Chapter XX: The Forest of Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire from the earliest days was exceptionally well wooded. The whole county was in the main woodland down to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. On the north of Oxford lay the chase of Woodstock, which merged on the forest of Wychwood to the west; on the north-east, near Bicester, was the forest of Bernwood, a considerable section of which was in this county; on the east were the adjacent forests of Shotover and Stowood; on the south-east were the wild stretches and dense backwoods of the Chilterns; whilst on the south the woods of Cumnor and Bagley completed the circle. It was doubtless the great preponderance of hunting ground, at a comparatively short distance from London, that made this shire so favourite a resort of our Norman kings. Henry I., in order to secure good accommodation when indulging in the pleasures of the chase, built himself an important house at Beaumont on the north side of Oxford, as well as a hunting-lodge at Woodstock. This royal lodge was surrounded by a park enclosed within a stone wall seven miles in circuit, and is said to have been the first English park enclosed with this material. Here, according to William of Malmesbury, the king established a menagerie of foreign beasts. “He was extremely fond of the wonders of distant countries, begging with great delight from foreign kings, lions, leopards, lynxes, or camels. He had a park called Woodstock wherein he used to foster favourites of this kind; he had placed there also a creature called a porcupine, sent to him by William of Montpelier.”

Camden, writing in Elizabethan days, was much impressed with “the great store of woods” that covered the hills of Oxfordshire; but Plot, in his _Natural History_ of the county, written shortly after the Civil War, described it as sadly shorn during those troublous times of its ancient glory.

Oxfordshire, strange to say, is destitute of a county history, and the story of its woods and forests is as yet unwritten. The material for an interesting monograph on this subject is fairly abundant; all that can here be attempted is to give a few facts, for the most part hitherto unchronicled, respecting the two royal forests of Wychwood and Shotover with Stowood, together with an incidental reference or two to Bernwood forest, which lay chiefly in the county of Buckingham.

The Close Rolls of the beginning of Henry III.’s reign supply a good deal of fragmentary information about the two forests of Wychwood and Shotover. Thomas de Langley was at that time master forester-of-fee for Wychwood. In 1216 he received the king’s command to permit the abbot of the Cistercian house of Bruern to take a third load of wood out of the forest, in addition to the two loads already granted him. In the following year Langley was instructed to allow William de Brewere to take ten wild boars and ten trees. In 1218 order was made for the perambulation of the forest, in order that its ancient bounds might be established and recent additions disafforested. The Crown interfered in 1221 in order that there might be due agistment of pigs, and that the owners of swine within the forest without warrant might be presented; these instructions were issued to the verderers, the forester-of-fee, and the agisters. Wychwood was one of the royal forests, to the verderers and keepers of which special orders were sent by letters patent as to the extensive windfall after the great storm of 1222. Robert Arsic had permission from the Crown in 1223 to hunt the fox and the hare with hounds throughout the forest of Wychwood. In the same year Thomas de Langley was instructed to take two wild boars (_porcos silvestres_), and to transfer them to the royal park of Havering, in Essex. About the like date the keeper was ordered to deliver four good dry roers, two of which were to be suitable for fuel, to the prior of Lanthony. In 1226 Ernald de Bosco was granted two does and a buck, and ten loads of dry underwood for fuel were bestowed upon the hospital of St. John Baptist at Burford. Ralph Fitz-Nicholas obtained three oaks in 1229 towards the building of his houses at Eston. In the following year Earl Ferrers received fifteen oaks in aid of his manor house at Stamford, which was then being rebuilt, and a little later he had a grant of five does from the same forest.

On 7th February of this year, Thomas de Langley, the forester-of-fee, paid the exceedingly heavy fine of £100 to the king that he might be quit of the results of forest trespasses, of which he had been convicted a few days earlier, namely, on the Feast of the Purification, before John de Monemue and his associates, justices of the forest pleas, when four acres of land in Wychwood, given him by King John, had been resumed by the Crown.

At the time when these pleas were being held, the king commanded John de Monemue to give to the prior of Cold Norton ten dry roers for his hearth. Two years later it was found that the prior had never received this wood, and a renewed order to the same effect was issued to Peter de Rivallis, chief justice of the forests.

