A.D. 1758-1800.
Mr. John Pitt suggested 2,000 acres to be planted--The Forest
surveyed--Great devastations and encroachments--The roads--Act of 1786,
appointing a Commission of Inquiry--New plantations recommended--Messrs.
Drivers employed to report on the Forest--Corn riots--Mitcheldean market.
Reverting to the state of the woods and timber in the Forest, it appears
that ere this the old enclosures had been thrown open, the trees planted
early in this century having attained to considerable size, and some
parts so far cleared as to suggest the formation of new plantations. In
1758 John Pitt, Esq., then Surveyor-General of Woods, &c., proposed to
the Treasury that 2,000 acres should be enclosed, which was ordered to be
done accordingly; but probably it was executed in part only, since Mr.
Pitt was removed from his office five years afterwards, when a survey of
the timber was made, and it was computed that there were 27,302 loads of
timber fit for the navy, 16,851 loads of about sixty years' growth, and
20,066 loads dotard and decaying. To this period also belongs the first
opening of the old Fire-engine colliery, or Orling Green coal-work, galed
to "foreigners," but subsequently conveyed by them at different times in
shares to various persons, including the gaveller, by whom the first
fire-engine was put up about 1777, a date also memorable as being the one
on which the Court of Free Miners wholly ceased to act.
Mr. John Pitt was reinstated in 1763, and represented that he found
"great spoil had been committed, and great quantities of wood and timber,
amounting in value to 3,255 pounds, cut by order of Sir Edmund Thomas,
the late Surveyor-General, without warrant." The year following, Mr.
Pitt presented a second memorial to the Government, proposing that 2,000
acres more should be taken in, at an estimated cost of 2,077 pounds. The
usual warrant was issued for the purpose, authorizing wood-sales to that
amount, although the expense ultimately came to 3,676 pounds 5s. 6.5d.
The attention of Parliament was directed at this time to the best means
of increasing the supply of timber to the Royal dockyards. A committee
formed for investigating the matter produced the clearest evidence of
decrease of navy timber throughout the kingdom, to the extent of at least
two-thirds within the last forty years, according to the experience of
thirty different dealers. The annual amount of such timber supplied from
Dean Forest is stated to have averaged at this time about 2,000 loads.
Probably the most correct view of the disposition of the woods,
plantations, &c., and of the district in general, is afforded by Mr.
Taylor's map of the county of Gloucester, published in 1777. It
indicates the enclosures formed since the beginning of the century, as
well as a considerable extent of woodland; indeed we know, from the
return made to a Parliamentary survey taken in 1783, that the Forest
contained 90,382 oak-trees, amounting to 95,043 loads, besides 17,982
beech-trees, in which were 16,492 loads; to protect which more
effectually, Mr. Pitt instituted the place of "watch-man," attaching to
it a dwelling-house on Oaken Hill, and a small quantity of land, with a
salary of 10 pounds, and any fines or rewards obtained on the conviction
of timber stealers.
Very mischievous devastations and encroachments were nevertheless still
continued. For instance, Mr. Slade, the purveyor to the navy, stated to
the Treasury, that "he had discovered and was informed of most shameful
depredations of the oak timber, which was cut every day by persons living
round the Forest; and that for some years it had been the custom to steal
the body of the tree in the night, and cut it into cooper's wares,
leaving the top part on the spot, which the keepers took as their
perquisite; and that whole trees were conveyed every spring tide to
Bristol; and that when he was at Gatcomb, in one day there were five or
six teams came with timber, planks, and knees, winter-felled, and other
timber, among which were several useful pieces for ships of fifty and
sixty-four guns." It was also stated by Mr. Pitt, the Surveyor-General,
that "everything in his power had been done to put a stop to them, but
that the offenders had become so desperate and daring as to bid defiance
to his deputies, and render every attempt of his in a summary way totally
ineffectual," adding that, "not long before, a number of persons in
disguise had openly cut down two large timber-trees at Yorkley, in Dean
Forest, and wounded several keepers who attempted to oppose them." Mr.
