THE FORESTS OF NORTHUMBERLAND, CUMBERLAND, WESTMORELAND, AND DURHAM
NORTHUMBERLAND
Nearly in the centre of the county of Northumberland stands the
picturesque little town of Rothbury, “almost startling, from the beauty
of its situation.” The parish, which is over thirty miles in circuit, was
once all forest land; by far the greater part of it is much as it was in
the days of mediæval England, consisting chiefly of wild, uncultivated
moorland.
The maps still mark the tracts above and below the town as North
Forest and South Forest. Many a writer on Northumberland, even some
well-informed ones of recent times, have tried to realise how different
this district must have looked when “clothed with trees and underwood.”
But, for the most part, this never was and never could have been the case
with Rothbury forest of historic days. Nevertheless, the actual valley of
the Coquet was, beyond doubt, far more closely wooded in early days than
it is at the present time; indeed, etymologists tell us that the very
meaning of Rothbury is “the town in the clearing.”
Some twelve miles north-east of Rothbury lies the celebrated little town
of Alnwick, on the Alne, which was also surrounded by a tract of country
under forest law in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The rolls of
an eyre held at Newcastle in 1286, show that there were three bailiwicks
in the forest of Northumberland; one to the south of Rothbury and the
Coquet, another to the north of Rothbury between the Coquet and the
Alne, and a third immediately to the north of the Alne. There were four
verderers to each bailiwick.
The forest of Northumberland is repeatedly mentioned in the Patent and
Close Rolls of Henry III., at times when there were general directions
as to the forests at large. Thus in 1222, when orders were given to
the sheriffs, verderers, and foresters throughout England as to the
woodfall after the great storm, Daniel de Newcastle received particular
instructions as warden of the forest of Northumberland.
When forest perambulations were being undertaken in 1225, the duty of
surveying the Northumberland forest was assigned to Roger de Morlay and
Roger Bertram, with Nicholas de Hudham as clerk. In January, 1229, the
sheriff, foresters, and regarders were instructed to make a regard before
the end of the octave of the ensuing Easter, preparatory to the holding
of an eyre by the justices.
In 1281 a scheme for the disafforesting of Northumberland was drawn up.
The inhabitants of the forest district were to pay an annual rental of
40 marks to the Crown for this privilege, in proportion to the value of
their lands; 23 marks were to be paid by those north of the Coquet, and
the remaining 17 marks by those to the south of the same river.
In February, 1286, William de Vesey, Thomas de Normanville, and Richard
de Crepping were nominated as justices to hold an eyre of the forest of
Northumberland, to cover the period from the holding of the last eyre in
the reign of Henry III. up to the date of the disafforesting.
The barony of Alnwick was held during most of Edward I.’s reign by that
great palatinate bishop, Anthony Bek, of Durham. In 1299, a special
commission was held to inquire into the breaking of the bishop’s parks
and chase at Alnwick, where his deer had been hunted and carried away,
and arrows drawn upon his parkers, some of whom were wounded. But as the
parks and chases of this district ceased to be under forest law from
1281, their history must not be pursued any further.
Henry Algernon Percy, the sixth Earl of Northumberland, died without
issue in 1537. The family of his brother, through the attainder of their
father, who had been executed for his support of the Pilgrimage of Grace,
were incapable of succession. The earldom, therefore, became extinct, and
the chief part of the estates passed to the Crown, and thus continued for
twenty years.
[Illustration: HUNTING COSTUME. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
(See pp. 66-7.)]
Although the forest district, with its parks and warrens, did not come
under forest law by this reversion to the Crown, nevertheless a word
or two are admissible as to its governance under Henry VIII. A survey
that was taken in August, 1539, of Rothbury and its members, gives Sir
Cuthbert Ratcliffe as master of the game in the forests, chases, parks,
and warrens of Alnwick, and John Heeson as bow-bearer, with many other
masters and keepers of different parks. Cuthbert Carnabie, master of the
game in Warkworth park, was also constable of Alnwick Castle, as well
as master of the game. Among his privileges, Carnabie was entitled to as
many salmon taken in the Coquet as would serve him for keeping his house;
but he had to pay 6_d._ for each salmon, and 2_d._ for each “gylse” or
young salmon.
