The Influence of People - Gower - page 62

as the Earl of Worcester and the land was divided into three farms: Longoaks, Park Price and Llethrid.
Oliver Cromwell subsequently became Lord of Gower. In 1845 the Tithe Maps show woodland in almost
the same areas as today, with the Duke of Beaufort as landowner. Around 1850, however, the whole of
the woodland was clear-felled and replanted with the oak trees that now dominate the area. In this period
HusseyVivianboughttheestateandtheVivianfamilyownedtheareauntil1952whenAdmiralHeneage-
Vivian died. Following his death the farms were sold to the tenants and the Forestry Commission bought
the woodland. In the early 1990s, with the increased awareness of the benefits of multi-purpose forestry,
Park Woods was recognised as being particularly valuable in terms of amenity, recreation and conserva-
tion and the Commission stopped treating the area as a site for timber production.
It is usually stated that there are no deer in Gower today, the urban areas of Swansea and Gowerton
forming an effective barrier across the neck of the peninsula, but this is probably no longer correct. There
are now more deer in Britain than since the time of the Domesday Book, compiled in 1086. They have
been increasing in numbers and spreading over the past three or four decades, primarily because of the
increase in new woodlands and forests, which provide cover and food. Roe deer have recently reappeared
inWalesaroundLlandrindodWellsandatthecurrentratesofexpansionitwillnotbelongbeforeanimals
reach the peninsula. Urban areas are no barrier for this species. They were once common in Glamorgan
and Neville George recorded a pair of antlers that were found, in the clay near the low water mark, in the
submerged forest in Port-Eynon Bay. Chinese muntjac Muntiacus reevesi are also present along most of
the South Wales coast. The species is not gregarious and most of the records are of scattered individuals,
the total population in Wales being around 250 adult animals. Muntjac are essentially small forest-dwell-
ing animals and are extremely shy and secretive, with a preference for thick cover such as bramble Rubus
fruticosus agg., gorse and rhododendron Rhododendron ponticum bushes. It is likely, therefore, that one
or two animals are present in Gower, having made their way along the edge of the estuary.
RABBIT WARRENS
The medieval rabbit was not the same animal as those that occur today. It was a delicate creature, which
needed protection, and at first it could not dig its own burrow. The changes from the tender animal of the
twelfthcenturytotherobustrabbitoftoday(Fig.31)arealmostcertainlyduetogeneticchangeandadapt-
ationtotheBritishclimate.Earthworksweremadetoencourageburrowing,andthesecanbeidentifiedas
the rectangular flat-topped mounds known by archaeologists as pillow-mounds. Only one pillow-mound
is known in Gower, at Penmaen, where there is an isolated mound about 20 metres long that tapers from
a width of 6.4 metres at the south end to 4.4 metres at the north. There are very shallow ditches along
its flanks, but these do not run around the ends. Many of the warrens would never have required pillow-
moundsastheyweresitedinsandduneswheretheeasyburrowingprovidedshelterfortherabbits.Indeed
this is probably the reason why nearly all the sand-dune systems in Gower are known as 'burrows'.