Day 231
August 19, 2010Anyone for tea?
This derelict caravan is all that is left of an education facility in nearby Whitwell Woods.
The building is now in a sad state. It was used to teach children about this ancient wood which has a great deal of Roman History. Two early encampment sites have been found, elsewhere Roman pottery shards dated from 2nd to 4th centuries A.D. and the medieval ridge and furrow ploughing has left earth banks to the west and south parts of the wood. One large earth bank, known locally as the Kingdom Bank, stretches from the eastern edge to the north escarpment and must have been much higher in the past. It was possibly part of the boundary between the Saxon Kingdom of Mercia and Northumberland.
During World War 1 the demand for timber nearly destroyed the wood. A saw mill and pit were erected near the entrance. Replanting started in the 1920’s