COSSINGTON MILL COPSE

Cossington Mill Copse 2006

This small slice of land is almost an island between the canal and the River Soar by Cossington Mill. This land appears to extend under the Cossington Road Bridge to where Osier Villa stands which is, again, almost an island.

I have called this Cossington Mill Copse as I cannot yet find a name for it on any maps and it does not seem to feature on most of them. On an 1885 map it is shown as being a planted area. I visited in August 2007.

It is almost completely planted with Crack Willow (salix fragalis)and there are 50-60 trees with regeneration from fallen trunks and branches. Crack Willows used to be pollarded and there is a lot of evidence of this in this copse.

There are a few elders and a gappy hedgerow of hawthorn on the canal boundary. The ground flora was very overgrown due to the 2007 summer of rain and flooding.

This copse is on the parish boundary with Cossington and there is a footpath running around the side of the mill which is in that parish. However, it is interesting to see that there are more Crack Willows in the planted area close to the derelict barn so there was quite an extensive area of these trees.

It would be interesting to look at the Osier industry that thrived in the Soar valley many years ago.