Comments by "Big Blue" (@bigblue6917) on "To Mow or not to Mow: History and Lawn Care" video.

In England lawns were originally part of a deer park and is where deer hunting took place. It was maintained and kept open because that is where the deer feed and it was easier to hunt deer in these open glades. Part of a local village is called The Lawns and is the only remaining indication that a deer pack existed there. As part of forest management trees would be cut down and this would allow new growths from the stumps, which would then in turn would be cut down when the were about an inch and a half to two inches thick. This would be turned into charcoal which would be used by people such as the local blacksmith. The act of cutting down the tree so the shoots can grow is called coppicing. The problem was that deer would eat the new shoots before they could grow. So they would cut the tree much higher up and above where the deer could reach. This was called pollarding. So the word became the name of the person who specialised in pollarding. So if you meet anyone called Pollard that persons ancestor worked in the deer park pollarding. Interestingly American Woodland Indians also kept these open glades so that they could hunt deer.
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