down and removed. The mill-weir was apparently destroyed, but the
water held to the diverted course (_i.e._ the trench by which
a portion of the said water of Trent formerly held its course). The
ancient course is the Old Trent now defining parts of the boundaries of
Colwick and the Borough of Nottingham. In some manuscript notes from
the “Perambulation of the Forest of Sherwood [31st Queen Elizabeth]”,
by Launcelott Rolston and others, it is stated that the boundary
“ascendeth by the River of Trent, by the Abbey of Shelforde w^{ch}
is on the Southe pte of the Trente, and above the same Abbey it doth
followe the ould course and streame of the Trente wh^{ch} there is
dryven of the north pte from its ould course and so ascendeth still
to Collwicke by the River of Trente and so to Nottingham Bridge.”
The above-mentioned “old course” is still traceable to the west and
south-west of Shelford.
Instead of passing Kelham, as at present, the Trent, or a branch of
it, formerly passed Newark some 345 yards distant from the castle, and
joined the Devon below the town. This Old Trent, now a mere trickle in
a narrow winding valley, separates the hundred of Newark from that of
Thurgarton. Above Newark an artificial cut connects the Old Trent with
the Devon, which, after flowing beneath the castle, joins the Trent at
Crankley Point 1½ miles down stream. The arrangement is shown in an old
map of 1558 in C. Brown’s _History of Newark_.
At some unrecorded date the stream has cut off from Carlton parish
a field upon which the villagers still exercise right of pasturing
cattle. This field, Carlton Home, by its uneven surface, appears to
have been formed by lateral movement of the river; the old flood-bank
may have fixed the parish boundary (Fig. 2).
Sutton South Holme was an island in 1834; a part of the western
stream-course still exists as a long pool. Across the river, and
belonging to Sutton, is Smithy (Smeemus) Marsh, a pasture some 120
acres in extent. A bank, ditch, and the parish boundary on the east fix
the site of the Old Trent, which changed its course before the date of
Saxton’s map.
South of Clifton Hill, east of the Trent, an old meandering course,
more than a mile long, cuts off a piece of ground known as “The Ropes.”
This old course is probably of great antiquity, because it was the
boundary of four parishes; it was once half the width of the Trent
(Fig. 2). Other old courses may be seen on Marnham Holme, Fledborough
Holme, and under Newton Cliff. The island south of Dunham Bridge, shown
on maps from 1794–1834, was shaped like an inverted Welsh harp. The
river invaded a neighbouring drainage-channel at the turn of a meander,
which has since progressed down stream, as shown by the necessity for a
new tow-path bank.
Old and deserted meandering channels and dying pools occur in such
numbers on the recent alluvium that the conclusion is forced upon
us that, without embankments, the valley would rapidly revert to a
state of wildness similar to those of the rivers of young countries
(_e.g._ the Mississippi Valley, where channels and pools occur in
great numbers).
Evidences of recent lateral movement are extremely numerous; the
example at Holme given above is a case in point. Roman pottery occurs
in the gravel on the west bank above the site of the Roman bridge
near Cromwell, where the river runs straight; and a block of dressed
Blue-Lias stone was recently found here upon the site of the new lock,
at least 25 feet from the present (river) bank. Again, in A.D.
1649 a field, situated beyond the Trent, but in Collingham parish, once
of 35 acres, had been reduced to 8 acres by encroachment.
Near the “Crankleys,” about a mile north of Newark, an old loop of the
Trent forms a curved “ox-bow” lake. This loop appears as a right-angled
bend in a map (revised and published in 1725) drawn up by the chief
engineer of the Scottish army besieging Newark in 1646. It also
appears in Chapman’s map of 1774. In 1861 the Great Northern Railway
was carried across the then well-developed loop, and to facilitate
operations the bridge was first built upon the neck of the loop and
the river diverted to a new channel cut across the neck beneath the
bridge. Human remains, of Neolithic Age, with antlers of deer and bones
of ox and horse, were found beneath the bridge at a depth of 25 feet,
having been deposited in the bed of the river when it happened to be
flowing at that spot. By lateral movement of the river the remains were
entombed until thus brought to light.