About this period a large supply of fuel wood was granted to the Dominicans of Oxford and to the hospital of St. John Baptist, Oxford, and five oaks to John de Beauchamp.

The nuns of Godstowe obtained from Henry III., in 1231, the tithe of all deer taken in this forest, whether by the king hunting in person or otherwise.

As to Shotover forest, orders were issued to the keeper and verderers in 1222, to suffer the hospital of St. Bartholomew, Oxford, to take one hundred horseloads of dry wood for fuel. In the following year twenty tie-beams (_copulas_) were ordered to be supplied out of Shotover forest to William, the chaplain of the Bishop of Winchester, towards the repair of the church of St. Budoc, Oxford, beneath the castle; it had been thrown down for strategic purposes during the recent war. In the same year, 1223, the necessary timber for constructing a gaol at Oxford and for repairing the castle was obtained from Shotover. In 1229, when Peter Mimekan was bailiff of Shotover forest, George de Crancumbe obtained four dry leafless roers for fuel. In 1230 there was an order which throws a little light on the vexed question of the nature of the roer or _robur_; at all events, this entry on the Close Rolls seems to show that there was a distinct recognition of the difference between _robur_ and _quercus_, even when both were merely intended for fuel purposes. Nicholas de Farnham had had a grant from the Crown of four roers out of Shotover forest for firing, and on 6th April, 1230, Henry III. ordered that, if this grant had not been executed, four oaks for fuel (_ad focum suum_) should be substituted for the roers. Fuel wood was granted from Shotover in the same year to the hospital of St. John Baptist at Oxford. The Bishop of Chichester obtained a grant in the next year of four dry roers for his hearth at Oxford. Another interesting grant of 1231 was that of eleven loads of fence timber to Elias, chaplain of the Earl of Cornwall, to enclose his church of Horsepath.

On 26th June, 1231, the king, at the instance of Ralph Archdeacon of Chester, Richard Archdeacon of Leicester, William de Thany Archdeacon of the East Riding, and of the Chancellor of Oxford, and the whole University, granted that Thomas de Compton, Henry de Kinneton, and three others, who had been found in the forest of Shotover with bows and arrows, and had for that trespass been arrested and detained in the king’s prison at Oxford, should be set at liberty, and issued his mandate to the sheriff of Oxford to that effect.

At a later date in the same year, thirteen Shotover trees were supplied to the Dominicans of Oxford for fuel purposes.

An eyre for forest pleas was held at Oxford, before William le Breton and three other itinerant justices, which opened on 24th January, 1256. At this eyre the pleas of the forest of Wychwood and Shotover were heard, as well as of that part of the forest of Bernwood which lay in Oxfordshire.

The Close Rolls of Edward I. record various royal gifts from the Oxfordshire forests. In 1276, Philip Mimekan, keeper of Shotover, was ordered to supply Sir Francis de Bononia, LL.D., with eight oaks and their loppings for his fire; and at the same time the keeper of Bernwood received the remarkable order to supply Sir Francis with two young bucks and four young does, together with four live hares and six live rabbits, to be placed in the king’s garden at Oxford, in accordance with a verbal promise made by the king to the doctor. The keeper of Wychwood was directed, in 1277, to supply both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the abbot of Bruern with six roers a piece for fuel. In the following year four bucks were sent from Shotover, as the king’s gift to Bartholomew de Sutlegh; in 1279, the abbot of Bruern had twelve oaks with their strippings, from the wood of Cornbury, in Wychwood forest.

In 1280, six live does were sent to the Earl of Lincoln from Wychwood to help to stock his park at Middleton; and in 1284, eight live does and four bucks were granted to Thomas de Charlcote towards stocking his park at Hasele. In 1281, six bucks were given from this forest to the Earl of Warwick; in 1282, six bucks apiece to the Bishop of Worcester and to John Lovel; and in 1286, twelve more bucks to John Lovel. From Shotover forest, six bucks were given in 1281 to James de Ispannia, nephew of Queen Eleanor, the king’s consort; and six bucks in 1283 to Geoffrey de Lucy. In 1288, James de Ispannia obtained three bucks from Wychwood, and three from Bernwood.

