THE FORESTS OF SUSSEX
In early historic days, almost the whole of Sussex, together with
considerable parts of Kent and Surrey, formed one great forest, called
by the Britons Coit Andred, from its vast extent. The Saxons called it
Andredes-weald, which was doubtless adapted from the Anderida Silva of
the Roman Itineraries. The Saxon Chronicle, under date 893, gives its
extent as 120 miles long from east to west, and thirty miles in breadth.
That considerable part of the county which remained forest or open till
much later days—some, indeed, until the present time—was known as the
Forest Ridge; it formed the elevated district of the north-eastern part
of the county, and stretched in a north-westerly direction along the
borders of Surrey. The principal sections of this are still known as the
forests of St. Leonard and of Ashdown.
Young, in his _Agricultural Survey_, at the end of the eighteenth
century, said: “A great proportion of these hills is nothing better than
the poorest barren sand, the vegetable covering consisting of ferns,
heath, etc. St. Leonard’s Forest contains 10,000 acres of it, and Ashdown
18,000 more, besides many thousand acres in various other parts of the
county.”
Ashdown forest is described by Mr. Turner, in a good paper contributed
to the collections of the Sussex Archæological Society (vol. xiv.), as
consisting of about 10,000 acres, situated in the parishes of Maresfield,
Fletching, East Grinstead, Hartfield, Withyham, and Buxted. It formed
part of the honor of Pevensey, and from 53 Henry III. was invested in the
Crown in perpetuity, and hence was a technical forest under forest law, a
position that it did not lose when it came to John of Gaunt in 44 Edward
III. It reverted to the Crown, with the rest of the Duchy of Lancaster,
until the time of Charles II., when it was formally disafforested, and
found its way into the hands of speculators in waste lands. Various Tudor
commissions show that the timber suffered severely from the inroads made
on it to supply charcoal for the iron foundries.
In the early part of Edward I.’s reign, the free chace and warren of
Ashdown were held by the king’s mother. Proceedings were taken in 1283
against divers persons for hunting and carrying away deer and rabbits
from her park at Maresfield. In 1297, Edward I. granted Thomas Paynel
licence for life to hunt with his own dogs, the fox, hare, cat, and
badger in the king’s forest of Ashdown except during fence month; it was
also specially stipulated that he did not take deer, nor course in the
king’s warrens. On 30th July of that year, the king appointed Walter
Waldeshef to the bailiwick of the forestership of Ashdown, on condition
that he answered for the same in like manner as his predecessors. Ashdown
was a favourite hunting resort of James I., and it was well stocked with
deer. The Parliamentary Survey of its seven wards is extant, as well
as a great variety of papers of earlier date. The history of this and
the other forests of Sussex yet remains to be written, though certain
contributions in that direction were made by Mr. W. S. Ellis in his
_Parks and Forests of Sussex_, published in 1885.
St. Leonards Forest lies north-east of Horsham, and forms part of the
great parish of Beeching. It would be more correct to speak of St.
Leonards Chace; the whole body of the forest law never prevailed here, as
it was granted in early days by the Crown to the Braose family. An entry
in the Patent Rolls of 1st September, 1295, relative to a raid in this
district on deer, hares, rabbits, pheasants, herons, and fish, when the
owner was absent on the king’s service in Wales, styles it the free chace
of William Braose, called the forest of St. Leonards (_liberam chaciam
Willelmi de Brewosa que vocatur foresta sancti Leonardi_). Four years
later a like entry on the same rolls relative to deer poaching describes
it as the free chace of William Braose at St. Leonards.
The forest of Arundel, though of limited extent, was well stocked, and
formed an important adjunct of the honor of Arundel. The forest pertained
to the earls of Arundel, as is stated in the Close Rolls of 1206, but
during a long minority in the time of Henry III., and again in the time
of Edward I., came under the control of the Crown. The chief point of
interest in its history is the disputes that arose as to the deer between
the earls and the archbishops of Canterbury, who claimed the hunting.
There was an appeal to Rome on the subject in 1238, and it was not until
1258 that the renewed disputes were finally settled by an agreement that
the archbishop might, on giving notice to the forest ministers, hunt
once a year when going to or returning from his manor of Slindon, with
six greyhounds, but with no other kind of dogs, nor with bows; and that
if more than one beast was taken by the party, the remainder were to be
handed over to the earl. It was also stipulated that the earl and his
heirs should annually deliver thirteen bucks and thirteen does to the
archbishop at the proper season.