Hidden Paths

Phil Riches tells us about his quest to see if the latest technology could show up any unusual features within Bicknor Wood…

I remember seeing a documentary where vast unknown cities and road networks had been discovered underneath parts of the Amazon Rainforest by a new technique called LiDAR.

 I found out that LiDAR stands for ‘Light Detection and Ranging’. It works in a similar way to Radar and Sonar but by using light waves from a laser, calculating how long it takes for the light to hit an object or surface and reflect back to the scanner. The distance is then calculated using the velocity of light.

I found that LiDAR has been carried out over much of England and can be accessed at a website called houseprices.io 

So, I wondered, could there be anything unusual under Bicknor Wood, especially as it is such an old woodland?

 The LiDAR seems to have been done a few years ago now, probably around 2007, way before any of our new housing estates were started and only a few years after Bicknor Wood was last coppiced. The map is identical to the 2007 Google Earth one, where you can see the coppiced trees are quite small compared to what they are today.

I realised that I was sadly very unlikely to discover a new Roman Villa, but I have found a few paths that show up on the LiDAR that cannot be seen at all when you walk through the woods today. 

The woodland has completely reclaimed these pathways it seems. It does probably also explain the open area near the burnt oak tree, which is where one of the paths leads out to.

Here’s another angle, you can see Sutton Road in the background, before Imperial Park and The Coppice were built…

So, it just goes to show that even over 15 years or so, the woodland has managed to recover and reclaim pathways that are no longer used.