Our early Norman and Plantagenet Kings were men of iron hand and
determined will, for the most part acknowledging, in practice at
least, whatever they might in theory, scarcely any law except their
own behests, and having little regard to the wants and wishes of
their subjects, whom they looked upon as not much better than slaves.
Hence every opportunity was seized by them of stretching their
prerogative and power at the expense of the peoples’ rights and
property.
A flagrant instance of this is found in the Conqueror’s
proceedings respecting the "New Forest," in the formation
of which he is said by Odericus Vitalis, "to have laid
waste more than sixty parishes, compelling the inhabitants to
emigrate to other places, and substituting beasts of the chase for
human beings, that he might satisfy his ardour for hunting." And
although this highhanded policy might sometimes be mitigated either
by a sense of justice, or by the discretion of some of these
sovereigns, or the weakness and fear of others, yet the people had no
security for their rights and liberties, till they rose and extorted
from one of the most violent and unjust, yet at the same time most
pusillanimous of his race, a solemn record setting forth and
establishing his peoples’ claims; we allude, of course, to the
great charter of our liberties which John was compelled to sign and
seal at Runnymede.
This document contains some provisions in
mitigation of the cruel forest laws, but that part of its contents,
in the beginning of the reign of Henry III. when the Magna Charta was
ratified and expanded, was thrown into a separate charter, making the
"Charta de Foresta" or charter of the Forest. This was done
during Henry’s boyhood, chiefly through the instrumentality of the
Earl of Pembroke, but when the king came of age, he is said to have
cancelled both these charters. Notwithstanding this, we find that in
the 38th year of his reign, A.D. 1254, a solemn assembly was held in
the great hall at Westminster, in the presence of the king, when the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the other bishops apparelled in their
pontificals, with tapers burning, denounced a sentence of
excommunication against the breakers of the liberties of the church
and the realm, and particularly those contained in the great charter,
and the charter of the forest.
Some of the provisions of this latter important charter it may not
be uninteresting to give, as they set before us vividly the state of
society at that time respecting the forest laws, and the crushing
oppression those must have experienced, who were subjected to their
operation; and this we cannot do better than in the words of Mr.
Reeves’ excellent summary of this important document contained
in his "History of the English Law."
"The first chapter of this charter directed that all forests
which had been afforested by Henry II. should be viewed by good and
lawful men; and if it was proved that he had any woods except the
demesne, turned into forest to the prejudice of the owner’s wood,
it was to be forthwith disafforested; hut the royal woods that had
been made forests by that king were still to remain, with a saving of
the common of herbage, and other things which any one was accustomed
to have.
This was the provision in relation to the forests made by
Henry II. As to those made by the kings, Richard and John, they,
unless they were in the king’s own demesnes, were to be forthwith
disafforested. The charter directed that all archbishops, bishops,
abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, and free-tenants having woods
in forests, should have them as they enjoyed them at the first
coronation of Henry II. and should be quit of all purpfrestures,
wastes, and assarts, made therein before the second year of Henry
III. Thus far, limits were fixed to the extent of forests; and after
these provisions, a clause is added by which all offences therein
were pardoned.
"In point of regulation it was ordained that regarders or
rangers should go through the forest to make their regard or range,
as was the usage before the first coronation of Henry II. The
inquisition or view for the lawing or expeditation of
dogs was to be had when the range was made, i.e. from three
years to three years; and then it was to be done by the view and
testimony of lawful men, and not otherwise. A person whose dog was
found not lawed was to pay three shillings. No ox was to be
taken for hawing, as had been before customary, but the old
law on this point of expeditation was to be observed, namely, that
three claws of the fore foot should be cut off by the skin; and after
all, this expeditation was to be performed only in such places where
it had been customary, before the first coronation of Henry II.
It
was ordained that no forester or bedel should make scotal, or gather
gerbe, Oats, or any corn whatever, nor any lambs or pigs, nor make
any gathering at all, but upon view and oath of the rangers, when
they were making their range. Such a number of foresters was to be
assigned as should be thought necessary for keeping the forest. It
was permitted to every freeman to agist his own wood, and to take his
pannage within the king’s forest, and for that purpose he might
freely drive his swine through the king’s demesne woods, and if
they should lie one night in the forest, it should be no pretence for
exacting, on that account, any thing from the owner. Besides the
above use of their own woods, freemen were permitted to make in their
woods, land, or water within the forest, mills, springs, pools,
marlpits, dikes, or arable grounds, so as they did not enclose such
arable ground, nor cause a nuisance to any of their neighbours; they
might also have ayries of hawks, sparrow hawks, falcons, eagles and
herons; as likewise the honey found in their own woods.