The lateral movement and windings of the “smug and silver Trent” were
evidently well known to Shakespeare, for in _King Henry IV._, Part
I., Hotspur and Glendower are warmly debating about one of the meanders
north of Burton. Hotspur suggests straightening the river’s course,
but Glendower will not have it altered. The meander referred to is
apparently one of the abandoned “rounds” near Burton and Bole, nearly
opposite Gainsborough. In Shakespeare’s time they would have been
much more like huge half-moons--to use Hotspur’s expression--than like
circles, such as Burton Round.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Burton and Bole Rounds, after a map
by Mr. Gurnill, Sen., Gainsborough, 1795.]
By 1790 the necks of the loops were almost severed, and in February
1792 the Bole Round was breached by the river, possibly aided by the
Trent bore or “ægir”--an event celebrated three years later by a Mr.
Gurnill, senior, of Gainsborough, who published a map (a copy is in the
possession of Mr. J. S. Lamb, of Beckingham) showing that the other
loop (Burton) would soon suffer the same fate. The first vessel to pass
through the breach was the property of Mr. James Cuttle, of Lincoln.
White’s _Directory of Nottinghamshire_ for 1832 states that “Until
1797 the Trent here (Burton) took such a circular sweep that a boatman
might have thrown his hat on shore, and, after sailing two miles, have
taken it up again, but in that year the stream forced itself through
the narrow neck of land in a straight line, in consequence of which
the old winding channel was filled up and divided betwixt the counties
of Nottingham and Lincoln, besides which the latter had now about one
hundred acres on the west side of the course of the present river.”
Both rounds have recently been transferred to Nottinghamshire, and
remain as swampy hollows in Burton and Bole parishes, whose boundaries
they partly define.
Dr. Wake and others assume that the floods are efforts of the Trent
to regain its old channel, now occupied by the Fleet stream, which is
undoubtedly a part of the old river (Figs. 2 and 3). Between Langford
and Girton there is a low westerly-facing cliff or terrace of gravel
and sand, beneath which the Fleet stream flows from Winthorpe to
join the Trent near Girton. The relations between the cliff and the
alluvial flat make it clear that the Trent has worked along different
parts of the cliff at one time or another. The expansions at Langford,
Besthorpe, and Girton, and formerly at North and South Collingham, must
also be regarded as relics of the old Trent; but whether it flowed
beneath the whole length of the gravel cliff at one and the same time
is an open question.
The river has certainly moved from east to west, and is still doing so,
having on its right hand a well-dissected gravel plain, on its left
an unbroken sheet of gravel upon which it tends to encroach. It first
left the Wath Bank (Spalford) at some time before 900 A.D.,
according to Wake, when the hundreds were defined; deserted the Fleet
Mere between the tenth and sixteenth centuries, and lastly separated
Holme from Muskham. There were possibly also intermediate stages when
the river cut through from North Collingham to Carlton Rack, and when
the Kelham parish boundary was crossed.
Thus the old story is repeated. The ancient waters flowed directly from
Newark to Lincoln, then some of them fell away to the west to find exit
by the Humber. Now the river flows in a northerly direction, but is
edging to the west side of its valley--an effect probably due to freer
egress through the remarkably narrow gap between the Keuper hills of
Marnham and South Clifton, which would tend to shorten and straighten
the course as far south as Kelham and Averham.
The Trent has from very early times been a means of communication and
a highway. Domesday Book records that the water of Trent was kept so
that if any should hinder the passage of boats he should make amends.
Henry I. gave the Bishop of Lincoln permission to erect a bridge at
Newark, “so that it may not hurt my city of Lincoln nor my borough of
Nottingham.” Acts of Parliament relating to the navigation were passed
between 1699 and 1794, and troubles about weirs arose as early as 1292.
These and other instances mentioned above show that importance was
attached to the control of the waters from fairly early times.
The Trent is supposed to be a tamed river. Its banks are fortified
by flood-banks, piles, stones, cement, and even sunken barges; yet
it persists in meandering. As fast as it undermines the flood-bank,
the latter is repaired from the outside, hence the river, as it
were, pushes the outer flood-bank before it when vigorously swinging
outwards, but leaves the inner bank isolated by deposit of sediment.
A second or inner bank then becomes necessary to carry the tow-path.
Again, if the natural swing of the river is tampered with, it
retaliates by readjusting its course below the point of interference.