A perambulation of Rothbury forest shows that the master of game received
£7 a year; whilst each of the three keepers or foresters received a 1_d._
a day, in addition to blownwood, and firewood, together with “one stag in
summer and one hind in winter for the makyng of the houndes.” The keepers
of all the Alnwick parks received £3 6_s._ 8_d._ a year, together with
two horse-gates, a buck in summer and a doe in winter.
It may here, too, be mentioned that an account of the Earl of
Northumberland’s parks and games in this county, taken early in the reign
of Henry VIII., shows that there were in Holn Park 879 deer; in Cawledge
(or College) Park, 586; in Warkworth Park, 150; and in Acklington Park,
144. All of these were fallow deer, but outside the parks, in the
unenclosed parts of Rothbury forest, were 153 red deer. In his other
parks in Cumberland and Yorkshire, the earl had 3,659 head of fallow and
red deer. Holn Park, on the west side of the castle with the Alne running
through it, was at this time enclosed within a stone wall, said to be
twenty miles in compass; Cawledge Park, to the south of the castle, was
six miles in compass.
Queen Mary restored the barony and its estates, in 1557, to Thomas Percy,
reviving the earldom, and the old forest of Northumberland passed again
into a subject’s hands.
CUMBERLAND
At the time of the Norman invasion, the great forest of Inglewood
stretched from Penrith, on the south confines of the county, to Carlisle,
about twenty miles to the north. It is described in the _Chronicle of
Lanercost_ as having been “a goodly great forest, full of woods, red deer
and fallow, wild swine, and all manner of wild beasts.”
Reginald Lacy obtained a grant from King John in 1203 for himself
and Ada, his wife, daughter and co-heir of Hugh de Morvill, of the
forestership of Cumberland. In the following year he paid the
considerable sum of 900 marks, as well as five palfreys, to have livery
of the property of the said Ada, and to enjoy the keepership of the
forests of the county in as ample a way as Hugh de Morvill had held it.
Reginald died in 1214, and Ada, his widow, gave a fine of 500 marks for
livery of her inheritance including the forestership. The widow married
Thomas de Multon, who paid £100 fine and one palfrey to the Crown, soon
after the accession of Henry III., to hold the office of forestkeeper
in right of his wife. Thomas de Multon, who was frequently sheriff of
Cumberland, died in 1240, and is named as forest keeper in various
documents, such as that generally issued after the great storm of 1222.
In 1229 Thomas de Multon received orders to supply Roger de Quincy with
two stags out of the Cumberland Forest as a gift from the king. Two years
later Multon was instructed to prohibit the foresters from entertaining
or affording hospitality to those passing through the county forest.
Several manors within the forest were granted, in 1242, to the kings of
Scotland in satisfaction of their claims on the northern counties of
England, but they were resumed at a later period by Edward I.
At an eyre, held in the reign of Henry III., Robert, Bishop of Carlisle,
was fined the heavy sum of £69 6_s._ for depredation of the herbage of
Cumberland Forest; but this sum was forgiven to his executors in the next
reign.
With the beginning of Edward I.’s reign, the term Forest of Cumberland
gave way, for the most part, to the title of Inglewood Forest; but the
latter title had a more restricted signification, as the older county
forest included several manors between the river Eden and the parish of
Alston.
In 1274 Edward I. ordered an inquest to be held whether or no Alexander,
King of Scotland, and his men of Penrith and Salkeld ought to have, and
have been accustomed to have, common of pasture in any part of the park
of Plumpton, which was enclosed in the time of Henry III., and, if so,
within what bounds; and also to make like inquiry as to the King of
Scotland and his men having any claim to housebote and heybote in any
part of Inglewood Forest. Plumpton Park was disafforested in the time of
Henry VIII.