Colchester likewise informed the Government that "the greatest part of
the fine timber this Forest has been so famous for has been cut down, and
the large and extensive tract of land formerly covered with the noblest
timber is now become a barren waste and heath."
Mr. Thomas Blunt, the deputy-surveyor, also reports, in allusion to this
period, that, "having formerly pulled down and destroyed many cottages,
fences, and enclosures, he had latterly been obliged to desist, fearing
his life and property were endangered by the repeated threats and insults
of the encroachers and their party." He adds that "about 1000 loads of
oak timber were annually being felled for the use of the miners, of which
at least one-fifth part was fit for naval purposes; and that the great
waste, spoil, and destruction of timber and wood on the Forest is and
hath been occasioned by an improper application of the timber delivered
to the miners for the use of their works, one-half of which would have
been more than sufficient, for that he had frequently seized large
quantities of offal timber, and such other timber as the miners could not
use in their works; and in particular that on or about the 28th of
January, 1783, he seized and took 586 feet of oak-timber, and more than
200 cleft pieces of oak, called kibbles, from one George Martin, who
acknowledged that they had been stolen. He had also seized at the
Fire-Engine in the Forest between two and three waggonloads of timber,
hewn up and converted by the colliers into cooper's wares for market, as
the neighbourhood, being a great cinder country, would require." Joseph
Pyrke, Esq., a verderer and deputy-constable, further stated that
"numberless encroachments, enclosing one, two, or three acres, were taken
in for gardens by the idle poor, and also by people in good
circumstances," and that "nothing short of a capital offence would ever
preserve the remaining timber."
We obtain information on the subject of pit-timber from Mr. Hartland's
evidence before the Parliamentary Commissioners. He says that "the sorts
of wood or timber delivered to the miners were oak and beech, and none
other; chiefly oak in the summer, more pits being sunk in the summer than
in the winter, and the keepers having the bark; more beech is allowed in
the winter than oak. But oak timber is necessary, and is always allowed,
for sinking the pits, and for making what the miners call the gateway, or
gangway, from the body of coal to the pit, and also for the gutters in
the levels, for draining off the water; but beech, birch, orle, holly, or
any other kind of wood, would serve for the purpose of getting coal, and
supporting the earth after the coal is taken away, but none is ever
delivered to them but oak and beech." He goes on to say that "the evil
of the colliers misapplying the timber served to them by the keepers
could only be remedied by refusing it for the future to such parties as
had been detected therein. Fining them was found impracticable, owing to
the difficulty of proving the timber to have been the King's, without
which proof the justices could hardly act."
Rewards of 20 pounds, and in gross cases of 50 pounds, were offered to
any persons making a discovery whereby any of the offenders should be
convicted; but without much effect, for the sufficient reason, as stated
in the official report of 1788, that the resident officers derived
advantages from the continuance of the abuse. Thus the Deputy-Surveyor
took as perquisites the tops of all timber rejected by the navy, as well
as of all stolen timber; all trees found felled by wood-stealers; one
moiety of the cord-wood made from the offal-wood of timber delivered to
the miners, and of stolen timber, besides from four pence to six pence
for every tree felled for the use of the miners; whereby his salary was
raised from 50 to 500 pounds a year. It was much the same with the six
keepers, who received one shilling on every order for delivery of timber
to the miners or colliers; the moiety of all offal-wood of timber cut for
the miners; the moiety of all cord-wood of stolen timber; all lengths or
pieces of trespass, and the bark of timber delivered to the miners,
stolen timber called kibbles, and of all stolen timber found within their
respective walks, by means of which their stipends were increased 100
pounds a year each.
