The 3.5 acre strip of woodland linking the car park with Eaves Wood was bought for the national trust in 1976 by public subscription organised by the local committee. In 1977 a further 5.7 acres in the south-east corner was purchased aided by a grant from SIlverdale Jubilee Fund Committee. The Countryside Commission gave a generous grant toward the cost of making the car park. Eaves Wood, Waterslack Wood and Castlebarrow, some 113 acres in all, were given into the care of the Trust on behalf of the nation and are now maintained as a pubic amenity and managed to preserve the natural features. The area is schedueld as one of scientific interest.

The name Eaves is derived form the old english word ‘efes’, meaing the edge of a wood, but later in medieval english may refer to a wood on a steep hillside. Both these meanings are approporiate as the wood is marginal to a larger area of woodland and is on a steep slope. The derivation of its name implies that the wood is of long standing and this also suggests by its structure in spite of the prescence of such tress as larch, beech and hornbeam, which are not native in North Western England and were planted in the nineteenth century. Indeed, unti the first world war, this wood, in common with most old woodlands in the limestone country and around Morecambe Bay, was managed on the traditional system described as coppice-with-standards and the effect of this management still persists throughout large parts of the woodland. The coppice or underwood consists mainly of hazel with some ash and little lime. The selected trees, the standards, were allowed to grow normally while the remainder were felled to allow for their proper development.

From the bases of the felled trees clusters of stems were produed to provide a supply of straight pole and brushwood. These were cut in rotation in a cycle of 15/20 years and used for a variety of local purposes , e.g. charcoal for iron smelting and for gun powder manufacture, bean and pea sticks, firewood, basket and hurdle making . The shade cast by the underwood ensured that oak saplings grew straight and unbranched until they emerged above the canopy to form the standards.

Eaves Wood during the First World War was depleted of much of its best timber. As this coincided with a delcine in the system of woodland management no steps were taken to ensure that a new generation of oaks replaced them.