Chapter XII: 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.