THE FOREST OF DEAN
The history of this important forest has received far more attention
at the hands of local historians than has usually been the case with
the ancient wastes of other counties. In Atkyn’s _Ancient and Present
State of Gloucestershire_ (1768), it is accounted the third in size of
the forty-eight ancient forests of England, and a fair outline of its
history is given. This account is materially supplemented in Rudder’s
_New History of Gloucestershire_ (1779), and was further followed up in
Bigland’s _Historical Collections_ (1741). The third report (115 folio
pages) of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, 1783-97, is almost
wholly given up to the consideration of Dean Forest. Many of these facts
are to be found in Fosbroke’s _Record of Gloucestershire_ (1807). The
Rev. H. G. Nicholls, in 1858, published an _An Historical and Descriptive
Account of the Forest of Dean_, which covered 286 pages, and to this
he added, in 1863, a supplementary volume on _The Personalities of the
Forest of Dean_, containing much fresh information.
There is still, however, so large an amount of unused material extant
with regard to the history of this forest, that a monograph, which
promises to be of an exhaustive character, is now (1905) in course of
preparation. All that can be here attempted is to give a very brief
outline of the forest annals, citing a variety of information that has
not hitherto been published.
The forest of Dean forms a considerable division in the west of
Gloucestershire, and comprises about 30,000 acres between the rivers
Severn and Wye. Of its great dimensions Michael Drayton thus sings in his
_Polyolbion_:—
——Queen of forests all that west of Severn lie,
Her broad and bushy top Dean holdeth up so high,
The lesser are not seen, she is so tall and large.
It derives its name from Dean, the old market town of that name within
the forest bounds. The tithes of the forest venison were granted by Henry
I. to the abbey of Gloucester. Henry II. granted to the abbey of Flaxley,
founded in 1140, the right to have two forges for the making of iron in
the forest, one stationary and the other itinerant. For the feeding of
these forges the abbey was allowed two trees every week. The keepership
of the forest was usually associated with the custody of the castle of
St. Briavel, which is said to have been built by Milo, Earl of Hereford,
in the reign of Henry I.
The restless King John, as is shown from his itinerary, was frequently
sojourning in the forest between the years 1207 and 1214, doubtless for
purposes of the chase; he generally stopped a day or two both at the
abbey of Flaxley and the castle of St. Briavel during his visits. In
February, 1215, when staying at Marlborough, he directed Hugh de Nevill
to permit William de Cliff to take four hinds in the forest of Dean,
and John de Monmouth and Walter de Lasey three each. In June, 1216, the
king appointed John de Monmouth to the custody of the castle of St.
Briavel and to the keepership of the forest, and directed the verderers,
foresters, and other officials to submit themselves to him as the king’s
bailiff. Two months later John instructed the newly-appointed keeper to
find everything that was necessary for Alberic, his huntsman, with twelve
dogs, two horses, two grooms, and a berner.
On 30th September, 1216, John wrote from Lincoln to the constable of St.
Briavel, ordering that cattle were only to be agisted on the fringes of
the forest, and not in the forest itself, nor in those places frequented
by the wild boars (_porci silvestres_).
The Close Rolls of Henry III. abound in references to this great
Gloucestershire waste, but lack of space prevents the majority of these
cases being cited here.
Boar hunting at this period was sufficiently important for Henry III.
to grant in 1226 a tithe of the boars thus killed to the abbey of
Gloucester. In December of that year the king was hunting here in person,
and he instructed Roger de Clifford to hand over to the sheriff of
Gloucester, for due conveyance, five great boars, fifteen hinds, and the
rest of the results of the royal hunt. In the summer of the following
year the king was supplied with ten harts from this forest. In July,
1231, when John, the huntsman, was taking harts for the king’s use at
Dean, he was ordered to dispatch a hart without delay to Eleanor, the
king’s cousin. From these and many later entries it is quite clear that
the red deer largely predominated in Dean forest during the first half
of the thirteenth century, though there was a small admixture of fallow
deer; but the proportions were reversed before the time Edward I. came to
the throne.
