Ivy
Ivy is a classic "good news / bad news" story, when growing on trees. Ivy produces subdued but attractive flowers, that feed many insects, and copious berries that feed many birds. The leaves provide fantastic cover for many birds; in particular, owls love to sleep hidden by ivy. Contrary to popular belief, ivy does not sap the strength of the tree - it does not penetrate the bark, it simply uses the truck or branch for support. However, when ivy gets well established, it becomes pretty bulky. In the most extreme cases, ivy leaves can start to block the tree's own leaves from getting enough sunlight, and thus slowly "starve" the tree, but this is very rare. Much more common is that the ivy creates extra wind resistance, and eventually causes branches (or trunks) to break in strong winds.
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Dead Wood
Almost all trees are wonderful sources of shelter and food for a vast range of creatures, but rather perversely, dead wood seems even better than a living tree. Fungi start to break down the wood, and provide a rich food source for many insects, beetles and assorted creepy-crawlies, which in their turn are a vital food source for many birds and small mammals (from tiny shrews to large foxes and badgers - I have seen many foxes in the parish, but I've not seen any evidence of badgers - has anyone else?). Wildlife organisations are always asking us to leave piles of dead wood around, and not to tidy everything up (a great excuse for those lazier gardeners amongst us).
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Pollard / Coppice
This is a woodland management process that involves cutting the tree down without killing it, and allowing it to grow again, usually with several small shoots, rather than one central trunk. Particularly effective for Hazel and Willow, but many trees can be pollarded or coppiced. Coppicing involves cutting the tree at more-or-less ground level, and is sometimes used to create a hedge, but usually just used where the new growth will not be eaten by animals; whereas pollarding involves cutting the tree higher up (perhaps at head height) so that the fresh young shoots start to grow out of the reach of grazing animals, and thus the new growth avoids being eaten. It is a great way of gaining firewood, or fence posts etc without killing the tree, and also keeps the tree more manageable.
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Water Meadows
The Avon River Valley (which includes the river itself and the surrounding water meadows) is designated an "Environmentally Sensitive Area" by central government, it shows that this is a rather important natural resource. A detailed description of the water meadows can be seen via the land use map.
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Arable Fields
We live in an agricultural area, and inevitably we have a fairly significant amount of the parish devoted to this "industrial farming" feature. Even here all is not lost! See a more detailed description of the environmental features of Arable Fields via the land use map.
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Hedges
Most people know that the number of different species in a 30 yard stretch of a hedge gives a rough indication of its age (3 different species indicate a three hundred year old hedge). Of course, care should be taken with this rule of thumb - Wiltshire Wildlife Trust recently planted a brand new 1000 year-old hedge at their offices at Langford !
Look at the Boundary Types page to see more detail about hedges}

Notes

The information in this section has been initially gathered by Richard Death (5 Castle Keep), and recorded in good faith, to the best of his knowledge and ability.He hopes and expects that other people in the parish will quickly want to expand or correct the entries. It includes a number of personal opinions, as well as some hard scientific facts. If anyone finds errors or omissions, or disagrees with the opinions expressed, please let us know via the feedback link, and we will try to correct them promptly; or at the least, reflect different opinions.