Trees Around Carnforth and the Yealands — Limestone Country, Ancient Hedgerows and Brief Fame

Carnforth tends to be associated primarily with the railway station that provided the setting for Brief Encounter, the 1945 David Lean film that made the town briefly famous to audiences who had no particular reason to think about north Lancashire otherwise. But the country around Carnforth, particularly the limestone villages of Yealand Conyers, Yealand Redmayne and Yealand Storrs to the north and east, and the AONB landscape running toward Arnside and Silverdale, is botanically and arboricularly more interesting than the town's passing fame might suggest.

Limestone Country

The carboniferous limestone that underlies much of the country immediately north and east of Carnforth is the same geology that produces the limestone pavements of the Arnside and Silverdale AONB, the woodland flora of the Cartmel Peninsula and the characteristic landscape of the Lune Valley. On this limestone country, the hedgerows and woodland are dominated by species that reflect the calcareous, free-draining soils: ash, hazel, field maple, guelder rose, spindle, dogwood and wild privet are all characteristic species of the hedgerows around the Yealands.

The presence of spindle in the hedgerows is worth noting specifically. Spindle (Euonymus europaeus) is a reliable indicator of old, species-rich hedgerow on calcareous soils and is not common in the wider Cumbrian landscape. In the lanes around Yealand Conyers and Yealand Redmayne, spindle appears with some regularity, and the combination of its small pink flowers in spring and the extraordinary brilliant pink and orange capsule fruits in autumn makes it worth looking for.

Leighton Hall and the Surrounding Estate Woodland

Leighton Hall, the Gothic revival house visible from the road between Carnforth and the Yealands, sits in extensive grounds that include parkland and estate woodland of some age. The parkland trees, including several large oaks and beeches, represent a significant fragment of the kind of wood pasture habitat that was once more widespread across the north-west. Old parkland trees of this type, growing in open situations with space to develop wide spreading crowns, are very different in character from woodland trees and support a different and in many ways richer invertebrate community.

The Ancient Ash of the Limestone Hedgerows

The hedgerow ash trees of the country between Carnforth and Kirkby Lonsdale, running through the limestone hills north of the Lune, include some genuinely old individuals. Hedgerow ash trees that have been allowed to grow as standards, periodically pollarded or simply left unmanaged over many decades, develop a character and girth that is quite different from plantation-grown trees. The current ash dieback situation means that many of these old hedgerow ash trees are now declining, and the landscape of the limestone country east of Carnforth will change significantly over the coming decade as they go.

We carry out ash dieback assessment and management for landowners across this area. See our article on ash dieback on farms and estates in Cumbria for more detail on the practical approach to this problem.

Warton Crag

Warton Crag, the prominent limestone hill immediately north of Carnforth, carries a mix of limestone grassland, scrub and woodland on its slopes. The woodland, a mixture of ash, hazel, hawthorn and some oak on the deeper soils, is part of the same limestone woodland system that extends through the Arnside and Silverdale AONB. Botanically it is of interest, carrying a characteristic limestone woodland ground flora including several orchid species and the specialist ferns and mosses of calcareous woodland environments.

We Work Across North Lancashire and South Cumbria

We carry out tree surgery, hedge management and woodland work across Carnforth, the Yealands, Warton, Bolton-le-Sands and all surrounding North Lancashire villages. If you have trees or hedgerows you are concerned about in this area, we are happy to visit and give a free assessment.

Phone/WhatsApp: 07376804724
Email: enquiries@maxreynoldstreeservices.com

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