The regulations with regard to the forges of this forest for iron-making
were frequent, stringent, and changeable. The necessity for limiting them
arose from the quantity of fuel they required. The manor of Cantelupe
had early chartered right to an itinerant forge, and endeavours were
made from time to time to confine its consumption to dry or windfallen
wood. In 1228 the king gave orders that there were not to be more than
three itinerant forges worked by the royal servants. In the following
year the abbot of Faxley was ordered to confine his itinerant forge to
the thorn thickets (_spissitudinibus_) on the confines of the forest. So
much difficulty arose from the abbey’s insistence on its old chartered
rights to two forges, that in 1244 the Crown compromised the matter by
the handsome grant of 872 acres of woodland in exchange for the charter’s
surrender.
In 1225 Henry III. granted a recluse, or hermit, named Panye de Lench,
four acres of land in the forest and two oaks wherewith to build himself
a house.
It is stated in Nicholls’ history of this forest that the first recorded
perambulation took place in the reign of Edward I., but this is an error.
A perambulation was undertaken by an inquest of twelve knights in 1228,
with the result that the bounds were declared to be the same as in the
days of Henry II. The forest occupied the whole peninsula ground between
the Wye and the Severn, proceeding north-east as far as Newent, and north
as far as Ross, save that the Bishop of Hereford had a chase in the wood
of Laxpeniard, and the Earl Marshal a warren at Tudenham.
Forest pleas were held in 1258 and again in 1270. The next eyre was in
10 Edward I., when the bounds of 28 Henry III. were confirmed. At that
date there were nine bailiwicks in the forest, each under the charge of
an hereditary forester-in-fee, and all subordinate to the constable of
St. Briavel, who was the keeper, or master forester, of the whole. He
also had the special charge of the tenth bailiwick of Rywardyn. The nine
other bailiwicks and their respective foresters were Abbenhalle, under
Ralph de Abbenhalle; Blakeney, under Walter de Astune; Bleythe, under
Ralph Hatheway; Berse, under William Wodeard; Bicknoure, under Cecilia de
Michegros; the Lea, under Nicholas de Lacu; Great Dean, then in the hands
of the king; Little Dean, under Ralph de Abbenhalle; and Stauntene, under
Richard de la More. The verderers were four in number, and elected, as
elsewhere, by the freeholders for life, but removable by the Crown.
Of these pleas of the forest of Dean, which were held at Gloucester
in the octave of St. Hilary, 1282, before Luke de Thany, Adam Gurdon,
Richard de Crepping, and Peter de Lench, justices, exceptionally long
details are extant. The first membrane is taken up with twenty-seven
_essoins de morte_, established in each case by the appearance of the
heir, near relative, or some other responsible person; and with the
names of fifty-eight persons who surrendered themselves on the first
day of the session for venison trespasses, ten for vert trespasses,
and two for heath-burning. Fines, varying from 12_d._ to 40_d._ were
imposed on upwards of seventy persons for non-appearance. Among the vert
presentments were charges of taking timber for sale by boat to Bristol,
and a few cases of charcoal burning.
The presentments of venison trespasses were very numerous; they cover
both sides of eight long membranes. They are arranged chronologically,
beginning in 1271, after the last eyre, when the Earl of Warwick was
keeper of the forest, and continuing through the keepership of Philip
Wyther and Walter de Snape up to the year of the eyre.
The great majority of the cases are concerned with fallow deer, but in
a few cases the killing of red deer, and in two instances roe deer are
recorded. Boats on the river were much used by venison as well as vert
trespassers.
The regard of the forest, which had been taken in preparation for the
eyre, is set forth in great detail on six membranes—the old and new
assarts, the old and new purprestures, and the survey and destruction
of woods. In the last case it was presented that the wood of chestnuts
had much deteriorated since the last eyre, through the bad custody of
Ralph Abbenhall, the forester-in-fee of the baily of Abbenhall. The
regarders found there thirty-four stumps of chestnuts that had recently
been felled, of which Roger de Clifford, the justice, had had two for
making tables. A wood of sweet chestnuts was a great rarity in England,
and evidently much prized. When Henry II. founded Flaxley abbey, he gave
the monks the tithes of the chestnuts of Dean. The old name for Flaxley,
as mentioned in the foundation charter, was the valley of Castiard, a
place-name probably derived from the presence of the chestnut trees. The
vert presentments of this eyre show that the chestnut, from its rarity,
was about three times the value of the oak, namely, 8_s._ a tree.