Richard le Escat, one of the Inglewood foresters, killed William, son
of Elias de Grenerigg, in the forest in 1280; but he obtained a royal
pardon, as it was proved that William was caught in the act of venison
trespass, and that he was slain on refusal to be arrested.
An eyre was held in 1285. The roll show that the forest was divided into
three bailiwicks, with twelve regarders for each. There were twelve
verderers for the whole forest. One of the more noteworthy presentments
at this eyre, cited in full by Mr. Turner in _Forest Pleas_, was the
charge that Isabel de Clifford, who held the park of Whinfell in
Westmoreland, had two deer-leaps which were nuisances to the forest, one
of them being only a league from Inglewood Forest, and the other only
a league and a half. The justices for this eyre were William de Vesey,
Thomas de Normanville and Richard de Crepping.
William de Vesey, whilst justice of the forest beyond Trent, took to
the king’s use in 1289 a hundred bucks, which he delivered to Peter de
Chaumpvent, steward of the household; fifty of these bucks came from
Inglewood Forest. He received a formal quittance for taking them in
September, 1290, when his son, John de Vesey, succeeded him as justice of
the forest.
Attachment courts were held in this forest, as was customary, every
forty-second day. There is an Inglewood attachment roll extant of the
year 1293.
A commission was issued in 1298 to inquire, by the oath of foresters
and verderers of Inglewood, in the presence of Robert de Clifford,
justice of that forest, whether the abbot of Holmcoltram had sufficient
pasture without the forest launds for his stud, draught oxen, and swine,
or not. The abbot asserted that he had chartered rights of common for
these purposes in all places in the forest between the rivers Caldew and
Alne. Certain of these launds had recently been enclosed, for the king’s
profit, by Geoffrey de Nevill and William de Vesey, heretofore justices
of that forest.
Pardon was granted in January, 1300, to John, Bishop of Carlisle, and
his men for taking a buck in this forest. In the same month, power was
granted by the Crown to Robert de Clifford, forest justice, and two
others, to divide up the king’s wastes in the wood of Allerdale, within
the forest bounds, into numbers of acres to be held by tenants at yearly
rental to the Exchequer; also to sell wood, green or dry, by view of the
foresters and other officials.
Among the various details pertinent to this forest on the Patent Rolls
of Edward II., the following may be mentioned. John de Harbela, king’s
yeoman, obtained a grant, in 1312, of the bailiwick in the forest of
Inglewood, which Thomas de Multon held, and which on account of a
forfeiture he had incurred, was in the king’s hands. Two years later
Thomas de Verdon was appointed forester in the place of Harbela. In 1315
William de Dacra was appointed steward of this forest by the Crown during
pleasure. In the same year a commission was issued to inquire into the
carrying away of certain of the king’s falcons from the eyrie in the
forest of Inglewood. Henry de Panetria, at the request of Queen Isabella,
was granted for life, in 1316, the bailiwick of the forestership of
“Gaytsheles,” in this forest. Grant was made, in 1317, of pasture
for their beasts in Inglewood Forest to the nuns of Ermynthwait, in
consequence of the severe loss that had been inflicted on them by the
king’s enemies. John de Crumbwell was warden of Inglewood in 1318, when
acquittance was granted to Robert de Tymparon, an agister within the
forest, for £4 10_s._ 9¾_d._ for pannage from the date of his being an
agister in the time of Edward I., which sum had been paid into the hands
of Robert de Barton, late keeper of the king’s victuals in the park of
Carlisle. In the same year, John de Rithre, king’s yeoman, was appointed
steward of the forest during pleasure.
The Exchequer accounts of this reign give the expenses incurred by
Robert, the squire, for a summer hunt for the king in Inglewood Forest,
which lasted for four days. His servant was paid 12_d._ a day, whilst an
allowance of ½_d._ a day each was made for ten greyhounds and for three
bercelets, or hounds that hunted by scent.