"Thus"
adds our author, "was a degree of relaxation given to the
rigorous ordinances of William the Conqueror, who had appropriated
the lands of others to the purpose of making them forest; the owners
thereof were now admitted into a sort of partial enjoyment of their
own property.
"It was permitted that any archbishop, bishop, earl, or
baron, coming to the king at his command, and passing through the
forests might take and kill one or two of the king’s deer, by view
of the forester if he were present; if not, then he might do it upon
the blowing of a horn, that it might not look like a theft. The
same might be done when they returned. No forester, except such as
was a forester in fee, paying a ferm of his bailiwick, was to take
any chiminage as it was called, i.e. toll for passing
through the forest; but a forester in fee, as aforesaid, might take
one penny every half-year for a cart, and a half-penny for a horse
bearing a burden, and that only of such as came through by licence to
buy bushes, timber, bark and coal to sell again. Those who carried
brush, bark and coal upon their hacks were to pay no chiminage,
though it was for sale, except they took it within the king’s
demesnes.
"Part of this charter consisted of matters relating to the
judicature of the forest. It was ordained that persons dwelling out
of the forest should not be obliged to appear before the justices of
the forest upon the common or general summons, but only when they
were impleaded there, or were pledges for others who were attached
for the forest. Swainmotes (which were the courts next below
those of the justices of the forest) were to he held only three times
in the year, i.e. the first at 15 days before Michaelmas, when
the agistors came together to take agistment in the demesne woods;
the second was to be about the feast of St. Martin, when the agistors
were to receive pannage; and to these two swainmotes were to come the
foresters, verderors, and agistors, and no others. The third
swain-mote was to be held 15 days before St. John Baptist, and this
"pro faenatione bestiarum"; to this were to come the
verderors and foresters and no other; and the attendance of such
persons might be compelled by distress. It was moreover directed that
every 40 days thoughout the year, the foresters and verderors should
meet to see the attachments of the forest, "tam de veridi, quam
de venatione," as well for vert as venison, by the presentment
of the same foresters.
Swainmotes were to be kept in those counties only where they had
used to be held. Further, no constable, castellan, or other was to
hold plea of the forest, whether of vert or venison (which was a
prohibition similar to and founded on a like policy with one in Magna
Charta about theft) ; but every forester in fee was to attach pleas
of the forest, as well for vert as venison, and present them to the
verderors of provinces; and after they had been enrolled and sealed
with the seal of the verderors they were to be presented to the chief
forester, or as he was afterwards called. the chief justice of the
forest, when he came into those parts to hold the pleas of the
forest, and were to he determined before him.
The punishments for breach of the forest laws were greatly
mitigated. It was ordained that no man should henceforth lose either
life or limb for hunting deer; but if a man was convicted of
taking venison he was to make a grievous fine; and if he had nothing
to pay he was to be imprisoned a year and a day, and then discharged
upon pledges; which if he could not find, he was to abjure the realm.
Such were the tender mercies of the forest laws! Besides such
qualifications of this rigorous system, it was ordained that those
who between the time of Henry II. and this king’s coronation had
been outlawed for the forest only, should be in the king’s peace,
without any hindrance or danger, so as they found good pledges that
they would not again trespass within the forest.
"These were the regulations made by the Charter of the
Forest, which concludes with a saving clause in favour of the
liberties and free customs claimed by any one, as well within the
forest as without, in warrens and other places, which were enjoyed
before that time.
To the whole is subjoined a like confirmation as
that to Magna Charta in the 25 Edward I.""
Agreeably to the provisions of this charter of the Forest, a
survey of Sherwood was made in the i6th year of Henry In. by royal
commission, by Hugh Nevil, justice of the forest and Brian of the
Isle, and others, and the parts which had been brought under the
forest laws by the previous kings, since the beginning of the reign
of Henry ii. were disafforested, or set free from those stringent
enactments; and the bounds and limits of the forest still preserved
as such, were clearly defined.
