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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 59
BENTLEY’S ANCIENT WOODLAND: DODNASH WOOD - A BRIEF REVIEW OF ITS HISTORY COLIN HAWES
John Boyle
The Dodnash Priory Charters (Harper-Bill, 1998) refer to Dodnash Wood as being present before the 14th of November, 1196, ……..”Grants in Favour of Canons: Grant by Geoffrey son of William of Boyton to the canons…….. of all the wood of his own fee in ‘Hylneia’ and all his land between the road from the bridge ‘Hwolne’ up to the elm grove to the east and to Dodnash Wood……… He has granted himself at the end of his life to the house [Before 14 November 1196].” This work is based on The Chartulary of the Priory of Dodenes or Dudenasch which covers 1200 to1506 and seems to use ‘Dodenes’ for Dodnash throughout (Suffolk Archives: Iveagh mss). A Charter from John, Bishop of Norwich, dates the foundation of Dodnash Priory to September 1188. The founder, Baldwin de Toeni, granted lands in Bergholt, ‘terra de dodenes’ to the Priory (Sanford, pers. comm.) Details of Dodnash Wood’s more recent past can also be found in the research carried out by Cambridge professor Oliver Rackham who surveyed Dodnash Wood when writing his book Ancient Woodland: its history, vegetation and uses in England (Rackham, 1980). Records of Dodnash Wood’s history include a map of 1629 that shows ‘two great ashes’ in the wood and a ‘serius’ (wild service tree), “the exact spot [of the latter] is now coniferised and no service [tree] can be seen“. An 18th century survey of woods, mainly in Suffolk and Essex, show that a quite large wood might be felled, as was Dodnash Wood in 1663, 1740 and 1761.
Bluebells in Dodnash Wood
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 59 (2023)