A Book of Britain: The Lore, Landscape and Heritage of a Treasured Countryside. Johnny Scott

income or means of guaranteeing support. Acquiring any part of one was the ultimate status symbol, with a Forest being highest. William the Conqueror established about twenty-five Royal Forests, and by the time the Domesday Book had been written in 1086 the Earl of Chester had acquired three.

      ABRIDGING THE RIGHTS IN THE ROYAL FORESTS WAS AN EXTREMELY USEFUL SOURCE OF INCOME OR MEANS OF GUARANTEEING SUPPORT. ACQUIRING ANY PART OF ONE WAS THE ULTIMATE STATUS SYMBOL, WITH A FOREST BEING HIGHEST.

      Next in degree came the chase, an unenclosed hunting preserve similar to a Forest, which the great barons mostly possessed, which was subject to Common Law rather than Forest Law. After that came the smaller park, an enclosure permitted by grant of the King, which had to be fenced securely enough to stop venison entering it, otherwise it became forfeit; and, lastly, the free warren.

      Law was enforced in the Royal Forests by six officers and a steward or seneschal, who was usually a noble of high rank and whose appointment by the Crown was one of great honour and authority. He in turn was supported by foresters of various classes: the foresters in fee, Forestarii defeodo, held hereditary office and were mostly of knightly rank; the Forestarii equitans, riders or rangers, were appointed by the King and held their office for life or the pleasure of the monarch. Under foresters in fee were an inferior class of forester whose duties corresponded to those of the modern gamekeeper. All these offices were ministerial and had no judicial functions. The verderer, viridarius, was a judicial officer of the forest chosen by the freeholders of the county in full county court in the same manner as a coroner. He was sworn to maintain the laws of the forest, and to receive and enrol the attachments and presentments of all manner of trespass within the forest, whether of vert or of venison. Reguarders were officers of the forest appointed by the King or by the Chief Justice in Eyre of the forest, and were always twelve in number. Their responsibility was to keep a roll on which was written all the ancient assarts, purprestures and wastes; and on another, all those that had been newly made since the last regard of the forest. Accompanied by the foresters, the reguarders surveyed all the old and new purprestures made within the forest, valued them, and wrote them down on their rolls; they also surveyed the King’s demesne lands and woods, and the waste in them by felling of timber, or by destruction of underwood; also all fences, and whether they were constructed according to the law of the forest. The Agisters were officers of the forest who received and accounted for the money paid for the herbage and pannage of the King’s demesne lands and woods within the forest. Agistment was of two kinds: firstly, the herbage of the woods and pastures, and secondly, of the mast of trees, known as pannage. The Agisters also presented trespasses done by cattle, and, assisted by the foresters, they agisted the King’s woods and lands, i.e., they made the agreements with the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, by which the number of the swine to be fed and the sums to be paid for them were settled. As regards the ordinary pasturage, no man could agist his beasts within the King’s forest except one who was an inhabitant of the forest, and had common appendant or appurtenant, by reason of his land lying within the forest.

