Idless ( kw, Edhelys, meaning ''place of aspen trees'') is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

north of

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England. The River Allen rises north of

St Allen St Allen ( kw, Eglosalan (hamlet), Pluw Alan (parish)) is a civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The church town of St Allen is an isolated hamlet and the main settlement in the parish is Zelah which is situated on the A30 trun ...

and flows southwards through the Idless Valley into Truro. It is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Kenwyn Kenwyn ( kw, Keynwynn) is a settlement and civil parish in Cornwall, England. The settlement is a suburb of the city of Truro and lies 0.5 mi (1 km) north of the city centre, within Truro parish, whereas Kenwyn parish covers an area w ...

. The manor of Idless was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

(1086) when it was held by Algar from Robert, Count of Mortain. There was one hide of land and land for 6 ploughs. Algar had one third of a virgate with 3 ploughs and 4 serfs. 4 villeins and 7 smallholders had the rest of the land. There were 40 acres of woodland, 2 square leagues of pasture, 23 sheep and 7 goats. The value of the manor was 15 shillings though it had formerly been £2 sterling. There was a military firing-range beside nearby St Clement's Wood, known as "Idless Range", just north of the present-day Penmount Crematorium, which was still in use by at least the local army cadets for Lee-Enfield live-firing in the late 1950s.

Idless Woods

Idless Woods is a nearby mixed woodland managed by

Forestry England Forestry England is a division of the Forestry Commission, responsible for managing and promoting publicly owned forests in England. It was formed as Forest Enterprise in 1996, before devolving to Forest Enterprise England on 31 March 2003 and ...

consisting of Bishop’s wood, Lady’s woods, St Clement’s Wood, and part of Lord’s Wood. Manmade features include an Iron Age hill fort at the top of the woodland, and the ruins of an old gunpowder works beside a tributary of the River Allen on the eastern boundary. At the entrance to the woods, there is a café called The Woodman's Cabin and a car park. The woods contain seven routes that are affiliated to Cornwall Orienteering Club and British Orienteering. Being so close to

, Idless Woods is a popular location for walking, running, riding and cycling. Plant species include

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

, ash,

aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...

, beech,

blackthorn ''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania, ...

crab apple ''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples, wild apples, and rainberries. The genus is native to the temperate zone o ...

downy birch ''Betula pubescens'' (syn. ''Betula alba''), commonly known as downy birch and also as moor birch, white birch, European white birch or hairy birch, is a species of deciduous tree, native and abundant throughout northern Europe and northern Asia ...

, elder,

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

goat willow ''Salix caprea'', known as goat willow, pussy willow or great sallow, is a common species of willow native to Europe and western and central Asia.Meikle, R. D. (1984). ''Willows and Poplars of Great Britain and Ireland''. BSBI Handbook 4. . Des ...

, gorse,

guelder-rose ''Viburnum opulus'', the guelder-rose or guelder rose () is a species of flowering plant in the family Adoxaceae (formerly Caprifoliaceae) native to Europe, northern Africa and central Asia. Description ''Viburnum opulus'' is a deciduous shr ...

hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

, hazel,

holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

, rowan, scot's pine,

sessile oak ''Quercus petraea'', commonly known as the sessile oak, Cornish oak, Irish Oak or durmast oak, is a species of oak tree native to most of Europe and into Anatolia and Iran. The sessile oak is the national tree of Ireland, and an unofficial embl ...

silver birch ''Betula pendula'', commonly known as silver birch, warty birch, European white birch, or East Asian white birch, is a species of tree in the family Betulaceae, native to Europe and parts of Asia, though in southern Europe, it is only found ...

, spindle and

sycamore Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the ancient Greek ' (''sūkomoros'') meaning "fig-mulberry". Species of trees known as sycamore: * ''Acer pseudoplata ...

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...

have been planted by

as an experiment. Idless woods has a diverse range of wildlife, including

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of we ...

roe deer The roe deer (''Capreolus capreolus''), also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapt ...

, otter,

badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by ...

, and

water shrew Water shrew may refer to any of several species of semiaquatic red-toothed shrews: *Asiatic water shrews ('' Chimarrogale'' spp.) ** Malayan water shrew (''C. hantu'') ** Himalayan water shrew (''C. himalayica'') ** Sunda water shrew (''C. phaeura'' ...

. The woods are listed in the

(1086) as consisting of 40 acres of woodland owned by Alfred of Helstone.

External links

https://www.idlesswoods.org

References

Hamlets in Cornwall Manors in Cornwall {{Carrick-geo-stub