What is a wood within a valley called?

Question

I want to know what the different types of woodland are called based on their location. For example, what is a wood within a valley known as? A wood on top of a hill? Etc.

Answer 1

I'm not sure if you want names for Woodland habitats, or for the local names for wooded valleys around the UK. There are many of these, mainly due to the local dialects, and whether they were given Norse, Gaelic, Saxon, names etc.

In the heart of England and Welsh borders they tend to be called Vales, in Dorset and the Isle of Wight they are known as Chines, up North they would be called Denes or Deans depending where you are, or Dales in Yorkshire. In the Home Counties and Cornwall they are Coombs or Coombes. In Wales they are Cwms. In Scotland they are Glens or Straiths. Elswhere, they are Dells, Dingles, Depressions, Banks or Hollows.

There are a similar multitude of names for hills, but I don't think it is dependent on them being wooded or not. Most hills were de-wooded in the UK before the names ever became permanent.

There are Braes in Scotland. Downs in the South of England. Fells and Pikes in Cumbria and Northumbria. Elsewhere there are Knolls, Hillocks, Heights, Edges, Cliffes, Mounds, Elevations, Uplands, Mounts, Prominances and Hiltops.

Where there is no woodland pasture remaining, or where there are wet woodlands, then you have Carrs, wet or dry Heaths, Meadows, Fens, Bogs and Moors.

However, Woodland habitat classification is very complex, not just based on valleys and hills. It is based on the tree and plant species present, it's age, the soil type, and how it is managed by man. This website might be useful:
http://handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/chapter/699

Answer 2

Woodlands seem to be named more on how they are/were used rather than location. Places named "wood" appear to occur on hills and valleys. In the North a "shaw" seems to be more common on hillsides and tops, but I wouldn't make a hard and fast rule.
A "coppice" is woodland specifically used for cutting poles etc. from living trees. They are quite often willow, thus tend to be near water.

Answer 3

It depends on locality, as most terms derive from local dielect.

In Western England. and Celtic area's, the word for a valley is a coombe, so wooodland within a valley is often refered to as a combe, but then so is the valley itself.

A worked woodland, is a copse, from the 16th century slang of the medieval word coppice.

other words used for wood are forest, woodland, copse, covert, coppice, thicket.

A forest is an area of woodland that was owned by a monarch and set aside for hunting.

Parkland is both trees and open area's, and back to hunting again, a Covert, is another name for a thicket, or undergrowth, in which game can shelter or hide.

Typically the woodland is either mixed deciduous (containing a variety of trees such as oak, ash, beech and silver birch) or conifer (consisting of either one or a few types of conifer trees that have been planted in a more regulated format).

Woodlands on slopes are usally refered to by thier aspect - the compass direction toward which a slope faces.

environmental woodland uses a few more terms. they will incorporate a buffer strip - a narrow zone or strip of land, trees, or vegetation bordering an area. Common examples include visual buffers, which screen the view along roads, and streamside buffers, which are used to protect water quality. Vegetation left along a stream, lake or wetland to protect aquatic life and water quality. Buffer strips filter sediment, provide food, maintain cool water temperatures, and may increase diversity within a landscape.

but back to your question

carr - woodland in a wet or boggy area, usually containing alder or willow.

glade - an open space in a wood.

rides - open trackways cut through woods originally for the extraction of timber.

spinney - a small wood or thicket.

Apart from that, most other names are local terms. More than fifty different types of Broadleaf Woodland have been defined in the UK alone, utilizing both the trees and the underlying herbaceous vegetation to separate them out.

For the purposes of simplicity, most folk only include the main types likely to be encountered, as determined by the dominant tree species making up the wood. These include Oak, Beech, Ash, Birch and Alder/Willow Carr (wet woodland).

Answer 4

Ive good a wood near me called murder woods, dont know why though.

Answer 5

Copse

Answer 6

Is it a dell when it's in a valley?

Answer 7

They are often called cloughs (pronounced cluffs)

Answer 8

Valleywood

or is that a welsh film studio ???

Answer 9

i think it may be cospe. Or is that a small bunch of trees?