Among the timber grants from Wychwood may be mentioned fuel trees for the Dominican friars in 1281; eighty cartloads of brushwood for the king’s fuel in 1282; fuel trees for Alphonsus de Ispannia, another of the queen’s kinsmen, then at the schools at Oxford, in 1285; and timber for the building of the church of the Carmelite friars at Oxford, in 1286.

The Patent Rolls of Edward I. also supply various incidental references to the Oxfordshire forest. In 1279, the king pardoned Walter de Hanborough for taking a buck in Wychwood forest, on paying a mark as a fine. In 1281, the farm of this forest, valued at £7 a year, was assigned as part of the dower of Queen Eleanor, the king’s mother. In the same year there was a commission to deliver Oxford gaol of certain young scholars, who were in custody there for forest trespasses in Shotover.

Licence was granted in 1282 to Richard de Wyliamescote, to hold, during the minority of the heir of Thomas de Langley, deceased, the custody of the forest of Wychwood.

Mandate was issued to the king’s foresters, in 1283, not to implead Edward Earl of Cornwall, the king’s kinsman, touching thirty-eight bucks, and two harts, lately taken by him with the king’s licence, to wit, in the forest of Wychwood seven bucks, in the forest of Shotover and Stowood seven bucks and two harts, in the forest of Bernwood thirteen bucks, and in the forest of Whittlewood eleven bucks. Ela, Countess of Warwick, obtained leave in 1290, to have a cartload of dry wood daily, by view of the foresters, out of the forests of either Wychwood or Bernwood.

Mandate was issued to the sheriff of Oxford on 28th June, 1290, not to molest the Bishop of Winchester, or his minister, Philip de Hoyvill, and Master William, parson of the church of Witney, or other ministers of his, under pretext of a former writ as to venison and assart trespasses in the bishop’s chases of Witney within the precinct of the forest of Wychwood; for at that time those who held the inquest were ignorant of the king’s charter giving the bishop and his ministers licence to take venison in his chases, and to assart wood within the metes of the forest.

John de Langley, bailiff of the forest of Wychwood, in consideration of a fine of twenty marks made by him before Hugh le Despenser, justice of the forest, in the presence of the treasurer and barons of the Exchequer, was pardoned in 1305 of all trespasses committed by him in his bailiwick within the forest; the bailiwick, which had been taken by the justice into the king’s hands, was at the same time restored to him.

Licence, after inquisition held by Hugh le Despenser, justice of the forest, and in consideration of a fine of 100 marks, made by the abbot, was granted in 1307 to the abbey of Eynsham to hold the woods of Eynsham and Charlbury, within the forest of Wychwood, and also the wood of Eton within Shotover forest, quit of regard, on condition that the venison was well kept, and the covert of the wood of Eton was not destroyed. The keepers appointed by the abbey were to take oath not to commit venison offences, and all such trespassers were to be attached by the king’s ministers of the forest.

Did space permit, a great variety of references to foresters-of-fee, to official appointments, to Crown gifts, and to summons for regards and forest pleas could be cited throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and at later periods, relative to the Oxfordshire forests, chiefly from the Patent and Close Rolls; but we are not aware of any detailed proceedings relative to eyres or forest pleas that are extant.

There is a fragment at the Public Record Office relative to pleas held at Headington on 8th August, 1465, before H. Bourchier, itinerant forest justice for the forests of Shotover and Stowood. All that is extant is the claim made by Sir Edmund Rede to be keeper of these forests, in company with extensive right and privileges.

In 1468 Edward Hardegill, a Crown yeoman, was appointed ranger of Wychwood, at a wage of 6_d._ a day.

Oxfordshire affords a striking example of the attempt to revive strict forest jurisdiction in the time of Charles I.