Mr. Miles Hartland, the assistant-deputy-surveyor, in his examination, on
the 15th of May, 1788, before the Dean Forest Commissioners, also stated
that "he believed the cottages and encroachments in the Forest have
nearly doubled within the last forty years. The persons who inhabit the
cottages are chiefly poor labouring people who are induced to seek
habitations in the Forest for the advantages of living rent free, and
having the benefit of pasturage for a cow or a few sheep, and of keeping
pigs in the woods; but many encroachments have been made by people of
substance. The cattle of the cottagers are impounded when the Forest is
driven by the keepers, as all other cattle are; and when the owners take
them from the pound, paying the usual fees to the keepers, they turn them
again into the Forest, having no other means of maintaining them. The
greater number of the cottagers are from the neighbouring parishes; but
there are also a great many from Wales, and from various parts of
England, remote from the Forest. They are detrimental to the Forest by
cutting wood for fuel, and for building huts, and making fences to the
patches which they enclose from the Forest; by keeping pigs, sheep, &c.,
in the Forest all the year, and by stealing timber."
Speaking of the Forest roads, on which 11,631 pounds 3s. 10d. had been
expended within the preceding twenty-five years, Mr. Hartland stated that
"the principal were the road from Mitcheldean to Monmouth, and from
Little Dean to Coleford. These two are public high roads, not necessary
or useful to the Forest, but rather detrimental to it by affording the
readier means to convey away the coal in waggons and carts, in which
timber has sometimes been found concealed. Besides the above, there are
several roads leading from the Forest to Newland, Coleford, and St.
Briavel's, which have been kept in repair at the charge of the Forest,
but are of no use to it--rather the contrary. The only road now used for
conveying the navy timber is the Purton Road, which is the most
convenient for carriage to the water side from all parts of the Forest
except the Chesnuts in Edge Hills, and the Lea Bailey; but there is no
navy timber now in either of these places except the Lea Bailey. If the
repairing of the public roads at the charge of the Forest were to be
discontinued, the public would be obliged to put up turnpike gates on the
roads, and collect tolls for repairing them, as in other parts of the
country."
The parts of the Forest which Mr. Hartland described as being "bare of
timber and yet fittest to be enclosed as being of a very proper soil,
were Hazle Hill and Edge Hills, including Tanner's Hill, Green Bottom and
Greenhill, Badcock's Bailey and Chesnuts, East and West Haywood, part of
Great Staple Edge, Meezeyhurst, Howbeach and Putmage, Buckhall, Moor and
Bradley Hill, Bircham Dingles and Mason's Tump, Blakevellet, Breames Eves
and Howell Hill, the Perch and Coverham, Great and Little Bourts, the Lea
Bailey, Bailey Hill and Lining Wood, Great and Little Berry, Pluds and
Smithers Tump, Blackthorn Turf and Serridge, Kensley's Ridge, Daniel Moor
and Beechenhurst, 'forming in short twenty plantations,' which might, he
thinks, be enclosed by a ditch about 3 feet deep and 3.5 wide, with a
quick hedge planted upon the bank."
The detection of the various abuses which the above extracts exhibit
constitutes the first fruit of the enactment of the 26th George III.
(1786) for appointing commissioners to inquire into the state of the
woods, forests, &c., of the Crown, and to report thereon, adding such
observations as should occur to them for their future management and
improvement.
Upwards of 2,000 pounds worth of timber out of the Forest was granted,
26th of April, 1786, towards building a gaol in Gloucester, as well as a
penitentiary house and houses of correction within the county, at a total
cost of 30,000 pounds, upon the plea that the old castle, on the site of
which the gaol was to be built, belonged to the King, and also that one
of the houses of correction was to be erected within the Forest, whereby
the rights of the Crown would be supported. The execution of this grant
required 1,690 trees.
The gentlemen appointed to act in the commission above named were, Sir
Charles Middleton, John Call, Esq., and Arthur Holdsworth, Esq., who
forthwith proceeded to collect information on the history and management
of the Forest of Dean, as well as the claims and usages of the mining
population. Their report, being the third of the series, was published
on the 3rd of June, 1788. Commencing with an introduction respecting the
Royal Forests generally, it proceeds to this Forest in particular, "as
being in proportion to its extent by far the most valuable and the most
proper for a nursery of naval timber," and refers first to the origin and
results of the important Act of the 20th Charles II.; then to the abuses
which have since crept in, with their disastrous effects; and, thirdly,
to the best way of settling the claims of commoners, and how to render
this Forest a very valuable nursery of timber for the royal navy.
