Thorpe Wood was purchased in 1984 to improve the recreational, amenity and educational value of what was then the Castle Eden Walkway. It is also an example of ancient woodland, a very rare habitat in the North of Teesside.
Thorpe Wood is a mixed woodland of 46 acres and was designated as a local nature reserve in 1985 due to the scarcity of this type of habitat in Teesside and the local rarity of some of the species it contains. The main woodland pathway passes through the wood from northwest to southeast, alongside of which are two artificially created ponds. The wood is also home to two charcoal kilns, used in the management of the woodland, and the story teller’s seat which is a key part of our sculpture trail and a focus for story telling events on the park as a whole.
It is a popular walk with visitors as it is not very far from the main visitors centre area, encompasses lots of interesting things to see at all times of the year and is circular bringing you back almost to where you started.
History
The earliest known record of this wood dates back to 1719 when a land exchange occurred involving Thorpe and Fulthorpe woods. The northern part of the woodland is subsequently shown on an estate map dated 1777 when it was in the ownership of John Tempest. The boundaries were as present with the exception of the break caused by the construction of the railway. The rest of the Wood lies in the adjoining estate of Thomas Davison (to the west of the railway line). The whole of Thorpe Wood is then shown in the Tithes map for Thorpe Thewles of 1844 and in the earliest ordnance survey map of 1859. The boundaries are constant in all of these plans and are irregular, with the woodland covering the steep valley sides. From this evidence it is safe to assume that the woodland is ancient and this is backed up by the study of the flora in 1987.
In all probability the woodland was managed during the Middle Ages as coppiced woodland with standards (trees allowed to grow to full maturity). The coppiced trees would have been cut on a rotation and used for fencing, repairs of farming equipment, fire wood etc, with a number of trees left to grow into standard trees which would have eventually been felled for timber (used, for example, in house construction). The trees both coppiced and standard were re-grown from the stumps of the previous crop. Where a glade occurred it would normally have been filled by natural regeneration.
From the 17th century there was often a modification in traditional coppiced management to include new planting. In fact Thorpe Wood is referred to as a plantation in the tithes map of 1844, suggesting that it had at some time been planted and was being managed as high forest rather than coppice.
The timber crop was clear felled around the time of the First World War and thus the area was neglected. Re-growth occurred but the clear felling gave opportunity for extensive invasion by sycamore, which in parts of the wood is now the dominant tree. The re-growth was then thinned out in the 1960s and new planting took place, under a Forestry Commission dedication scheme, consisting of a mix of soft woods and hard woods. Today the main task is still to slowly remove the conifers and sycamore and to replace them with more native species. Evidence still exists of coppicing and several of the species could even be descendants of the original wood.
