Woodland clearing. Why?

The trees in front of our house were cut down.   A huge swathe.   Why, we all wondered?  No signs, or information.  Nothing.  It all happened very quickly.   Early one morning a group of men arrived in a white truck and started cutting down trees.  Their answer?   They were given directions to cut down the trees on this land.   A moment of panic, A ring through to the council to find out if planning permission had been granted for a new development.   No, the last time was in 1966, and planning permission was turned down then.  

We are surrounded by woodland, and most of it belongs to the Woodland Trust,   But quite a few acres, mostly in front of our house, are privately owned, but as this is green belt land, it cannot be used for a housing development.  For the time being, anyway.   But it is always a worry.

We are still not really sure why the trees were cut down, and left to lie on the ground, on an area covering the length of about thirty houses, on the street adjoining our road, and the width of two houses on our road.   We can now see clearly down to Baldwin's Park, below our hill, and even across to the other side of the Thames River, on a clear day that is.

We may find out one day.  Someone may tell us.   However the people in the thirty houses running alongside the woodland must appreciate having light and sunshine in their back gardens.   Perhaps someone complained that the woodland was encrouching onto their back garden.   Or perhaps the landowner had some money to spare and decided to give his or her land a bit of a tidy up.  

Now we have a huge swathe of brown in front of us, where the leaves on the fallen trees have died, and have joined the brown trunks.  Lovely.