When the reign of Edward III. is reached, the record entries relative
to the forest of Inglewood, its records of Gaystall or Gatesgill, and
Penrith, and its launds of Plumpton, Hesket, Braithwait, Ivetanfield,
and Middlescough, etc., become so frequent that a considerable and
interesting volume on its annals might readily be compiled. Here there is
only space for a few brief extracts from the less known and uncalendered
rolls.
An Exchequer Roll of 1335-6, when Richard de Nevill was keeper, shows
that the laund of Plumpton, of which Roger de Wastedale was the agister,
charged 6_d._ a head for horses, 4_d._ for draught oxen, 3_d._ for
cattle, and 2_d._ for stirks. Sheep were only allowed on two or three of
the launds, and were charged at 4_d._ a score. The agistments of the year
produced £26 15_s._ 4_d._ The letting of the lodges of the forest brought
in 29_s._ 8_d._ The ward of Penrith commuted the fence month fines by
a payment of 16_s._ 8_d._ from six townships, and the ward of Gaystall
by a payment of 23_s._ 8_d._ from fourteen townships. The pannage money
was but small, indicating a decided paucity of woods; only 9½_d._ from
Penrith ward, and 6_s._ 5½_d._ from Gaystall ward. Among the attachments
of Gaystall were 6_d._ for a horse, 2_d._ for two stirks, and 12_d._ for
pigs.
There is another very full agistment and attachment roll of 1375-6,
wherein there are various fines, from 1_d._ to 12_d._, for vert offences.
The accounts of Richard, Earl of Salisbury, for this forest, in the reign
of Henry VI., are of a good deal of interest. The returns of the frequent
attachment courts are confined to vert offences; the fine for a cartload
of wood was usually 2_d._, and for a wagon 4_d._ The fence month fine
money in Gaystall ward was 20_s._, contributed by twelve townships, far
the heaviest share being 6_s._ 8_d._ from the city of Carlisle. The like
fine for Penrith ward amounted to 13_s._ 8_d._, of which Penrith itself
paid 6_s._ 8_d._ The dead wood of Gaystall ward produced 11_s._, and
that of Penrith 20_s._ The small amount of actual wood within this wide
sweep of forest is again shown by the lowness of the pannage fees, which
only amounted to 6_s._ 0½_d._ in the two wards. References in forest
accounts to churches or chapels (save in the matter of tithes) are quite
exceptional; but in these rolls certain rents of lands at Grueythwaite
(Greenthwaite) are assigned to a chapel there, which had recently been
rebuilt.
A survey of Inglewood Forest, taken on 8th August, 1539, mentions
Sir Henry Wharton as master of game, and William Hoton, Esquire, as
bow-bearer. The officers in the sub-forests of Ashdale and Wastedalehead
were Sir Thomas Wharton, master of game, Richard Vikars and Thomas
Nycholson, foresters of Ashdale, and William Fletcher and Nicholas
Hunter, foresters of Wastedalehead. The sub-forest of Westwood had the
same master of game, and Micah Avon bow-bearer, with Richard Dykes and
Thomas Wilson keepers. The sub-forest of Nicholl had Sir William Musgrave
as master of game. The keepers of Wastedale had a hart in summer and a
hind in winter, equally divided between them.
An expense roll of this forest for the first year of Elizabeth is chiefly
occupied with the details of repairs done to the “court houses” of
Penrith, Sowerby, and Gaystall. Repairs were also done to the leads, and
the glass and iron of the windows of Kidkirk chancel at a charge of £3
6_s._ 8_d._
Charles II., on his marriage with Katharine of Braganza, settled on her,
as part of the royal dower, the forest of Inglewood.
In 1696, the forest of Inglewood was granted by the Crown to William
Bentinck, first Earl of Portsmouth, as an appurtenance of the honor of
Penrith.