The regarders also reported as to the boats owned by the tenants, which
were so often used for the illegal exporting of wood and timber. The
regarders estimated the damage done to the king by each boat in sums
varying from half a mark to forty shillings. These sums, with a usual
additional fine of 12_d._, were exacted by the justices.
This highly interesting roll of forest pleas, one of the fullest extant,
which specially deserves being printed _in extenso_, concludes with long
lists of mainpernors or the givers of bail, and with statements of claims
to liberties and the names of the attorneys by whom they were supported.
At the time of this eyre there were found to be, according to Nicholls,
no fewer than seventy-two of the itinerary or movable forges within the
forest; the Crown received for licensing them 7_s._ each a year.
Mr. Nicholls has printed much concerning the receipts and expenditure of
this Crown forest, from the Pipe Rolls of 1130 downwards, and this could
easily be supplemented by further particulars, especially of the reign
of Edward II. Throughout the fourteenth century the forest of Dean was
frequently called upon to furnish considerable contingents of archers
and miners to serve in the wars with Scotland and France. In 1316 the
men of the forest also took a prominent part in the suppression of Welsh
disturbances. Three commissioners of array were appointed in February for
the purpose of raising a force of 1,000 foot soldiers in the forest of
Dean and elsewhere in the county of Gloucester, who were to be marched,
at the king’s wages, against Llewellyn Bren and his followers.
In 1316, tithes to the value of £10 issuing from the iron mines in the
parish of Newland were granted to the Bishop of Llandaff; but this
assignment met with great opposition at the hands of the Dean and Chapter
of Hereford, who sent their servants to use forcible resistance. In
the following reign this dispute was settled in favour of the bishop,
who also obtained the great tithes of Newland and the advowson of the
vicarage. In 1324 the Earl of Pembroke was ordered to cause his ministers
to desist from hindering the abbot of Gloucester from felling wood for
his houses and for fuel in the woods of Bridewode and Hopemaloysel within
the forest bounds, as he held an ancient chartered privilege.
Edward III., in 1329, granted to Guy de Brien, the farmer and keeper of
the forest, the cutting of all the underwood, to find wages for four
foresters. In the same year Gilbert Talbot was licensed to impark and
hold in fee-simple a plot called Haygrove, parcel of his manor of Lynton,
Herefordshire, containing one hundred acres of land and fifteen acres of
wood, which was within the metes of the forest in the time of Edward II.,
but had by perambulation been then placed outside the forest.
Notwithstanding their bravery and skill as soldiers, the inhabitants of
some parts of the forest had an evil reputation as wreckers. Thus in 1344
a special commission was issued to deal with the persons who had attacked
a ship of Majorca, laden with goods and wares, which had been driven
ashore by stress of weather in the parts of the forest of Dean, and had
plundered the master and mariners of the ship and others deputed to guard
the goods, and this at a time when the king had entered into truces with
his adversaries on every side.
Richard II., in 1391, granted the castle of St. Briavel and the forest
of Dean, to the value of £80 a year, with assarts, purprestures, rents,
advowsons, liberties, etc., to his uncle Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, in
part satisfaction of the sum of £1,000 a year granted to him to maintain
his ducal rank.
In the days of Henry VI. the character of the miners and tenants of
the forest had grown worse. The men of Tewkesbury, in a petition to
Parliament of 1430, charged them with attacking their vessels, by which
they conveyed goods down the river to Bristol, “with great ryot and
strengthe in manner of warre,” despoiling them of their merchandise and
their wheat, malt, and flour, sinking their boats and drowning those who
resisted them.
The Crown was continuously appointing, during the latter part of the
fifteenth century, to various offices in this forest, the duties of
which were generally discharged by deputy, or granting charges on the
receipts to their servants. Thus in 1480, Edward IV. granted to Robert
Mutton, “gentilman,” the office of porter of St. Brivel and receiver of
the forest of Dean; to William Sclatter, the king’s servant, in 1481, the
parkership of Whightmede park and 4_d._ daily from the forest issues; and
to John Grenehill, one of the Crown yeomen, in the same year, 6_d._ daily
from the issues of the king’s mines. Richard III., in 1484-5, granted to
George Hyett the office of riding forester, together with that of “ale
cunner” in the parish of Newland; and to John Peke the life office of one
of the rangerships.
