w parsley

)

Artemisi

a-typ

e (e.g.

mugw

ort)

Aster

aceae

(dais

y/dan

delio

n family

)

Bras

sicace

ae (mus

tard/cabb

age fa

mily)

Campa

nula-ty

pe (h

arebe

lls)

Caryop

hylla

ceae

(pink

/campion

family

)

Centau

rea nigr

a (kn

apweed

)

Cerasti

um-type (

e.g. ch

ickwee

d)

Cheno

podiac

eae (

fat hea

n fam

ily)

Cichori

um in

tybus-t

ype (

e.g. da

ndeli

ons)

Cirsium

-type

(thist

les)

Epilo

bium-ty

pe (w

illowhe

rbs)

Fabac

eae (p

ea/cl

over fa

mily)

20 40

Filipen

dula (e

.g. mea

dowsw

eet)

Helian

themum (ro

ck ro

se)

Heracle

um (h

ogwee

d)

Hyperic

um (St. J

ohn's w

ort)

Lamiace

ae (mint fa

mily)

Lotus (

bird's-

foot tre

foils)

Lych

nis f lo

si-cu

culi (

ragged

robin

)

Lych

nis vi

scaria

-type (

e.g. ca

tchfly

)

Melampy

rum (c

ow-whe

at)

Mentha

-type

(e.g. m

int)

Zone

WH3

WH2

WH1

HerbsHeathsTrees & shrubs

Analyst: A.L.DaviesClear curve = x10 exaggeration

Stratig

raphy

Turf Black peat Brown peat Clay

Figure 3a. Pollen data from Wether Hill, with estimated ages for transitions between pollen assemblage zones. The oldest pollen lies at the base,

progressing to recent pollen rain at the top of the diagram. The clear curve represents a ten times exaggeration to show more clearly the trends in

rarer pollen types.

16

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Depth

below

surfa

ce (c

m)

c. AD 1900

c. AD 1750

c. AD 1100-1400

c. AD 430

Papa

verac

eae (p

oppy

family)

Pedic

ularis

(louse

wort)

Persi

caria

macu

losa-ty

pe (k

notw

eed)

Planta

go co

ronop

us (b

uck's-

horn plan

tain)

20

Planta

go la

nceola

ta (ri

bwort

plantai

n)

Planta

go m

edia/m

ajor (g

reater

/hoary

plantai

n)

Polyg

ala (m

ilkwort)

Polyg

onum

(kno

tgrass

)

20

Poten

tilla-ty

pe (e

.g. torm

entil)

Ranun

culus

acris-t

ype (

butte

rcups

)

Rosace

ae (ros

e fam

ily)

Rubiace

ae (bed

st raw fa

mily)

Rumex

aceto

sella

(shee

p's so

rrel)

Rumex

aceto

sa-ty

pe (c

ommon sorre

l)

Rumex

obtus

ifoliu

s-typ

e (doc

k)

Rumex

undiff.

(doc

k/sorre

l)

Sang

uisorb

a mino

r (bu

rnet )

Serra

tula-t

ype (

e.g. sa

w-wort)

Silen

e dioi

ca-ty

pe (ca

mpions)

Solid

ago v

irgaure

a-type

(e.g.

daisie

s)

Sperg

ula-typ

e (e.g. s

purry)

Stac

hys s

ylvatic

a-typ

e (e.g.

woun

dwort

)

Stell

aria holo

stea (

stitch

wort)

Succ

isa praten

sis (d

evil's

-bit s

cabious

)

Thalict

rum (mea

dow ru

e)

Trifo

lium-ty

pe (e

.g. clov

ers)

Valer

ianella

(corn

salad

)

Valer

iana of

ficinali

s-typ

e (vale

rian)

Vicia

sylva

tica-t

ype (

vetch

es)

Botry

chium

lunari

a (moo

nwort

)

Cryptogra

mma cris

pa (p

arsley

fern)

Ophioglos

sum (a

dder's

-tongu

e fern

)

Osmun

da re

galis (r

oyal fe

rn)

Polyp

odium

vulgare

(poly

pody

)

Pteri

dium aq

uilinu

m (brack

en)

Ptero

psida (

monole

te) in

det. (fe

rns)

Lyco

podiu

m clava

tum (stag

's-ho

rn cl

ubmoss

)

Spha

gnum

(bog

mos

s)

Equis

etum (h

orsetai

l)

Sparg

anium erectu

m-type (

bur r

eed)

50 100 150

Charco

al su

m

Sphe

roidal c

arbonac

eous p

art icles

20 40 60 80 100

Organic

conte

nt

20 40 60 80 100

Tree

sSh

rubs

Heaths

Herbs

Zone

WH3

WH2

WH1

Ferns, mosses & aquaticsHerbs

Analyst: A.L.DaviesClear curve = x10 exaggeration

Stratig

raphy

Turf Black peat Brown peat Clay

Figure 3b. Pollen data continued.

17

4.0

9.0

14.0

19.0

24.0

29.0

34.0

39.0

44.0

49.0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Estimated pollen diversity

Dep

th b

elow

sur

face

(cm

)

Zone WH3

Zone WH2

Zone WH1

Figure 4. Estimated palynological richness or diversity around Wether Hill, with 95% confidence

intervals, mean diversity and pollen zone boundaries. Note the long-term decline in diversity within zone

WH3 after a period of relative stability.

18

Plate 1. Aerial photograph of Wether Hill from the south-east, showing hill fort, cross-ridge dyke,

cultivation ridges and present mosaic of grass, bracken and heath. Photo by Tim Gates, copyright

reserved.

19