THE FORESTS OF CHESHIRE
The history of the royal forest of Wirral, as well as of other Cheshire
forests, yet remains to be written. There are two large histories of the
hundred of Wirral (Mortimer, 1847; and Sulley, 1889), but neither of them
give more than a sentence or two to the story of its forest. There are
citations from and references to various documents pertaining to this
forest in Helsley’s fine edition of Ormerod’s _Cheshire_ (1882); but
there is much information to be gleaned that has not been touched.
On 11th September, 1275, the Crown instructed Gaucelin de Badelesmere,
justice of Chester, to permit Roger Lestrange to take two stags in the
forest of Wirral for the king’s use, and to cause them to be salted and
brought with other venison to the king at Westminster by Michaelmas.
In August, 1279, the same justice was ordered to cause the abbot of St.
Werburgh’s, Chester, to have a hart in Wirral forest for the feast of
that saint.
Licence was granted, in 1283, to the lepers of the house of Bebington,
within the forest, to enclose five acres of their waste and bring it
into cultivation; but the dyke was to be a small one and the hedge low,
so that the deer if they desired could leap it. In 1303 a hind that was
found dead in the forest, with an arrow in its side, was given to these
lepers according to the forest assize, but the arrow was the perquisite
of the forester.
By an ordinance of 1284 it was provided that a hart was to be given
annually to the abbey of Chester on the feast of St. Werburgh, and
also the tithe of the venison yearly, in aid of the great work of the
building of the church, as was done in the forest of Delamere.
In 1328 the chamberlain of Chester was ordered to pay Richard de Weford
the arrears of his wages as riding forester of Wirral, and to continue
them annually, as the king had appointed Richard to this office at the
request of Queen Isabel before his accession, in consideration of his
services to her, and he was to hold this office for life provided he
conducted himself well in the bailiwick. There seems to have been some
neglect about this order, for it was repeated in 1329 to Oliver de
Ingham, justice of Chester.
The citizens of Chester suffered so much from the shelter afforded to
marauders by the forest so closely adjacent to its walls, that they
petitioned Edward the Black Prince, then Earl of Chester, to cause it to
be disforested. This was accomplished, but not until after the prince’s
death, just at the close of the reign of Edward III. The Stanleys
valued the perquisites of the master forestership at £40 per annum, but
only received a pension of twenty marks on the abolition of the forest
jurisdiction. Although at this date they lost all power and perquisites,
the Stanleys of Hooton long continued titular foresters of Wirral, and
were so styled in documents of the reign of Henry VII.
There was a good deal of woodland throughout the forest of Wirral in
early days, as is proved, _inter alia_, by place and field names such
as Woodchurch, Ashfield, Maplegreen, Okhill, etc. Place names also show
where the lodges of several of the old wards or divisions of the forest
stood. There is an old adage that says:—
“From Blacon point to Hillree
A squirrel could leap from tree to tree.”
That is, from Chester to the extreme north-western point of the peninsula
of Wirral; but it is highly unlikely that this was the case in historic
times. At all events, the wood had seriously diminished some years before
Wirral was disforested, for in 1359 William Stanley, the hereditary
forester, received a grant of four oaks out of the forest of Greves from
the Black Prince, as he understood that Stanley had no wood for fuel in
his own forest.
Within this forest was Shotwick Park, attached to the strong royal castle
of that name. Various references to the game and timber in this forest
are given by Ormerod.
THE FOREST OF MARA AND MOUDREM
These two considerable forests of Cheshire are generally mentioned in old
documents in conjunction, although they had in some respects separate
jurisdiction. The whole of this united forest district extended over all
the hundred of Eddisbury save a few parishes, and over a greater part of
the hundred of Nantwich. The forest of Mara was bounded by the Mersey
on the north, and had the forest of Wirral on the west, whilst that of
Moudrem stretched out to the south-east in the direction of Nantwich.
Ormerod tells us that “the jurisdiction was originally vested in four
families”—Kingsley of Kingsley, Grosvenor of Budworth, Wever of Wever,
and Merton of Merton, by which we suppose is meant that these four
families held hereditary foresterships-of-fee. The master forestership of
the whole was conferred early in the twelfth century on Ralph de Kingsley
to hold on horn tenure, in the same way as that of Wirral. The Dones
afterwards succeeded to the Kingsleys in the master forestership and in
the forestership-of-fee. At the forest pleas, held at Chester in 1271,
each of the four foresters-of-fee were fined heavily for destruction of
woods; Done and Grosvenor £13 6_s._ 8_d._ each, Merton £10, and Wever
£5. Richard Done, as chief forester of Mara and Moudrem, claimed at that
eyre to have eight under-foresters and two grooms, who boarded with the
tenants; two strikes of oat at Lent from every tenant for provender for
his own horse; bracken at all times save the hunting season; pannage and
agistment of pigs; windfalls, and lops of felled trees; crabstakes and
stubbs; half the bark of felled trees; all cattle and goats taken at
non-agistment times, ½_d._ each, and the same of straying beasts between
Michaelmas and Martinmas; all sparrowhawks, merlins, and hobbies; all
swarms of bees; the right shoulder of every deer taken in the forest;
the horns and skin of every “stroken deer” found dead; waifs found in
the forest; the hunting of foxes, hares, cats, weasels, and other vermin
with hounds or greyhounds; and the _pelfe_, or best beast of any that
committed felony or trespass in the forest, and fled for the same, the
lord having the residue.
