Old Hazel stool

I'm guessing that this old grown out Hazel stool was last coppiced around 75 years ago, it's one of several in the copse behind Knoll beach. They're fairly large and I suspect they'd have been managed for some years before the war, though, the war would have put an end to that management. The area was closed off at the beginning of the war, then due to exercises too dangerous to access through the war and beyond for years after until the dangers of unexploded ordinance had been removed. By then the land use had changed as had the need for coppiced materials, and the area became one of recreation rather than production. They're find old trees and I'm certain that re-cut they would once again become productive, a sustainable resource too.