All particulars bearing upon the two former heads have been as fully
stated in the preceding pages of this work as circumstances permitted:
under the last head, the suggestions of the commissioners amounted
briefly to this,--that, agreeably to the plan begun about the year 1638,
under the supervision of Sir Baynham Throckmorton, a commission should be
created to superintend the enclosing of about 18,000 acres. The most
wooded parts of the Forest were to be selected, and where the soil was
best fitted for the growth of timber, avoiding the coalworks, and leaving
out all necessary roads to be made and kept in repair by turnpikes,
unless required for the carriage of timber only; the rights of commoners
were to be discharged by allotting an equitable extent of land suitable
for pasture, and the colliers to pay for all pit timber; the deer were to
be disposed of, as demoralizing the inhabitants and injuring the young
wood; and lastly, the commissioners recommended ejecting the cottagers
who had established themselves in the Forest, as often before, in
defiance of authority, and who numbered upwards of 2,000, occupying 589
cottages, besides 1,798 small enclosures containing 1,385 acres. As to
defraying the cost of executing the above works, the commissioners
recommended the sale of about 440 acres of detached pieces of Crown land
adjoining the Forest, and if necessary dotard and decayed trees, or such
as would never become fit for naval use.
The surveyors, Messrs. A. and W. Driver, calculated the fencing,
planting, and keeping up the contemplated enclosures, for the whole of
the ensuing 100 years, at 564,330 pounds, by which time the timber would
probably be worth 10,680,473 pounds, and yield an annual net revenue of
52,052 pounds. According to the Report of these gentlemen, the Forest
then contained about 24,000 oak-trees averaging one and a half loads
each, and 24,000 oak-trees measuring about half a load each, not
including unsound trees, of which there were many, besides a considerable
number of fine large beech as well as young growing trees. The principal
stock of young timber, from which any expectation could be formed, was in
the Lea Bailey and Lining Woods, which were in general well stocked, and
would produce a considerable quantity of fine timber, if properly fenced
and protected from the depredations of plunderers. As to the names,
extent, and character of the plantations then existing, they report as
follows:--
"_The Great Enclosure_, which contained 743 acres 35 poles, was begun
to be made about twelve years ago, with post and rail; but before the
whole was completed, a great part was taken away, and nothing now
remains but the bank; there are no young trees of any kind."
"_Stonedge Enclosure_ was made about twelve years ago; it contained
125 acres 1 rood 10 poles, and was fenced with a dry stone wall,
which is, for the most part, destroyed; there are a great many thorns
and hollies, with some very fine large oaks, but no young timber of
any kind coming up."
"_Coverham Enclosure_, which contained 350 acres 2 roods 34 poles,
was made about fifteen years ago, part with a dry stone wall, and
part post and rails; nothing but the bank now remains. There was a
great quantity of young timber, particularly birch, in this
enclosure, which is nearly all destroyed in consequence of the fences
being pulled down."
"_Serridge Enclosure_ was made about twelve years ago. It contained
409 acres 3 roods 20 poles, and was fenced with a dry stone wall, of
which but little remains, being quite open in many parts; there are
no young trees of any sort, and but few old trees."
"_Heywood Enclosure_ contained 715 acres 3 roods 38 poles, and was
made about ten years ago, part with a dry stone wall, and part pales;
very few traces remain, and in some parts none at all. We have been
informed that great part of the wall was pulled down, or fell, before
the whole was completed, and the pales carried away by waggons, &c.,
soon after they were put up; and from its present appearance it is
evident no advantage has been derived from this enclosure, as there
are no young trees in any part of it."
The three following enclosures, containing together 323 acres 1 rood 33
poles, are all that remain enclosed and in good repair, except the
Buckholt Enclosure mentioned last, viz.:--
"_Stapleage Enclosure_, containing 183 acres 1 rood 3 poles, has been
made about five years, part with dry stone wall, and part dead hedge;
in general in good repair. In some parts of it there are a few small
oak and beech plants, and also a few large oaks and beeches."