These are stated to be thus fixed "to
be firm, and stable, and abide for ever," starting from a place
called Conyngswath, i.e. the King’s Ford; (a designation
which savours of the old Danish or Norse sovereigns. We learn from a
later document that Conyngswath was beside the old Park of Haughton.)
The line was drawn "by the highway that goeth towards Welhaugh
unto the town of Welhawe towards Nottingham, so that the close of the
town of Welhawe is out of the forest, from thence by the side way
that goeth betwixt Welhaugh and Nottingham unto Blackstone Haugh, and
from thence unto that place where Doverbeck river goeth over the side
way, and so following the Doverbeck to where it enters the Trent.
Again starting westward from Conyngswath by the river Maiden the
boundary foll6ws the river to Warsop, and from thence by the same
stream to Plesley Haye, and from thence to Otterbridge, and from
thence turning by the great highway which leads to Nottingham unto
Milford Bridge, from thence unto Maidenhead, and from thence betwixt
the field of Hardwick and Kirkby to a corner called Nuncar, and from
thence by the assart of Iwan Britan unto the Earl’s Steigh, and
from thence unto Stolgate, and from thence by the great highway under
the old castle of Annesley, and from the same castle unto the town of
Lindby, passing through the midst of the town to the mill of the same
place, situated on the river Leen, and so following that stream to
Lenton, and so to the Trent, where the Leen entered by its old
course, and so along the river Trent to the fall of Doverbeck; saving
Welhaw Hagh and other the king’s demesne woods in the county of
Nottingham."
Survey of Sherwood Forest A.D. 1300
Another survey of the Forest of Sherwood was made in
29th (A.D. 1300) the reign of Edward I. when the bounds already named
were confirmed by that sovereign in return, as was usually the case
in such grants of privileges to their subjects, for the fifteenth
part of their moveable good granted to the king." In the "Forest
Book" where this survey is recorded, is found appended the
following important note, which should be well observed, inasmuch as
it became, in later times, a subject of much complaint and
controversy in respect of the injury done by the deer to the crops,
in parts without the above-named bounds.
The note runs thus: "And
yt is to understand that the foresaid walks, by the afore-named
walkers, that there are put out of the forest, the wood of Room-wood,
the towne of Carburton, with the field of the same; Owthesland, the
towneshipps of Clumber, Scofton, Reniton (Rayton), half of the
townshippe of Budby, wt" the north fields of the same; the
towneshippe of Thoressbie, and all the towne of Skegbie, with"
the fields of the same except a little pcell of the field of the same
towards the east. All the towne of Sutton-upon-Ashfield, with the
fields of the same; and the hamblets adjoining the townshippe of
Bulwell, with the wood adjoining, that is called Bulwell-rise; and
the king’s hay of Wellay. Item, the wood of the Archbishop of York,
that is called Little Hagh, that be of the king’s demesnes. And yt
is to understand that that part of the wood that is called Little
Hagh, was disaforested by John of Lithgrows, and afterwards all the
towneshipps aforesaid, with hedges and woods adjoining, were put
again into the forest by the foresaid King Edward, son of King Henry
III."
This, at first sight, appears an arbitrary proceeding of the King,
but we must remember that these places which he again put into the
forest were parts of the old demesnes of the crown, even in the time
of Edward the Confessor, as appears from the Domesday survey; and as
such, according to the Charter of the Forest, were not to be affected
by any disaforesting. The worthy freeholders of the county, who, in
their petition, in 1708 pray to be relieved "from the
intolerable burden of the queen’s deer" which destroyed their
crops, while referring to the limits fixed by the perambulation of
the commissioners of Edward I. do not take any notice of these
exceptional places without those limits, with which it seems their
petition had mainly to do; but if they had done so it is to be feared
they would have derived but little comfort, from the reply which they
received, viz, that they had "bought the land with the
incumbrance, and it was past all dispute that the Queen has as much
right to it as any man has to his own coat."
