Why Are So Many Animals Killed Each Year on UK Roads>

 If you want to find out more about the geography of the City and County of Bristol, and if you can find a copy, I recommend Frank Walker's Regions of the British Isles The Bristol Region (Nelson, 1972).

Most people in Bristol know about Leigh Woods, or at least those born here (and not newcomers who like to keep saying "Brizzle" to prove they have "gone native"  -in fact a Bristolian would say "Bristle" and have no idea where the Colston Hall is let alone Leigh Woods!).

Leigh Woods was established in the 19th century as a residential area with 12 main houses each with their own land and gardens. Leigh Woods is a 2-square-kilometre (0.77 sq mi) area of woodland on the south-west side of the Avon Gorge, close to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, within North Somerset opposite the City of Bristol and north of the Ashton Court estate, of which it formed a part. Stokeleigh Camp ( a hillfort thought to have been occupied from the third century BC to the first century AD and possibly also in the Middle Ages) lies within the reserve on the edge of the Nightingale Valley. On the bank of the Avon, within the reserve, are quarries for limestone and celestine which were worked in the 18th and 19th centuries are now derelict.

A sketching party in Leigh Woods, near Bristol Francis Danby

 (British, 1793–1861)

In 1909 part of the woodland was donated to the National Trust by George Alfred Wills, to prevent development of the city beside the gorge following the building of the Leigh Woods suburb. Areas not owned by the National Trust have since been taken over by Forestry England. Rare trees include multiple species of Sorbus with at least nine native and four imported species.

The biggest historical forest was Kingswood Forest and there is a good online source about this The Kingswood Forest, Stapleton and Fishponds from royal domain to modern parishes by John Penny  http://fishponds.org.uk/kingsfor.html:

"The Forest of Kingswood in south Gloucestershire appears originally to have been a royal domain appurtenant to the palace of the Saxon kings at Pucklechurch, where in 940 King Edmund was assassinated. At this period the forest covered about 18 square miles, extending from the River Severn to the Sodbury Hills, and thence southwards to Lansdown, near Bath, and across the River Avon to Filwood, in Somerset, before turning straight north to the Severn again, leaving Bristol on its western border. 

"These Royal forests and chases belonged to neither county or diocese and were governed by a law of their own, neither municipal nor civil, acknowledging no sovereign but the king, who then acted with arbitrary powers. From early days the Constable of Bristol Castle, the king's officer in the area, was also the Chief Ranger of the Kingswood Forest and the first of these recorded is Ella who died in 920. At the edge of the forest, to the north of the River Froom, lay the little hamlet of Stapleton, the name of which is Saxon in origin, being held to mean "The farm, homestead or croft - by or near the Stapol, post or pillar"."

"Following the Norman invasion of England in 1066 the extent of the lands acquired by William I were listed in the famous Domesday Survey, carried out in 1086. This recorded that at the time of the conquest the locality now known as Fishponds was a very small part of the Manor of Bertune, or Barton, in the Swineshead Hundred of the County of Gloucestershire.

"The Manor of Barton, comprising an area of about 6 square miles, was one of several within the Forest of Kingswood, and was so called because it was attached to Bristol Castle and under the direct authority of its Constable. There was the Barton proper, just outside the castle walls which acted as an area of supply and provision for the castle (today's Old Market Street area of Bristol), as well as the rest of the parish of St.Philip & Jacob (later St.George, Upper and Lower Easton), Mangotsfield and part of Stapleton parish. As the whole area was Crown Land, it was described as "Barton Regis", a title which was later given to the new Hundred, (Clifton, Stapleton, Mangotsfield and St.Philip & Jacob parishes) carved out of Swineshead as the population increased."