      FOREST LAW

      The Court of Attachment, the primary court of the forest, was held at intervals of forty days and was known as the Forty Days’ Court. The object of this court was to receive the attachments or felons apprehended by the foresters and woodwards, and to enter them on the rolls of the verderers. The usual proceeding appears to have been that if the foresters found any man trespassing on the vert of the forest they might attach him by his body, and then cause him to find two pledges to appear at the next Court of Attachments. Upon his appearance at this court, he was mainprized or bailed until the next General Sessions or Iter of the Forest Justices. If he was found offending a second time, he had to find four pledges; if a third time, eight pledges; and if found offending a fourth time, he was detained in custody without bail or mainprize until the coming of the Justices. If a man was taken killing a deer or carrying it away, which was called being ‘taken with the manner’, he could be ‘attached by his body’, arrested, and imprisoned until delivered by the command of the King, the Chief Justice in Eyre of the Forest, or by the Chief Warden of the forest. However, no other officer of a lower degree than the Chief Warden could set him free or admit him to bail in these cases. The next stage in the chain was the Court of Swanimote; this was the court of the freeholders living within the forest, and was presided over by the Steward of the Forest. The judges were the elected verderers with a jury of reeves, who were bailiffs to local landowners and four men of the townships contiguous to the scene of the trespass complained of. The Swanimote convened three times a year and the officers of the forest had to be present, including the reguarders, agisters and woodwards. Sentences were not handed at the Swanimote; evidence was recorded and passed on to be presented to the Justices in Eyre of the Forest. Eyre means circuit, and the Justices were the ultimate authority in Forest Law, moving their court between the numerous Royal Forests and presided over the court of justice-seat, a triennial court held to punish offenders against the Forest Law and enquire into the state of the forest and its officers. Regardless of the frightful sentence that the Justices might eventually decide on (blinding and mutilation were not unheard of), the accused would already have spent three years in custody or have been deprived of his bail surety during that period.

      BRITAIN’S REGAL FORESTS

      Successive monarchs increased the number of Royal Forests, and at the time of the Magna Carta, in 1215, there were 143 in England, with equally as many in Wales and slightly more in Scotland. This equated to a third of the land mass, and they were run by a vicious system which had now become intensely unpopular and much abused. The final straw came in 1204, when King john, who was desperately short of money, announced that the entire county of Devon was to become a Royal Forest and only agreed to disafforest the region, with the exception of the existing Royal Forests of Dartmoor and Exmoor, in exchange for an enormous payment. This monumental piece of land grabbing contributed to the Barons’ Revolt and, ultimately, the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 and the Carta de Foresta in 1217. Under the Carta de Foresta, much of the land that had been extended outside the royal demesnes during the reigns of King John, King Richard and Henry II was disafforested and many of the more draconian Forest Laws were relaxed. For example, all men who had been outlawed for offences against Royal Forests since the reign of Henry II were pardoned, and poaching venison ceased to be a capital or mutilating offence.

      Apart from the venison and value of selling franchises, resources available to a monarch from his Royal Forests varied from region to region. He owned the mineral rights and the trees on roughly half the Royal Forests, but it must be remembered that Royal Forests were game parks, chosen for the habitat which provided cover and a diversity of grazing for venison. Some forests, such as the Forest of Dean and the New Forest, were heavily wooded, but a large proportion of the 25,000 hectares of physical Royal Forests was wood pasture, heath, hill and marsh. In the early years of Norman rule, timber from some of the forests was used for building the various royal residences that were spread across the country or donated as gifts, often to religious orders. For several centuries, efforts were made to coppice underwood and grow mature standards, in forests such as Cranborne and Grovely in Wiltshire, Wychwood in Oxfordshire, Hatfield in Essex, Rockingham in Northamptonshire and the New Forest on a commercial basis, but the Crown’s interest in managing them gradually diminished and many were sold off, or reverted to ordinary common and wood pasture run by the landowner.

      SUCCESSIVE MONARCHS INCREASED THE NUMBER OF ROYAL FORESTS, AND AT THE TIME OF THE MAGNA CARTA, IN 1215, THERE WERE 143 IN ENGLAND, WITH EQUALLY AS MANY IN WALES AND SLIGHTLY MORE IN SCOTLAND. THIS EQUATED TO A THIRD OF THE LAND MASS …

      Charles I disastrously attempted to revive the Forest Laws over land belonging to others, in the hope that they would pay to have them lifted, as King John had done 400 years previously with the people of Devon. This colossal act of folly hastened the Civil War and lost him the support of many landowners. William III introduced large-scale planting schemes in the remaining Crown forests to provide a future supply of oak for the Navy, with little success as the land was generally unsuitable for trees and, in the case of the New Forest, most of the saplings were uprooted in the great storm of 1703.

      Many forests were transformed out of all recognition during the Acts of Enclosure in the