Such were the bounds of this Forest; and from an inquisition taken
during the time of Robert Everingaham’s Forestorship, in the 35th
Henry III., before Geoffry Langley, chief justice in Eyre of the
king’s forests north of Trent, respecting the ministers of the
forest, we learn "that there were within the forest three
keepings, viz, the first between Leen and Dover-beck; the second
being the High Forest; and the third Rumwood; and that Robert
Everingham, as chief keeper, ought to have a chief servant sworn,
going through all the forest at his own costs, to attach trespassers
and present them at the attachments before the verderors.
In the
first keeping he must have one forester riding with a page and two
foresters on foot, and there were to be also two verderors and two
agisters. In this keeping were three hays or parks, viz. Beskwood
Hay, Lindeby Hay, and Welley Hay.
In the second keeping, or the High Forest, Robert ought to have
two foresters riding with their two pages, and two foresters on foot
without pages; and there were to be also two verderors and two
agisters. In this keeping were two hays, viz. Birkland and
Billahaugh, and also the park of Clipston. And in these hays and
parks two verderors and two agisters.
In the third keeping, Rumewood," Robert ought to have one
forester on foot, and there were to be two woodwards, one for
Carburton and another for Budhy; also two verderors and two agisters.
He ought also to have a page bearing his bow through the forest, to
gather chiminage.
The same document informs us that the hays of
Lindby, Birkiand, and Billahaugh, and the park of Clipston, were
often under the immediate keeping of the King’s Justices in Eyre
beyond Trent, and that they ought to have one forester riding alone
through all the forest. Also that the abbot and monks of Rufford,
from the time of King Henry II. who granted them the privilege, had
liberty to take vert in their wood, within the reward of Sherwood;
and "whatsoever was to them needful to their owne use, and to
all their house boote and hay boote, as well to all their granges in
the forest and without; and they might have a forester of their own
to keep their said wood ;" who, however, was to do fealty
before the justices of the king, and to report at the attachments to
the foresters and verderors of the crown, what trees were taken by
the said monks.
Such was the provision made in these early times for the
preservation of the royal vert and venison, within the forest of
Sherwood, and for the maintenance of the king’s prerogative under
the forest laws. And it appears that a similar staff of officers was
maintained, though with some modifications, so long as the district
retained a semblance of its forest character.
In the end of the last century, Major Rooke gives a list of
the offices then existing, the persons by whom they were held,
together with the salaries, fees, and perquisites they received, and
the funds from which they arose. From this document we learn that
there was, at that time, a Lord Warden (The Duke of Portland),
appointed by letters’ patent during pleasure; a Bow-bearer and
Ranger, vacant by the death of Lord Byron, appointed by the Lord
Warden during pleasure; four Verderors, viz. Sir F. Molineux, Bart.,
John Litchfield, Esq., E. T. Gould, Esq., and W. Sherbrook, Esq., who
were elected by the free-holders for life.
The verderors and clerk of the forest had each a fee tree annually
out of the king’s hays of Birkland and Bilhagh, and a fee of two
guineas to each verderor attending upon inclosing brecks in the
forest.
In King William’s reign the verderors were found to "take
the best trees the forest affords," and in lieu thereof His
Majesty was pleased by privy seal to order them £5 each yearly
to be paid by the surveyor-general of woods out of the "first-fruits
and tenths," but in 1716 that fund being otherwise applied, this
officer memorialized the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s
Treasury that it would be "better to pay them out of the
Sheriff’s fines, arising in the County of Nottingham.""
There was also a steward appointed by the Lord Chief Justice in
Eyre, during pleasure, who had also a fee tree annually out of the same hays; a clerk of the
Swainmote and attachment courts, and a beadle.
The Nine Walks
There were, moreover, nine keepers appointed by the verderors,
during pleasure, who superintended the nine walks into which the
forest was then divided, and which are thus named:
Newstead and Papplewick.
Langton Arbour, Blidworth, and
Highwells.
Kirkby, Sutton, and Annesley
Hills.
Mansfield and Lyndburst.
Mansfield Woodhouse and Noman’s
Woods.
Birkland, Bilhagh, and Clipston
Skroggs.
Roomwood and Osland.
Blidworth and Farnsfield.
Calverton and Arnold Hill.