"Sections of the Manor of Barton were early divided smaller manors and one of the first to be formed was Ridgeway or Rudgeway Manor, covering today's Royate Hill and Eastville Park area, which by the late 16th century was in the hands of the Smyths of Long Ashton. Some estates were also granted to various Bristol churches and in 1174 part of the Manor of Barton, including Stapleton, was given to Tewkesbury Abbey by William, Earl of Gloucester, whose father Robert had founded the Priory of St.James in Bristol, a cell of Tewkesbury Abbey. The Prior of St.James thus became Lord of the Manor of Stapleton.

"In 1228 Henry III was compelled by want of funds to grant Charters of Disafforestation, whereby several extensive tracts of land, hitherto within the original forest bounds, were converted into common land, or land held in common by the various inhabitants of the parishes affected. The old Kingswood Forest was thereby reduced in status to that of a Royal Chase and its size cut down to some 4500 acres which extended some 6 miles north east of Bristol and covered the present day St.George, Upper and Lower Easton, Bitton, Hanham, Oldland and Brislington, together with parts of Stapleton and Mangotsfield parishes. It was, however, still under the authority of Bristol Castle, the Constable remaining as Chief Ranger as in previous times."

Eastville, Stapleton, Patchway, Ashton, Knowle, Lockleaze, Kingswood, Southmead are all what we consider part of Bristol but at one time were villages. London is an example of expansion -in the 1980s Chelmsford was Essex and so many other towns that were on the outskirts of the capitol are now areas (boroughs) of it. Bristol is on a smaller scale but has done the same thing.

All of the old villages and towns would have had local badgers (no bovine TB) as well as local fox leashes. We know foxes of the Old type were wiped out by the 1860s but imported foxes for hunts would have taken up residency. Particularly badgers but most wildlife would have had territories they knew and travel paths that would have become established over generations before anything but horse drawn carts were on the small roads.

To generation after generation of local wildlife there was woodland and forestry and quiet fields and roads to cross and nothing moving on the roads faster than 15 mph (24 kph). Then people decided we needed railways and they cut through the land killing (but only occasionally) the odd fox, badger, deer or hunt dog and horse.  Deaths of wildlife on rail tracks back in the 19th/early 20th century probably amounted to no more than a hundred a year -trains were noisy so gave a good alert to wildlife. It is probably fair to say that wildlife death on the road due to cars probably amounted to no more than a hundred nationally per year (that figure is very likely an exaggeration as up to the 1930s cars were not as common and no statistics can be found) up until the 1940s.

After the war the traditional transport methods such as canals, horse drawn carriages and so on were phased out for "modern Britain" where profit and money were far more important that "nuisance" wildlife or the health and well being of poor people. Roads were expanded and then came the motorways and speeds increased and how we see 65,000 plus badgers and a similar number of foxes killed each year nationally thanks to cars. Deer and other species from squirrels, otters,  hedgehogs and not to mention domestic pets or wandering livestock can all be added into the mix.

At no point was any consideration given to local wildlife when roads and motorways were planned and built -unlike Western European and other countries the loss of wildlife due to vehicles the UK has taken the stance of "We're not paying for that" when it comes to wildlife road under/overpasses. 

The changes made by humans from the destruction of forests, woodland and wild areas have all contributed to encroaching on wildlife habitats and traditional pathways. To add the coups de grâce we gave road vehicles to idiots who like to drive at excess speeds along country roads and lanes and mow down anything crossing the road ("Bloody thing shouldn't have been on the road in the first place!" I was once told) and, of course, these people do not stop to see whether they have left an injured animal behind or not -the cowardice of not wanting to face what you have done.

Al;l of this shows why we are seeing so many road kill animals around Bristol but it applies equally to London (I do not even want to think of animal death rates on roads there) or any town and city in the UK. Until we get a government or local authorities who are not out to grab more "scenic" green areas to build on but are willing to build crossing areas for wildlife this will continue until foxes and badgers become endangered then extinct -"What will we do? We are British -we won't do anything until it is too late!"

Write and petition the government, local authorities or whoever you can but take a leaf from groups in and around Bristol who are fighting developers and Bristol City Council to keep green areas and sites of scientific interest safe for future generations.