as before. The hedges at the edges are often overgrown and may have spread laterally owing to the neglect of many years. Many ancient woods are listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, as well as the earlier Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, such was their value to early communities as a source of fuel, but also of food for farm animals. The boundaries are frequently described in terms of features such as large trees, streams or tracks, and even standing stones for example. Ancient woodland inventories Ancient woodland sites over in size are recorded in Ancient Woodland Inventories, compiled in the 1980s and 1990s by the Nature Conservancy Council in England, Wales, and Scotland; and maintained by its successor organisations in those countries. There was no inventory in Northern Ireland until the Woodland Trust completed one in 2006. Destruction Britain's ancient woodland cover has declined greatly. Since the 1930s almost half of ancient broadleaved woodland in England and Wales has been planted with conifers or cleared for agriculture. Only of ancient semi-natural woodland survive in Britain – less than 20% of the total wooded area. More than eight out of ten ancient woodland sites in England and Wales are less than in area, only 617 exceed and only 46 are larger than . Management Most ancient woodland in the UK has been managed in some way by humans for hundreds (in some cases probably thousands) of years. Two traditional techniques are coppicing (harvesting wood by cutting trees back to ground level) and pollarding (harvesting wood at about human head height to prevent new shoots being eaten by grazing species such as deer). Both techniques encourage new growth while allowing the sustainable production of timber and other woodland produce. During the 20th century, use of such traditional management techniques has declined while there has been an increase in large-scale mechanised forestry. Thus coppicing is now rarely practised, and overgrown coppice stools are a common sight in many ancient woods, with their many trunks of similar size. These changes in management methods have resulted in changes to ancient woodland habitats, and a loss of ancient woodland to forestry. Examples Bedgebury Forest, Kent Bernwood Forest, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Bradfield Woods, Suffolk Bradley Woods, Wiltshire Burnham Beeches, Bucks Cannock Chase, Staffordshire Cherry Tree Wood, London Coldfall Wood, London Dolmelynllyn Estate, Gwynedd Dyscarr Woods, Nottinghamshire. Edford Woods and Meadows, Somerset Epping Forest, Essex Forest of Dean West