The Royal Deer

An area of our woodland is called ‘Kings Wood’ – this is behind you near to the Monkey Forest. It is named this as it was owned by Henry II for a short period in the 1100’s, he created a royal deer park here!

The noble herds of deer remained on the Estate for many years along with other livestock including West Highland cows which grazed the woodland and park. Can you imagine walking through the woodland and discovering highland cattle?

Rather than constructing large fences to stop the animals coming into the gardens, they created Hahas which are sunken walls around the deer lawns. You can see these behind the fence beside the Barefoot Walk pond.

Kings Wood was previously known as ‘Trentham Coppy’ or coppice as the trees were cut down every few years, area by area, to provide a continual supply of young timber. This was used for building, fencing and charcoal making, before it became ornamental in function and enjoyed by visitors to the Estate.

We still have deer freely roaming the estate today - our deer herd is a melanistic (dark coated). We sometimes see them in the gardens, but they travel to every corner of the Estate – keep an eye out for them on your visits!