Thus, although tamed, the river under certain conditions has its own
way, and never in more striking manner than when, overlapping its
flood-banks, it bursts its bonds and surges far and wide over the broad
Vale of Trent.[45]
THE FOREST OF SHERWOOD
BY REV. J. CHARLES COX, LL.D., F.S.A.
There is abundant evidence that the central and western parts of the
county of Nottingham was well wooded in the earliest historical times.
It was otherwise with the eastern or Clay division of the shire. Among
other evidences of this may be mentioned the place-names, a single
example of which may be here noticed. The terminal “field”--which is
usually spelt feld in olden times--signified a place where trees had
been felled, so as to make a clearing for cultivation. Such place-names
are invariably to be found in the western half of the shire, as at
Ashfield, Balkfield, Basingfield, Eastfield, Farnsfield, Haggonfield,
Highfield, Lynsfield, Mansfield, Northfield, Plumfield, Southfield,
Wilfield, and a score or two of others which will be found marked on
the larger ordnance maps. Such names are looked for in vain on the
eastern side of the county.
This well-timbered portion of Nottinghamshire probably served as a
great hunting district for the later Saxon kings, and is well known to
have been thus used in the earliest Norman days. It is, perhaps, hardly
necessary to emphasise the fact that the old term “forest” had no
particular connection with woods, great or small. The word was used for
many centuries to denote a wild district reserved for the hunting of
royalty, or of those specially licensed by the Crown, which was placed
under special legislation in order to preserve the deer. Such tracts of
country always included a certain amount of woodland or undergrowth,
which served as shelter or covert for the larger game; but it was
equally essential that there should be open glades and stretches of
moorland for the feeding and general sustenance of the deer. Neither
red nor fallow deer could possibly live in a district exclusively
woodland. Many of these royal forests had but a scanty amount of timber
of any kind, such as the western forests of Exmoor and Dartmoor, or the
central forest of the High Peak, where the red deer used to swarm in
almost fabulous numbers. Of all the royal forests of England, Sherwood,
on the contrary, seems to have been exceptionally abundant in timber,
and hence the red deer were not nearly so numerous at any time in her
history as in the wilder parts of Derbyshire. The Forest of Sherwood,
or Nottingham as it was sometimes called, probably gained its name of
Shirewode or Shirwood from the fact that a considerable length of the
forest boundary was also the boundary between the two shires of Derby
and Nottingham.
The Forest of Sherwood embraced at one time upwards of a fourth of the
whole county. The Doomsday Survey shows that not a few of the places
which were afterwards within the forest limits were members of the
King’s great manor of Mansfield; hence it became a comparatively easy
matter for the early Norman kings to extend this large amount of royal
demesne into a large forest. The first precise historic notice of the
forest occurs in the year 1154, when William Peverel the younger had it
in his control and held the profits under the Crown. On the forfeiture
of the Peverel estates, in the early days of Henry II., Sherwood
Forest lapsed to the King, and it was for some time administered by
the successive sheriffs of the joint counties of Nottingham and Derby.
In the days of Richard I., Sherwood was held by his brother John,
Earl of Morton. John made a charter grant of all the liberties and
custody of the Forest of Sherwood to Maud de Caux and her husband Ralph
Fitzstephen. This charter included permission to hunt hare, fox, wild
cat, and squirrel, with dogs and hounds; the right to all cablish or
wind-fallen wood; the valuable inner bark or bast of the lime trees;
a skep (basket) out of every cartload of salt passing through the
forest, and half a skep for a half load; the pannage dues for pigs; the
fees for unlawed dogs; and also all goods and chattels belonging to
“brybours” taken by them without the forest. Bribour was a mid-English
term for a robber or pickpocket. The charter also sanctioned the
holding of a park at Laxton by Ralph and Maud, wherein they might hunt
deer without molestation by the forest ministers.
