Detailed history

We know that at the time of the Domesday Survey, c.1086:

Bourne contained 146 acres of underwood and wood for pannage, with woodland 1 league and 8 furlongs in length by 1 league wide and woodland 1 league and 8 furlongs long by 4 furlongs wide, held by Ivo Taillebois, Alfred of Lincoln, Oger the Breton, Robert of Stafford and Colegrim (Foster and Longley 1976).

Fox Wood, in Morton parish, where 100 acres of wood is recorded, at Domesday, as being held by Gilbert de Gand, Oger the Breton and Heppo the Arblaster (ibid).

Pillar and Auster Wood lie in the parish of Edenham where 500 acres are listed as belonging to Gilbert de Gand and Oger the Breton (ibid).

Woodland in Bourne appears in charters and surveys throughout the medieval period, although this is difficult to identify with particular areas of the wood today. A survey of Bourne in 1265, though very brief, indicates 300 acres of woodland (Hallam 1965), whereas a survey of Baldwin Wakes manor in 1282 mentions 200 acres of woodland with a further 100 acres of park that was formerly woodland (Platts 1985). This woodland is likely to have been located to the south of Bourne Wood and the parkland associated with the area of the present Farm. This park too, is also likely to have been wooded as the 1282 survey indicates that underwood in the park was worth 1s. per acre and in the wood 6d. per acre (Massingberd 1906). The park was leased out and a transfer of this lease dating to 1588 is held by Lincolnshire Archive Office (LAO Misc. Dep 286/3).
Today, there is no presence of a park at Bourne, although there is a sizeable bank and ditch along the southern edge which may be the remnants of a park pale.

In 1327, the wood situated to the west of Cawthorpe was exchanged, by an Alexander, for 6 acres in the field of Aslackby and woodland which lay to the south and west of Bourne town. Eventually, after the dissolution (1534-9), this wood passed into the hands of the Marquis Of Exeter, who by the late 18th century was paying 20s. per acre per annum (Young 1813).

Gilbert de Gand’s wood, in Edenham, is recorded, in a charter of 1312, as allowing the Priory of Bridlington full use of the wood (Cal.Ch.Ro. 1307-13). Eventually the woodland in Edenham passed to the Duke of Ancaster, and Grundy records that Auster and Pillow Woods, along with Spring, Elsthorpe and Gunboro’ woods produced £200 in rent per annum (Grundy 1753).

The earliest map of Bourne Wood is the 1770 Inclosure award. Whilst this map is limited in its depiction of the wood, it does show the eastern boundary but with no internal detail (LAO Bourne Par. 17/ 1). The Morton Inclosure plan names Fox Wood, referring to it as ‘woods in Morton Lordship’, though no owner is given, unlike Nab Wood, adjacent to Fox Wood, which was owned by the Earl of Exeter (LAO Kesteven Award 54). No early maps of Edenham, apart from Grundy’s book map that does not depict Auster or Pillow Woods (Grundy 1753), were available.

The 1815 Ordnance Survey 2” drawing of Bourne and Auster Woods indicates that the boundaries of the wood are the same as they appear today. Pillow and Auster Woods are depicted as having ridings, and a track, connecting Edenham with Cawthorpe, separates Bourne Wood from Fox Wood . Part of this track is still visible today west of Cawthorpe, where it is named Wood Lane, and its continuation to the west can be traced to the southwest of Scoth Farm. The 1815 drawing also depicts an open area south of Wood Lane. The Ordnance Survey 2nd edition 6” map, dating from 1903, indicates that Bourne Wood was dissected by numerous ridings, many of these have since disappeared, with the current pattern of ridings being formalised by 1930.

Forming the boundary, to the north-east corner of Bourne and Fox Wood, is the Roman thoroughfare King Street, and this follows the course of Clipsey gap Lane (Margary 1973). Ridge and furrow field patterns have been identified from aerial photographs to the south and east of the wood. To the west of Cawthorpe, more ridge and furrow was identified with a former field named ‘Hasleland Field’ (Hayes and Lane 1992). 'Hasleland' indicates land or a grove where hazel grew (Ekwall 1974).

Archaeology

Site 1. A pond measuring 8 metres by 4 metres included as an archaeological site because the wood appears never to have been open ground.

Site 2. A bank forming three sides of an U-shaped enclosure measuring c. 70 metres long, orientated north-south. The northern, western and southern sides are recorded, but there is no trace of the eastern side. The bank measures 3 metres wide and between 0.4 and 0.7 metres high. There is a slight indication of a ditch on the western side and a slight circular hollow immediately to the east.

Banks and ditches

The best-preserved bank and ditch system follows the parish boundary between Edenham (Pillow Wood) and Bourne Wood. This is 3 metres wide and up to 0.7 metres high with a slight ditch, to the west. The ditch has been modified recently, particularly adjacent to the rides. Where the parish boundary runs along the edge of Auster Wood, only a ditch is evident. The parish boundary between Bourne and Morton is also well preserved with a c. 1 metre wide ditch and a 2 metre by 0.5 metre high bank to the north.

There are remnants of external wood banks along both the eastern side of the wood and the south. These range in height from 0.4 to 1.5 metres, though animal burrows may have artificially raised the height. These banks are usually accompanied by a ditch, generally 1 metre wide, although along the southern boundary of Bourne Wood it is up to 2 metres wide where the bank extends to 4 metres.

Auster Wood has banks and ditches along its northern and western boundaries and only a ditch along its southern edge. Modern drainage ditches occur in the north-west corner of Pillow Wood and occasionally elsewhere.