These keepers were appointed by the verderers, and had each an
annual salary of twenty shillings, paid by the Duke of Newcastle out
of the fee farm rent for Nottingham castle. Besides these there were
annually sworn two woodwards for Sutton and Carlton.
In addition to the above nine walks, an older list"
gives Fulwood (which perhaps may be included under Kirkby), Hemsley
Rail, and Rufford Walk, and Clumber and Hardwick in the New park.
Also the division of the forest called Thorneywoods, of which there
were South and North Bayles; of this latter district, Major Rooke
names the Earl of Chesterfield as the hereditary ranger, under a
grant, in fee, made to John Stanhope, Esq., his ancestor, in 42d of
Queen. Elizabeth.
The woods and timber belonging to the crown, Major Rooke tells
us, were in his time under the care of the surveyor general of woods,
who acted by deputy; the latter official having a fee tree annually,
and a salary of twenty pounds a year paid out of the wood sales.
While speaking of the officers appointed for the conservancy of
the forest, we should not omit one who is not named in the "Forest
Books."
Source: Robert White, Worksop, The Dukery, and Sherwood Forest, Worksop : 1875
One of the major problems with history is which version of it do we believe to be the most accurate. Landscape historians usually search the archives for maps, plans and accounts to reinforce what can still be seen on the ground in the particular location that is being surveyed.
Below is part of the Nottinghamshire map of 1801 engraved by Jones & Smith and published in 'Smith's New English Atlas' in 1804. The map can therefore be taken as a reliable representation of the recognised position of Sherwood Forest at that time.
Note: On this map it is still spelt as Shirewood Forest
Sherwood Forest is clearly shown as being heathland and wood pasture running from the east of Sutton-in-Ashfield sweeping south of Mansfield up through where Rainworth is now and on towards Kings Clipston where its titled definition ends.
We also have two other expections of where or what 'Sherwood Forest' is. The first is the Royal hunting Forest that started at Nottingham and covered the left side of the county. This was 20 miles long and 8 to ten miles wide. This Forest was created during the Norman times. The second is the Nature Reserve established at the forests of Birkland, Bilhagh and Budby north of Edwinstowe. This has now become the focus for visitors, but as can be seen from the map, two hundred years ago was not regarded as 'Sherwood Forest'.
The question is what is 'Sherwood Forest' now. It is hoped that contributions to this web site will go some way towards answering that question.
Some Past History
The Story of Sherwood
It seems that the district, in early times, was much
infested with wolves, which, no doubt, would make great ravages among
the deer. And in order to drive these destructive creatures away, an
officer was appointed and endowed with lands. For we find that as
late as the 11th year of Henry VI. Sir Robert Plumpton held one
bovate of land in Mansfield Woodhouse, called "Wolf-hunt
land," by service of winding a horn, and chasing or
frightening the wolves in the forest of Sherwood.
Under the guardianship of its various officers, this forest long
preserved its eminence as a noble field for hunting, and abounded,
beyond most other parts of the country, with remarkably fine timber,
which effectually assisted in building up "the wooden walls of
Old England."
Of these, some specimens, though in a decayed
state, are still preserved to us, which may serve to give us some
idea of the grandeur of sylvan scenery in the days of yore. And in
this immediate neighbourhood of Birkland we may observe some very
striking examples, as for instance, one called the "Queen or
Major Oak," measuring at four feet from the ground, 29 feet in
girth; while another named "Simon the Forester," is about
22 feet in girth.
It
is mentioned in an interesting and now scarce pamphlet, by Major
Rooke, an eminent antiquarian and most careful observer of the
things of the forest in which he long dwelt, that "in cutting
down some trees in the hays of Birkland and Bilhagh, in Sherwood
Forest, letters have been found cut and stamped in the body of the
trees, marking the King’s reign." "
William Kitchen, of Wellow, woodman to the Earl Manvers, in
converting an oak felled in the forest near Ollerton Corner, into
park-fence posts, in the year 1834, found at the depth of is inches
from the surface, the initials C.R. impressed upon the wood. The
piece was preserved and given to William Clutton, Esq., of Penge, who
was at that time and for many years a resident in Sherwood Forest,
and who now affirms that while there he frequently saw such marks on
old trees.
