HISTORICAL maps are helping to find and protect Gloucestershire's ancient trees.

The maps, showing details from towns, villages and countryside from 1843 to 1893, have been added to the Ancient Tree Hunt website run by wood conservation charity the Woodland Trust.

The old maps are overlaid with the current road network so woods, copses, parkland, buildings and streets that existed in the past can be located.

Though historical maps reveal the loss of ancient trees and woodland on the landscape, they can also be used to trace and record survivors.

Ancient tree hunters can navigate their way around the UK as it was up to 160 years ago, just after the arrival of the railways.

They are urged to look for surviving ancient trees on the boundaries of parks and estates, which may have shifted over time.

The Trust believes the UK has more ancient trees than any other country in Northern Europe, but their locations are unknown, so it is asking members of the public to join the Ancient Tree Hunt, recording trees they find at www.ancienttreehunt.org.uk.

One of Gloucestershire's most remarkable old trees is an oak with a girth of over seven metres just outside Haresfield.

The tree is now just a short distance from the M5 motorway, but it is one of three remaining trees reputedly planted after the death of Edward II in1327 to indicate the route of his funeral cortège from Berkeley Castle to Gloucester.

There are several trees already noted in the area on the old maps on the website and the trust is keen to hear from members of the public who recognise other ancient trees still standing from the old map.

The Ancient Tree Hunt aims to record at least 100,000 surviving ancient trees throughout the UK by 2011. More than 4,000 ancient trees have been recorded and verified since the launch of the project six months ago.

"These wonderful maps are helping us identify some of the best places to search for remaining ancient trees," said Nikki Williams, project manager for the Ancient Tree Hunt.

"As the trees get older, they develop holes, nooks and crannies providing perfect homes for insects, bats and birds, including rare and threatened species, so groups of ancient trees are extremely important wildlife habitats. The old maps show us exactly where larger concentrations of trees once stood," she said.