The forest of Delamere, as it was afterwards called, was disafforested by
Act of Parliament in 1812. Various interesting particulars are given by
Ormerod, chiefly taken from the Harl. MSS.
FOREST PLEAS OF WIRRAL AND DELAMERE
A joint eyre was held at Chester for the forests of “Wirrall, Mara et
Moudrem,” in August, 1347, which has hitherto escaped the attention of
county historians. It was over twenty years since the last of these
pleas had been held. Thomas de Ferrars was the justice in charge of the
pleas. A considerable number of claims were brought forward, supported by
charters which were enrolled. Among them were the claims of the abbots
of Chester, Basingwerk, and Chester. One of the lay claims was that of
William de Stanley, as chief forester of Wirral, to hunt hares and foxes
with greyhounds at all times of the year; and that of John de Pennesley
to dig turves, burn charcoal, and to obtain litter at any time of the
year in Wirral forest, and to hunt with greyhounds and other dogs on
foot, as well as large rights of pasturage. But some of the claimants
overreached themselves, and were fined for making claims which they
failed to establish. Among those who were thus mulcted were the abbot
of Basingwerk, 40_s._; the abbot of Vale Royal, 21_s._, and Robert de
Bradeford and Robert de Swynnerton half a mark each.
There were a very great number of cases of purpresture or encroachment
at these pleas, showing that the regard that preceded the pleas must
have been a thorough one. As examples, the following may be briefly
mentioned: John Hotherinde was indicted for building a certain house
without warrant; he was declared in mercy, and the house was ordered to
be levelled. Richard de Trafford had enclosed five acres without warrant;
he was in mercy, and the fences were to be destroyed and the land thrown
open. Robert le Hog was charged with taking eighty acres of moor and
marsh in the parish of Wimbalds Trafford for agisting his own beasts
without warrant, to the annual value of 40_s._, and this for the last
twenty years, so that there was neither agistment nor pannage for anyone
else; he was declared in mercy, and the eighty acres were to be taken
from him. In another case a man had erected a mill without licence, and
the building was ordered to be pulled down; and in another case a man was
in mercy for opening a marl pit.
The vert presentments of Wirral forest were exceedingly numerous. They
were all cases of felling trees, not mere lopping. Their values varied
from 2_s._ to 40_s._ Like presentments were also very numerous from Mara
and Moudrem; the value charges, in addition to court fines, varied from
2_s._ to 20_s._ In some cases the transgressions were of a wholesale
character, such as that of Thomas de Erdeswyk, who had felled sixty oaks.
He was dead, but his wife appeared, and was fined a mark. Sir William de
Legh, deputy keeper of Mara and Moudrem under Richard Doun, was charged
by the jury with selling wood out of the lordship to the value of more
than £100, and the same in conjunction with the sub-forester, doing
the like in the forest of Moudrem to the extent of 100 marks. It is
interesting to note the appreciation shown for a well-grown and beautiful
tree; Peter de Thornton was charged with felling and carrying off _una
pulcherrima quercus_, valued at 40_s._
The venison cases show that there was an abundance of game, both red and
fallow. Richard Spark was charged with killing many harts and hinds, as
well as bucks and does, in Delamere forest, the exact number not being
known. In Wirral forest two men who had killed a stag were released from
imprisonment on paying the respective fines of 40_s._ and 20_s._ In
another case in the same forest the transgressors had been hunting deer
with a strangely mixed pack, consisting of a greyhound, a mastiff, and a
cur.
The presentments at these pleas were made, for Wirral, by William de
Stanley, keeper; Henry de Acton, riding forester, and by Richard de
Haydock and five other foresters; those for Mara et Moudrem, or Delamere,
by Richard Doun, keeper, Thomas de Clyve, riding forester, and by Robert
Shefeld and six other foresters.
THE FOREST OF MACCLESFIELD
Cheshire possessed another considerable forest on the east side of the
county. About a third of the large hundred of Macclesfield, including
the town of Macclesfield and eighteen other townships, was forest even
at the time of the Domesday Survey. It was usually known as the forest
of Macclesfield; but in its earlier life, from its position on the
borders of the palatinate, it was often called the forest of Lyme. The
hereditary forestership or keepership of this forest, in conjunction with
that of Leek, was granted to Richard Davenport, of Davenport, towards
the end of the twelfth century, by Hugh Kevelioc, Earl of Chester. It
continued attached to the earldom of Chester until its termination,
when it passed to the Crown. But at an early date the forest area was
materially lessened by a variety of Crown grants. A considerable portion,
however, was not alienated from the Crown until after the Restoration.
Up to the period of the Commonwealth the open forest was fairly well
stocked with deer. Under the chief forester there were eight hereditary
foresters-of-fee, bound to the performance of certain duties (often
exercised by deputy), and possessed of considerable liberties. In the
time of Edward I. the foresters’ liberties included the hunting of hare,
fox, squirrel, and cat, with rights of fishing, fowling, and nutting.
In addition to pannage and pasturage liberties, they also claimed the
forearm (_spanda_) of deer taken in the forest, and all of any deer found
dead in the forest, save the four limbs, which went to the manor of
Macclesfield.
Swainmotes were regularly held at Macclesfield, and forest pleas, from
time to time, in the same town, under the justice of Chester. Ormerod
(iii. 539) gives a transcript of a swainmote of this forest _temp._
Elizabeth, and a few other particulars; but the history of this forest
remains practically unwritten, and not for lack of material.