The suppression of the monasteries brought about much confusion in this
and other forests. Dean forest was more especially effected by the
dissolution of the abbeys of Flaxley and Tintern. The Kingstons, father
and son, to whom much of the monastic properties and forest privileges
were granted, were insistent on their rights, but failed to discharge the
obligations that had been fulfilled by the religious houses.
It has been stated both by Fuller and Evelyn that the Spaniards so fully
recognised the great value of Dean forest, as supplying the best timber
for England’s navy, that special instructions were given to the admirals
of the Armada, to accomplish the devastation of these woods, even if they
were not able to subdue the nation and make good their conquest.
A grant was made to William Earl of Pembroke, in 1611, of the castle
of St. Briavel and of the forest, with all its appurtenances, save the
timber, for forty years at a rental of £83 13_s._ 4_d._ A survey of 1638
returned that the forest contained 105,557 trees, containing 61,928 tons
of timber, in addition to 153,209 cords of underwood. An entire sale was
thereupon made by the Crown to Sir John Wintour of all woods, mines,
quarries, etc., within the forest in consideration of £106,000, to be
paid by instalments, and a fee-farm rent of £1,950 12_s._ 8_d._ for ever.
The commissioners and commoners agreed at this time to the disafforesting
and enclosure of 18,000 acres.
Sir John Wintour, on entering into possession, made many enclosures,
and grubbed up much timber and underwood; but the outbreak of the Civil
War checked his proceedings, and the inhabitants threw down all the
enclosures. For a time it seemed as if general lawlessness would bring
about the destruction of all the woods, but Cromwell and the Parliament
took vigorous measures for their preservation in 1648. An Act was passed
in 1656 by which Wintour’s grant was declared void, and the whole forest
was vested in the Protector for the use of the Commonwealth.
At the Restoration, however, Wintour again entered into possession, and
began to re-enclose. The inhabitants offered strenuous resistance, and
the matter was referred to a commission to survey and report. It was
found that there were 25,929 oaks and 4,204 beeches, “as good timber
as any in the world.” A new treaty was entered into with Wintour in
1661, by which he surrendered his former patent, and agreed to preserve
11,335 tons of shipping timber. It was, however, reported to the House
in 1663 that Wintour had 500 cutters at work, and that the woods would
all speedily disappear unless there was further interference. The work
of destruction went merrily on until 1668, when it was decided by Act of
Parliament that 11,000 acres might be enclosed by the Crown; that all the
wood and timber on the remaining 13,000 acres was to be vested absolutely
in the Crown and reafforested; that the deer on that waste were never to
exceed 800; and that the winter heyning and fence month, when no kind of
cattle were to be agisted, was to extend from St. Martin’s Day to St.
George’s Day in April, and for fifteen days before and fifteen days after
Midsummer.
Into the question of the pulling down of the king’s iron works in the
forest, in 1674, and the establishment and continuance of the Mine Law
Court, space prohibits us to enter. The more recent development of coal
and iron industries in this beautiful district is also foreign to our
purpose.
As to the deer, which seem to have been almost entirely fallow after
the Restoration, they became much reduced in number by the end of the
eighteenth century, although a most elaborate and costly staff of forest
officials were maintained. The commission of 1788 found that there was a
warden, six deputy wardens, four verderers, a steward of the swainmote
court (which never sat), nine foresters-in-fee, nine woodwards, and six
keepers! Mr. Charles Edwin, chief forester-of-fee and bow-bearer, told
the commissioners that he was entitled to the right shoulder of all bucks
and does killed in the forest, and to ten fee-bucks and ten fee-does
annually; and that as bow-bearer it was his duty to attend the king with
bow and arrow and with six men clothed in green whenever His Majesty
might be pleased to hunt in the forest. But though receiving all his
venison perquisites, this chief forester-of-fee was so ignorant of any
corresponding duties, that he could not tell the commissioners the number
of deer or anything as to venison warrants executed in the forest. From
the six keepers the commissioners gained the vague information that they
believed there were about 500 “of all sort” in the forest. The deer were
finally all destroyed or removed from the forest in 1850, as the result
of Lord Duncan’s committee of the previous year, to the number of about
150 bucks and 300 does. The general feeling at that time was that their
presence had a demoralising effect as an inducement to poaching.