A court was held at Headington for the forests of Shotover and Stowood on 9th June, 1636, before the foresters, verderers, agisters, regarders, and other ministers of the forest. Henry Lord Holland was keeper; Michael Molines, Esquire, lieutenant; Sir John Crooke, chief ranger; and Sir Henry Crooke and Unton Crooke, Esquire, verderers. There were three foresters, one for the Old Lodge walk in Shotover, one for the New Lodge walk in Shotover, and the third for Stowood. Edward Whistler was woodward for the whole forest. The twelve regarders have all “gen” appended to their names. There were also present two gentlemen keepers (_preservatores_), two agisters, five sub-foresters, two wardens of the coppices, and two pages. The reeves and four men of eleven neighbouring townships were in attendance as well as a large number of free tenants.

At the head of the presentments of 1636 appears the conviction of William Willoughby, shipwright, for having on 20th June felled fifty oaks, each of the value of 20_s._, and exposed them for sale contrary to the laws and assize of the forest; for this offence the very substantial fine of £2,000 was imposed. The same delinquent was further presented and convicted for having, on 23rd June, got up the roots of these oaks, each valued at 5_s._; for this offence Willoughby was fined in the further sum of £20. The next presentment and conviction was against two husbandmen of Marston, who had felled and removed an oak tree worth 3_s._ on June 3rd; the fine in this case was £5. Another delinquent was fined 40_s._ for taking an ash worth 6_d._ The fine for removing three cartloads of ash, worth 20_s._, was £10. There were several fines of 20_s._ for taking green wood to the value of 4_d._

Among the venison trespasses, the most serious was that of Roger Gardiner, who for killing two does and two bucks was fined £100. For killing a doe with a dog called “a Maungrell,” John Symondes of Headington was fined £5. William Willoughby, the much-fined shipwright, incurred a further fine of £10 for having caught a fawn in a sawpit. John Wheston was fined in the heavy sum of £20 for netting hares.

There were also various heavy fines, the lowest being 20_s._, for agistment trespasses.

In twenty-five cases offenders (one of whom was John Symondes of Headington) were released at the close of the court on finding recognisances to appear at the next pleas. The first of these was Ellis Mercer, husbandman, who found two sureties, one in £20 and the other in £10: “The condition is That if the said Ellis Mercer do appeare at the next Inter Foreste or Justice Seate for this Forest to bee houlden, and there make aunsweares to all such matters as on his Majesties behalf shal bee objected against him and shall not departe the said Courte without Lycense, and in the meane tyme bee of good behaviour to his Majesties game Virt and Venison of the same forest, That then the said Recognisances to bee void, otherwise be rendyred in full force.”

The tenth report of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, issued in 1792, is chiefly concerned with the forest of Wychwood. Its boundaries at that date were the same as those given at a perambulation taken in October, 1665, in pursuance of an Act of Parliament of the previous year, when the forest area was very greatly restricted. The Commissioners found the forest enclosed within a stone wall. The undergrowth, divided into eighteen coppices, enclosed for a limited time after each cutting, had an area of 1,841 acres; the lodges with their launds, 127 acres; and the open ridings, woods, and unenclosed waste lands 1,741 acres—giving a total acreage of 3,709. Many of the surrounding parishes and hamlets had rights of pasture. The offices for the forest government were a ranger, a launder (to take care of the launds), four keepers, two verderers, and a woodward. There were then about a 1,000 head of deer, all fallow; the numbers annually killed were 61 bucks and 42 does, of which 6 bucks and 6 does were sent to the king’s larder. The red deer had become extinct about ten years previously. The Duke of Marlborough was the ranger. The trees were chiefly oak and ash, with a small admixture of elm, beech, sycamore, lime, and horse-chestnut. The browse wood cut for the deer in the winter was in the main of thorn, maple, ash, holly, and ivy.

At the time of this commission, through jobbery and recklessness, almost the whole of the fine timber of old Wychwood forest had disappeared. The Commissioners were only able to mention 173 oaks as fit for navy purposes. In 1800, when Young rode through the district, he found “many very beautiful scenes, particularly where the nut fair is held, a glen by Mr. Dacre’s lodge, and others approaching Blandford Park, with vales of the finest turf, but not one very fine tree of navy oak in a ride of sixteen or seventeen miles.” Wychwood was not finally enclosed until 1862.