Wigmore Rolls, Cross of the Tree, Yeld

Following on from the birthday helicopter flight over Croft Castle I took the opportunity of a window in the weather to go for a jog around Wigmore Rolls

It was very nice indeed - here is a link to my photos

https://picasaweb.google.com/115377797956708062155/WigmoreRolls?authuser=0&feat=directlink


and here is my route
 

Looking at the area on Google Earth and scrolling back through the years I think it is now the best it is going to get. Certainly better than several of the other forests around. There are some nice runnable patches of oak woodland, former coppice and mature conifer. Bramble and bracken free except for the south facing slope near White House Farm and a contiguous block of woodland - good for course planning - my circular route was 7km by GPS.

Still nice going even in late June. There are also lots of interesting gully and hollow-way features and one rather nice tumulus (a watch post I think from its position). The wood to the south looks nice - but it is all steep and not in public ownership.

Putting the issues of permission aside, parking would have to be in Wigmore Village with a walk in via the castle (I only saw one other set of tracks - if you don't count deer, rabbit, badger etc. - and the maker of these assures me that the strip between the castle and the main wood is nice open forest.

I don't think it is going to be practical or cost effective to map this to modern standards - but I was able to navigate around using the 1:25000 map
Why don't we do it the old way - get the paths and tracks and major vegetation in - this would be very quick using Google Earth (in historical mode) and then a car load of mappers for a couple of day to sketch in the small paths and some of the brown features.

We would need to get in fast as I notice some of the timber close to the road has been auctioned off - so felling is about to start.

and then a short drive to

The sign says "Cross of the Tree" - interestingly someone has been playing because it points you the long way round

As I sort of expected it is a cross roads with a big, old, tree.  Still in use as a notice board.  There is a letter box and a telephone box (traditional, red, looking for adoption since 2009)

 Once you are across the A49 its another world

Cross of the Tree - there are three "Yeld" Woods within a couple of kilometres - Pritchard's, Black and just plain Yeld Wood

What was Yeld?  There is Weld (Reseda luteola)which was a dye plant. Yeld is northern/scots dialect for a cow that does not bear milk - that can't be it. I guess it might be some alternate spelling of a Welsh word but it sounds plant/herb to me - and there is lots of evidence of monastic settlement in the area.

Yeld, Yeld, Yeld - I am just going to have to go back and have a look