In Jefferson’s _Cumberland_, published in 1840, it is stated that the
forest or swainmote courts for the seigniory of Hesket were still held
annually on June 11th in the open air, on the great north road to
Carlisle, the place being marked by a stone table placed before a thorn
called Court Thorn; at this court a variety of annual dues were paid to
the lord of the forest.
On Wragmire Moss, in the same parish, a well-known ancient oak, spoken of
as the last tree of Inglewood Forest, fell “from sheer old age” on June
13th, 1823.
WESTMORELAND
A considerable tract of wild land in this county was rendered subject
to the fierce rule of the early forest laws in the time of Henry II.
and John; but all this was disafforested by the Forest Charter, 1217,
which only recognised as forests those tracts of country which had been
in that condition when Henry II. came to the throne. In 1225, grave
complaint was lodged by the knights and proved men of Westmoreland that
certain magnates of the county were continuing to treat the disafforested
demesne as though still subject to forest fines and penalties, to the
great injury of the inhabitants. Thereupon letters patent was issued by
the Crown sternly reprobating such action, addressed in the first place
to William de Lancaster, Baron of Kendal, with duplicates to Robert
de Vezpont, sheriff of Westmoreland, to Earl Warren for the wood of
Incelemor, and to Matilda de Lascy for the wood of Pippin.
It was doubtless in consequence of this royal reminder that John de
Vezpont, when he succeeded his father three years later, granted to the
lords of the manor of Warcop, Sandford, Burton, and Hilton, in this
county, freedom from foresters’ puture, and from all things that might be
demanded of that nature.
DURHAM
There is no mention of any forest of the county of Durham in the lists
of royal forests _temp._ Henry III., and there was certainly no district
under forest laws throughout by far the greater part of Durham. The
forest of Teesdale is, however, occasionally named in the latter part of
the fifteenth and in the first half of the sixteenth century. The number
of fallow and red deer in this forest in 1538-9 has already been cited.
In the western angle of the county, where it is separated from
Yorkshire on the south by the river Tees, and where it reaches out
to both Cumberland and Westmoreland, Durham was in contiguity with
forest districts of other counties, and forest laws probably there
prevailed over a small area. An extensive township of the old widespread
parish of Middleton-in-Teesdale still bears the reduplicated name of
Forest-and-Frith; it begins 4½ miles north-west from Middleton, and ends
on the borders of Westmoreland, near the sources of the Tees. At the
furthest extremity of the wild district of Forest-and-Frith is Harwood,
the very name denoting a tract of ancient woodland. Various of the
smaller place-names and field names have reference to deer, and a few to
the former presence of wolf and boar.
The large parish of Stanhope, immediately to the north of Middleton,
has a western division termed Forest Quarter extending to the borders
of Cumberland, just above Harwood, and including Weardale. Leland,
writing in the time of Henry VIII., said: “There resorte many rede dere,
stragelers, to the mountaines of Weredale.” The forest of Weardale was
held by the Bishops of Durham; the _Boldon Book_, of the twelfth century,
affords many interesting particulars as to the hunting regulations of
the district, but as it was not royal forest it would be foreign to our
purpose to cite them.
Whatever small portion of Durham may at some time have been under forest
law could only have attained that position through the overlap of some
forest at its western extremity, whose administration pertained to
another county.
In the crypt of Durham Cathedral is an unusually fine memorial slab of
the latter half of the thirteenth century, which must have marked the
interment of some chief forester or warden of a northern forest. On
the sinister side of the cross is a sheathed sword with the sword belt
twisted round it. On the dexter is a long bow-string, with the arrow
fitted in the notch and the head showing on the further side of the
sword. On the bow rests what appears to be the distinctive cap of the
master of the forest, whilst in the angle above, between the bow and the
string, is a small paddle-shaped implement, which may possibly indicate
water or fishing rights.
[Illustration: CHIEF FORESTER’S SLAB
DURHAM CRYPT]