"_Speech House Enclosure_, containing 5 acres 6 poles, was made four
years ago by the Deputy Surveyor, and planted with acorns which have
produced some young oaks."
"_Birchwood Enclosure_, containing 135 acres 24 poles, has been made
about five years, part with dead hedge and part dry stone wall, which
in general is in good repair; there are but few young oaks coming
up."
"_Buckholt Enclosure_, which contains 352 acres 3 roods 20 poles, has
been made about eighty years, the greatest part with a stone wall,
the rest hedge and ditch. The fences of this enclosure have of late
years been kept in good repair. There are some very fine large oaks
in it, but in general it contains a great quantity of fine young
beech. There are also some oak-trees of about ten or fifteen years'
growth, and young oaks are coming up from acorns which have been set
in vacant places. A few Weymouth pines have also been planted in
this enclosure, which grow very well."
The total acreage of these enclosures was 3,220 acres 6 poles, and their
position is shown pretty accurately by Mr. Taylor in his map of the
county. Messrs. Driver's report also informs us that there were now 589
houses, 1,798 pieces of land encroached from the open Forest, comprising
1,385 acres 3 roods 21 poles, thus distributed in the six "walks:"--
Number of Number of pieces Their extent.
Cottages. of land
A. R. P.
Speech-House Walk 1 2 0 0 21
Worcester do. 218 455 295 2 36
Herbert do. 95 487 325 2 22
Latimer do. 53 257 122 3 22
Danby do. 367 1201 744 1 21
York do. 98 173 195 3 15
Ellwood do. 113 397 417 3 10
Detached parts.
Wallmore 2 3 0 1 24
Northwood Green 3 4 0 1 33
The Bearce - 3 1 1 13
Mawkins Hazles - 5 15 1 28
The Tence 6 10 10 0 9
Glydden - 2 0 0 28
--- ---- ---- --- ---
589 1798 1385 3 21
Upwards of seventeen different Reports on the condition of "the Forest
and Land Revenues of the Crown" were made to Parliament by the Commission
of 1788, a fact which will partly explain the delay which took place in
carrying out the plans recommended in the Commissioners' Third Report
with reference to the Forest of Dean. The chief improvements effected
were in the roads, under an Act passed in the year 1795, for mending,
widening, and altering the existing roads, and making new ones through
the Forest to places adjoining, in the parishes of Newland, Lydney, and
Awre. Mr. John Fordyce, now the Surveyor-General, alluding to the
subject in his Report, dated 1797, says, that an arrangement had been
made with the principal inhabitants in the neighbourhood, whereby the
cost of keeping up the roads was to be met by means of turnpikes, the
Crown constructing them in the first instance.
The year 1795 is associated with the disturbances commonly called, even
now, for they are not forgotten, "the Bread Riots." They arose from the
circumstance of the foresters being mainly dependent upon the adjacent
farms for their corn, but which was now, owing to war, largely bought up
by the Government, mostly at Gloucester and Bristol, for the supply of
the army and navy. Hence the inhabitants of the Forest district were
left destitute of those supplies which the miners and colliers of the
Forest considered they were entitled to, in return for the fuel which
they furnished to the farmers.
The following extracts from the contemporary numbers of 'The Gloucester
Journal' minutely relate the acts of violence which ensued:--
"On Saturday morning, 30th October, 1795, as Mr. King's waggon, of
Bollitree, was bringing a load of barley to the Gloucester Market, it
was beset by a number of colliers from the Forest of Dean near the
Lea Line, who inquired what the bags contained, and when told that it
was barley, they cut the bags to examine; whilst this was passing, a
waggon, loaded with wheat, came up the hill belonging to Mr. Dobson,
of Harthill, in the parish of Weston, which was taken to in the same
manner, and both waggons with the grain were taken off to a place in
the Forest of Dean, called Drybrook, where the people divided the
corn, and sent back the waggons and horses to the owners." The next
Saturday "a party of foresters, chiefly from the neighbourhood of
Lidbrook, stopped a waggon belonging to Mr. Prince, of Longhope,
loaded with ninety-two bushels of wheat, and lodged it in Ross
Market-house, professedly with the intention of selling it out on
Monday morning at eight shillings per bushel. A magistrate, however,
reached Ross early on Monday, and, accompanied by ten of the Essex
Light Dragoons, saw the grain reloaded into Mr. Prince's waggon, and
sent it off under their escort. In about an hour upwards of sixty
foresters collected together, and set off in pursuit of the waggon.