This definite mention of robbers, whose presence was evidently not
uncommon within the dense thickets and woodlands of Sherwood towards
the close of the twelfth century, is instantly suggestive of the name
of the world-famous Robin Hood. Although this great ballad hero is
pretty closely associated in legend and tradition with the north of
Yorkshire and other parts of England, he is emphatically the outlawed
chieftain of the glades of Sherwood. There are but few English-speaking
youths who have not revelled in the tales of Robin Hood, with Little
John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, and his other lawless associates, and
more particularly in their delightful adventures with the Sheriff of
Nottingham, and other purse-proud travellers. Although it is always
admitted that Robin Hood was an outlaw and a robber, the reason why he
has gained such well-merited fame is on account of the whole garland
of ballads always representing him as an advocate of humane though
socialistic principles and a protector of the oppressed. As Drayton
sings in his _Polyolbion_, at the close of the sixteenth century:--
“From wealthy abbots’ chests and churches’ abundant store
What oftentimes he took he shared among the poor;
No lordly bishop came in lusty Robin’s way,
To him, before he went, but for his pass must pay;
The widows in distress he graciously relieved,
And remedied the wrongs of many a virgin grieved.”
Up to the present no earlier mention of this hero has been found than
that which is contained in the _Vision of Piers Plowman_, written
about 1377, wherein the character of sloth is introduced saying:--
“I can noughte perfitly my paternoster, as the prest it syngeth;
But I can rymes of Robyn hood and Randolf erle of Chestre.”
In the next century the references are fairly numerous, the most
interesting of which is a petition to Parliament in 1439 complaining
that one Piers Venables of Derbyshire, after rescuing a prisoner, had
assembled unto him many misdoers and “in manure of insurrection weinte
into the wodes in that countrie like as it hadde be Robyn Hode and his
meyne.”
The ballads pertaining to Robin Hood were so esteemed by our
forefathers, that one of the earliest ventures of printing in England
was the issuing by Winken de Worde, about 1495, of a sheaf of these
rhymed stories under the title _A Lyttel Geste of Robyn Hode_.
A few learned pedants have ingeniously argued that Robin Hood was
but a visionary being, his very name, according to a German critic,
being but a corruption of Woden, whilst Mr. Sydney Lee has come to the
conclusion that he was but a “mythical forest elf.” Doubtless a variety
of legends of widely differing dates have centred round this Sherwood
hero which could not possibly pertain to the same individual, but it is
impossible to believe that there was not a real outlaw of this name who
gained this almost immortal celebrity. More or less ingenious attempts
have been made to identify him exactly with some particular epoch or
individual; but most of these attempts, such as that of Mr. Hunter in
1854, who thought that he had found him under the guise of a porter of
Nottingham Castle in the time of Edward II., are put forth regardless
of the fact that Hood was, as is now the case, a fairly common name,
and Robert (with its diminutive Robin) was about the third favourite
Christian name in all England. There is no room here to debate this
matter at any length, but on the whole the probabilities are strong
that the original Robin Hood flourished in the days of Richard Cœur de
Lion.
At all events, it is quite impossible to dissociate Sherwood from
thoughts of Robin Hood, and for our own part we feel satisfied that
the weight of evidence is strongly in favour of the reality of his
existence, although a modern poet says:--
“Sherwood in the twilight is Robin Hood awake?
Gray and ghostly shadows are gliding through the brake:
Shadows of the dappled deer dreaming of the morn,
Dreaming of the shadowy man that winds the shadowy horn.”
Those who make a careful study of the old royal forest districts of
England, should always refer to the details respecting the tremendous
storm that swept over England in the winter of 1222, which are to be
found in the Close and Patent Rolls of that date. Trees were overthrown
in every part of the kingdom in such vast numbers that the old
customs, whereby, for the most part, wind-fallen boughs or root-fallen
trees were the perquisites of forest ministers, were suspended, and
special writs were issued to the authorities directing the sale of all
this overthrown timber with a return of the proceeds. Writs to this
effect were forwarded to the verderers and foresters of the Forest
of Sherwood; to the like officials of the enclosures or parks within
Sherwood; to Maud de Caux, then a widow, as keeper of the Forest of
Sherwood and of Clay; and to Philip Marc, as “keeper of the parks of
Sherwood.” The title of “keeper of Sherwood and Clay” was a survival
of the time when the districts, under the then cruelly severe forest
laws, had been much extended by Henry II. and John. At that time a
considerable part of the Clay division in the north-east of the shire,
as well as in the northern part of Hatfield above Worksop, had been
declared forest; but the great Charter of John, and the forest charter
of the boy-king, Henry III., restored these parts to the common lord
of the land. The earliest extant perambulation of Sherwood, of the
year 1232, closely coincides with the still more precise perambulation
of the year 1300. The forest was at that time, roughly speaking,
twenty miles in length by eight in breadth. At the one extremity was
the county town of Nottingham, and at another was Mansfield, whilst
Worksop was close to the northern boundary. In other words, the forest
contained approximately 100,000 acres, or about a fifth of the whole
shire. These bounds were still maintained according to a perambulation
of 30 Henry VIII., but the forest began to be broken up before the
close of the sixteenth century.