Camden, who wrote in the time of James I., speaks of
Sherwood "as formerly a close shade, with the boughs of the
trees so entangled in one another that a single person could hardly
walk in the paths of it. At present," he adds, "it is much
thinner, yet it still feeds an infinite number of deer and
branchy-headed stags."
We cannot wonder then that it should have been a favourite
hunting-ground of our earlier monarchs, who often resorted to it for
the pleasures of the chase, and for that purpose erected a residence
or palace in its midst, at Clipston, the present remains of which we
give as a tail-piece to this chapter. We have frequent evidences of
their having sojourned, and even held their parliaments here. One
example of this occurred in the year 1290, when Edward I. summoned a
parliament to meet here on the 29th October; which, however, did not
come together till the beginning of November of that year. An ancient
oak, formerly in the park, now on the side of the road leading from
Edwinstowe to Mansfield, has long been pointed out as the place where
these parliaments assembled, hence called the "Parliament Oak."
The Parliament Oak
The trunk of this noted tree, which is of the species,
Quercus Seriflora, of always short growth, was once 25 feet in
circumference; what remains of it is only a shell in three or four
parts, one of which is nearly round, and the growing bark has quite
surrounded it, thus forming in itself a good round tree of about two
feet diameter, and bidding fair to attain a good old age, and in all
human probability it will be a fine stately tree when its neighbours,
the Major and Greendale Oaks, will be gone for ever.
This singular
transition, having taken place in our day, from the old tree to the
younger will be very different to that of the Charles’ Oak on
Bosquabell Forest, which has grown from an acorn of the original
tree, and been planted on the site of the old one; but the Parliament
Oak, in ages to come, will be the real one, a portion of the same
roots, wood, bark, and branches, as were growing on the spot when
parliaments were held under it, in the i3th century.
Even within the space of little more than a century from this
date, very considerable portions of the ancient forest still
remained; for we are told by Major Rooke, that Mr. Wylde, of
Nettleworth, who died in 1780, at the age of 82, said "that he
well remembered one continued wood from Mansfield to Nottingham."
While the deer, because both of their numbers. and depredations,
formed a subject of serious complaint and remonstrance from the
freeholders of the adjoining districts, during the last century.
The forest had, no doubt, long before that period been gradually
denuded of much of its sylvan clothing; and had suffered, not only
from a constant felling of its timber, for naval and other purposes,
but also from wars, tempests, and even from fires.
An illustration of the latter calamity is afforded in an account
of a conflagration which took place within its precincts in the year
1624, and which was related by an eye-witness. This is contained in a
MS. preserved in the British Museum, which is so quaint and singular
that we may quote a portion of it.
It seems that the writer, whoever he might be,— perhaps a
Puritan divine,—was visiting his friends at Newark when the
occurrence took place, and rode over from thence with his brother, to
observe the devastation which he describes, apparently, in a somewhat
exaggerated strain; though, no doubt, the mischief was of
considerable extent.
This curious document takes the form of an address, one might
almost say of a sermon, it being much interspersed with scripture
quotations, and full of most fulsome flattery, directed immediately
to the "British Solomon," James I. of whose wonderful
prescience it professes to be an example. It seems that the king
being in the city of London on Trinity Sunday, 23 May, 1624, thus
reproved the Lord Mayor, Sir Martin Lumley, for the filthy state of
the streets.
"My Lorde, I am complayned unto, by some, that the cittie
streetes lyeth very noysum and foulle: especially Chepeside, in
somuch that strangeres takes notis of it; therefore I command and
charge you to looke unto it: that it may be keep sweete and clene:
for it will be a cause to breede infecciones for it is to be
expected that we shall have a hot summer: for my lorde I did never
knowe nor I thinke the oulldest of any of you so hot a latter end of
an Aprill and a beginning of a May: but I will not proknostiket. But
it is to be douted ther will followe a hot insuinge sommer :" to
which our author adds, "and nowe since which time, let all men
speeke experymentally whether or no thos sainges be come to pas."