The magistrate followed on horseback, and at the Lea he came up with
the waggon, which he sent on, and ordered the cavalry to stop till
the approach of the mob. They soon made their appearance, and being
at first somewhat refractory, the ringleader was taken into custody;
when, after the most persuasive remonstrances of this very active
magistrate, and the patient forbearance of the soldiery, they were at
last prevailed upon to give up the desperate idea of rescuing the
grain, and returned peaceably to Ross."
A reputed highwayman, and noted deerstealer, named William Stallard,
living on the Upper Purlieu, above the Hawthorns, is stated to have been
the instigator of these outrages, and others of a similar kind on Mr.
Prince's flour-mill at Longhope. His lawless career, however, brought
him to the gallows at Gloucester for horse-stealing, at the age of forty,
on the 16th August, 1800, as appears by the records of that gaol. The
decline of the market in Mitcheldean is said to date from the above
disturbances, which naturally deterred the neighbouring farmers from
sending their grain thither for sale. {85}
Nor were the bread riots confined to the northern side of the Forest, as
upon "the evening of the same day, November 9th, many persons assembled
at Hanstell, in the parish of Awre, in this county, where a vessel
belonging to Eversham, and bound to Bristol with a cargo of pease, oil,
flour, leather, and wheat, was waiting for the tide. About twenty men
boarded her, examined the lading, and, upon discovering the flour, gave
loud huzzas, when the bank was instantly covered with their comrades, who
had many horses in waiting, with which they proceeded to carry off the
flour, though the trowmen (unable to defend the vessel, and menaced with
instant destruction) had offered to sell it to them at a reasonable
price. About 7 o'clock one of the trowmen contrived to slip ashore, ran
to Newnham, and sent off an express to Gloucester for immediate military
aid; but fortunately that assistance was nearer at hand. In consequence
of some apprehension of a disturbance at Mitcheldean, an officer, with a
serjeant and ten file of the Essex Fencibles Cavalry, had marched into
the place early in the morning, and upon the arrival of the express from
Newnham instantly set forth for the scene of depredation, under the
command of Lieutenant Wood, and headed by Mr. Pyrke, a magistrate of
Little Dean. The freebooters fled in every direction, but five men,
named Thomas Yemm, Thomas Rosser, Richard Brain, George Marfell, and John
Meek, being the most active ringleaders, were apprehended, some in the
act of conveying away the flour upon packhorses, some had sacks of it
upon their shoulders, some were just landed from the vessel; and many
were busied on the bank, which was strewed with flour, dividing the sacks
into smaller quantities to render it more portable, for even women and
children were of the number." The five men already named were fully
committed on the following Tuesday to Gloucester Castle, there to be
tried at the Spring Assizes, being guarded thither by one hundred of the
Surrey Fencibles, who had arrived in Newnham at 3 o'clock previously.
Shortly afterwards, the serjeant of the military, called out on this
occasion, was desperately bruised by a stone thrown at him by some
desperadoes as he was riding near Mitcheldean, and, on a subsequent
Thursday, some villains fired a piece loaded with slugs into the
bed-chamber of Mr. Pyrke. At the ensuing Assizes, Thomas Yemm and Thomas
Rosser were left for execution, which, although, from the excellent
character they previously bore, some gentlemen of the Forest, and of the
Grand Jury, interceded with his Majesty on their behalf, they underwent
on the 11th April, 1797, acknowledging the justice of their sentence.
The extraordinary scarcity, and consequent high price of provisions about
this time, were so acutely felt in this neighbourhood, that the Crown
distributed 1,000 pounds worth of grain amongst the distressed Foresters.