Maud de Caux died in the year after the great storm, and as the office
of keeper was hereditary, according to the charter of the Earl of
Morton, she was succeeded by her son John de Birkin, and he in his
turn by his son Thomas de Birkin. In 1231 the office came to Robert
de Everingham, in right of his wife, Isabel, daughter and heiress of
Thomas. His grandson, Robert de Everingham the younger, forfeited
his keepership in 1286, owing to the grievous abuse of his position
as keeper of the King’s deer; he was imprisoned for some time in
Nottingham gaol for venison trespass. After his disgrace, the position
of chief forester or keeper of Sherwood was granted to various persons
of high position as a mark of royal favour, but it was no longer
hereditary and usually held at will.
Among the vast store of forest proceedings in the Public Record Office,
in Chancery Lane, is an exceptional amount pertaining to this important
Nottingham forest. Some attempts have been made at analysing this
information, and in occasionally setting forth certain details; but
the story of Sherwood Forest yet remains to be written, and if done in
any satisfactory fashion, might be readily extended to several volumes
of the size of the one in which this essay appears. It would not
be difficult to make such a record full of interesting and valuable
information from end to end.
The most fascinating of these records is the full story of the various
forest offences which came to light when the Forest Pleas or Eyres,
presided over by the King’s justices, were held at Nottingham. These
courts, originally supposed to be held every seven years, were in
reality summoned at much longer and fitful intervals. The earliest of
these of which details are extant was held in 1251, when the forest
was divided into three keepings or wards, each of which had their
own verderers, foresters and agisters, the last of whom regulated
the pasturage and the pannage of pigs permitted within the ward. At
the Eyre of 1267, several hundred vert offences were brought before
the court for damage to the growing timber. The most serious of
these presentments was with regard to the Abbot of Rufford, who was
charged with having felled four hundred and eighty-three oaks for
building purposes since the last Eyre; but the abbot was able to plead
successfully a charter of Henry II. as justifying his action. It does
not appear that the justices held another Forest Court until 1286–87.
It was then set forth that in the previous year there had been a
grievous outbreak of murrain amongst the deer, both red and fallow,
from which three hundred and fifty had perished. On this occasion Sir
William de Vescy and his two brother-justices laid down a variety of
special injunctions to be observed in the future administration of
Sherwood. Among these it may be mentioned that any dweller in the
forest felling a green tree was to be attached (summoned) for the next
attachment court, there to find bail till the next Eyre, and to pay the
price to the verderers; for a second offence he was to be dealt with
in a like manner, but for a third offence he was to be imprisoned at
Nottingham, and there be kept until delivered by the King or a justice
of the forest. Any one dwelling outside the forest cutting any kind of
green wood, was at once to be committed to prison until delivered by
the warrant of the King or forest justice; but for a third offence
he was also to forfeit his horses and cart, or his oxen and waggon.
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF SHERWOOD FOREST ROLL.]
Among other injunctions, it was laid down that the verderers were
to assemble every forty days, in accordance with the charter of the
forest, to hold Attachment Courts for vert and venison, and other small
pleas. There is abundant evidence that this Forty-Day Court, also known
as the Attachment Court, and sometimes as a “Swaynmote,” was held by
the verderers with much regularity for a long period in Sherwood. These
courts were usually held at four different centres, viz., at Calverton,
Edwinstowe, Linby, and Mansfield, on successive days of the same week.
The Roll of 1292–93 shows that green oak was usually valued at 6d., a
dry oak at 4d., a sapling from 1d. to 3d., and a stubb, or dry trunk
of a pollarded tree at 2d. These local courts also took cognisance
of beast trespassing, the usual fine being 1d. for a straying cow or
stirk, and 3d. for five sheep.