The consequence of this drought was not only a very unhealthy season,
but also a great conflagration in the forest of Sherwood, which it
seems was accidentally set on fire by some ill-slaked charcoal that
was being carted away, falling among the ling; for "upon Munday
the 23 of August beinge Bartholume eve," continues our author,
"aboute nounetide as it shoulde seeme the brackin and lin and
trees together were of a flame that it caused such an extreordenary
smoke and the winde bringinge of it to vs warde: (i.e. to
Newark, seven or eight miles distant,) "that it made such a
greet mist in the aire that it did darken the sonne withall: that
many peepell did come out of ther houses in greete wonderinge at such
a sudden and feerefull fire: and most did coniceture it to be the
sonne in the cliptes and others said noe it smellt like fire: the
which proufed the most trueste: for presently vpon came ther commande
from the Justeses to rayse the cuntery ther aboute: And to bringe
pickaxes spades and shonelles to make dikes and trenches to breeke
the fire in the forreste: And such a fire as was never knowne in
manes memory: beinge 4 mille longe and a mille and a hallfe ouer all
at once: And had it not plesed the Lorde to turne the winde at an
instant when it was sesinge vpon a greet and longe wood that was
betwene Mancefellde and Nottinggame: which if it had taken houllde
but the Lorde prevented it: which to my knowelege which afterwards I
did see: did run up vnder the hy trees above a stones cast which if
it had got vp into the bowes and branches of the greet trees it was
thought it woullde have burnte vp all the cuntry before it as far as
Nottingegame :"
The poor deer, it seems, escaped the flames and were seen
collected together for mutual protection, for the writer tells us,
that "ridinge on his way throught the forrest homeward he saw of
the other side of the sellfe sam hill a greete herde of faire red
deere, and amonst them 2 extreordanary greet stages, the which he
never saw the like."
But calamities of this kind, and the desolations of
war, were not the only agents which denuded the forest of Sherwood of
its sylvan honours. Large quantities of timber were from time to time
felled and carried away, partly for the use of the royal navy, but
still more largely, perhaps, for the benefit of persons who obtained
grants to that effect. An example of this remains in the form of a
petition from the inhabitants of Edwinstowe, A.D. 1670-80, for
permission to appropriate 200 oaks, of the value of £200, out
of the hays of Birkland and Bilbagh, for the repair of their parish
church, then in a ruinous condition, occasioned principally by the
fall of its steeple.
The petition was entertained, and on a survey being made for that
purpose, it was found that "although there were yet standing
many thousand trees, few of which there were but what were decaying,
and very few useful for the navy.
Major Rooke gives the result of several surveys, which show
the rapid diminution in the quantity of timber in this neighbourhood.
In 1609, on a survey. there were found in Birkland and Bilhagh 49,909
trees, and the trees in general even then passed their maturity;
while in 1686 there were in the same district 37,316, including
hollow trees, so that in 77 years (1609—86) 2,593 trees had
disappeared.
From a survey again made in 1790, it appears that there were then
in Birkland and Bilhagh together only 10,117 trees, which at that
time were valued at £17,147 15s. 4d., so that in 104 years
(from 1686-1790) 27,199 trees had gone.
Much of the forest oak was used for the royal navy, but more was allowed
to decay. Folk of good birth but fallen fortunes frequently begged a
grant of these trees from the Crown. In 1677 Thoroton writes that so
many claims were granted that there would soon not be wood enough left
to cover the bilberries! As time went on, the cleared portions, being of
no further use for kingly sport, were sold to various noblemen. In 1683,
1270 acres were bought by the Duke of Kingston, to add to Thoresby Park;
while early in the eighteenth century 3000 acres were enclosed for the
making of Clumber Park. The last portions of the forest remaining were
the hays, or enclosures, of Birkland and Bilhagh, which were granted to
the Duke of Portland about 1827, in exchange for the perpetual advowson
of St. Mary-le-Bone. Bilhagh later became the property of the late Earl
Manvers, its price being the manors of Holbeck and Bonbusk, near
Welbeck. After the resignation of the Crown lands the waning historical
interest of Sherwood ceased. Birkland and Bilhagh are still beautiful as
in their prime, but the rest of the neighbourhood is nowadays naught but
a wonderful pleasaunce, where drowsy pheasants wander unafraid, and
where the chief signs of life are on holidays, when happy folk crowd
from the neighbouring towns to view, awestricken, the wonders and the
riches of the great houses, and the artificial beauties of perhaps the
finest parks in England.
