The Wye valley is one of the areas where tree-planting projects have helped to recover a landscape transformed by clearances for farming during the Bronze Age

Britain’s woodland cover has returned to medieval levels thanks to 20th-century forestry and the “rewilding” trend.

The area of woodland is about 3.19 million hectares, according to the Forestry Commission. This represents 13 per cent of the land area, or 10 per cent in England, 15 per cent in Wales, 8 per cent in Northern Ireland and 19 per cent in Scotland.

That is up from 5 per cent nationwide in 1919, when the commission was established, and is equivalent to levels of cover during the Middle Ages, which ranged from 15 per cent of England at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, to 6-10 per cent by 1300. Cover in Scotland is considerably higher than in medieval times, when about 4 per