CLIMATE, VEGETATION AND
MAN
IN THE HUDDERSFIELD DISTRICT
BY T.W. WOODHEAD
12. PLANT ASSOCIATIONS IN 1900
The plant associations of the present day are shown on
Model 10. Recent times have been marked by extensive reduction
of forest coincident with great increase in population,
cultivation and industrial development in the area. Three
main groups of plant associations are distinguished:- Cultivation;
Woodland, and Moorland associations. Aquatic associations
are meagerly developed in the area, being confined to river
sides, and artificial sheets of water as canals, reservoirs,
and to small lakes in parklands.
1. Cultivation: - Lowland cultivation, from 150 feet to
600 feet, including the river plains and lower slopes of
the spurs, with arms extending up the narrow valleys. upland
Cultivation, from 600 feet to 1,200 feet, including the
spurs and foothills. In both zones arable land is limited
in extent (reaching to higher levels on the Coal Measures
than on the grits) the farms being employed mainly in the
production of milk and meat.
2. Woodland: - Alder-Willow swamps, greatly reduced by
draining, are confined to the smaller valleys and the neighbourhood
of disused and silting-up reservoirs. Moist-Oak woods and
parklands, chiefly in the area of lowland cultivation, especially
on the shales of the Lower and Middle Coal Measures. Intermediate
Oak Woods, especially on the naturally drained shaley slopes
of the Coal Measures. Oak-Birth-Heath Woods on the sandstones
and stoney slopes of the spurs, and approaching the summit
plateau.
3. Moorland: - Grass-Heath and Calluna Moor on the sites
of former Oak-Birth-Heath Woods, best developed on the shallow
soils over the sandstones, especially on the terraces of
the Millstone Grits, though frequent on the sandstones of
the Lower and Middle Coal Measures. On the steep and stoney
slopes of the higher valleys the bracken is extending and
forms unbroken sheets for miles. Cottongrass Moss characterises
the wet and cold summit plateau where thick beds of cottongrass
peat cover the ground, its principal associates being the
Crowberry and Cloudberry. There are frequent "Rushbeds"
but Sphagnum Bogs are scarce and of small extent. Over large
areas the peat is breaking down, and on the drying retrogressive
peat hags the cottongrass is giving way to bilberry, the
latter, along with the cowberry forming extensive "edges"
along the better drained fringe of the cottongrass moss,
and merging into the grass-heath and bracken on the slopes.
A comparison of the models shows how extensively the forest
has been replaced, on the one hand by moorland (cottongrass,
moss, grass and Calluna Heath) and on the other hand by
farmland, chiefly pasture. At the lower levels the more
extensive remnants of the forest are confined largely to
steep and stone escarpments of little economic value, or
are enclosed as parklands. As we approach the summit plateau,
the numerous areas of native grassheath pick out a tension
belt between the lowland cultivation and the peat moss on
the summit. This tension belt indicates the limit of profitable
cultivation, notwithstanding its proximity to a large industrial
population. Over considerable areas the cottongrass is degenerating
and exposing rocky subsoil on which it originally developed,
here re-invasion is going on, not by plants of the moss,
but by wiry grasses from the grass-heath. This is well seen
in the photographs of local vegetation in the entrance hall,
adjoining Room 3, Botany.
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