67 



n ll^istorg of pcaft iTovcst 



By Rev. Chas. Kerry. 





|HE Forest of Peak at the Norman era was unques- 

 tionably a relic of the primaeval forests which once 

 covered the country. It was of no human planting. 

 It was a forest when afforested by the Peverel, and 

 for ages had been the wild home of the beasts of the chase 

 and a scanty and almost equally uncivilized population. It was 

 a portion of the patrimony of the Anglo-Saxon Kings, and was 

 Royal Demesne at the time of the great survey. 



In 1068, the parish of Hope with many other lands was granted 

 to William Peverel, as a recognition of service (and no doubt of 

 kinship too), by the Conqueror, and it may safely be presumed 

 that Peverel began to construct his home on the rock contiguous 

 to the Great Cavern very soon afterwards, which may be inferred 

 from the character of some of the masonry near the verge of 

 the precipice. The Keep was constructed eighty-nine years later 

 (a.d. 1 157), five years offer the Peverel estates had become 

 forfeited to the crown and given to Ranulf, Earl of Chester.* 

 The district of Longdendale, the remaining moiety of the 

 Forest, comprising the whole parish of Glossop, was added to 

 the Peverel territory by Henry I., when most likely the whole of 



* A facsimile of tliis deed of gift to the Earl of Chester has been printed in 

 the Appendix to Reports on Public Records. Fz'dt: Charter No. XLVII. It 

 it dated a.d. I152. The portion relating to Peverell stands thus: — "And 

 the whole Fee of William Peverell wheresoever it may be except Helham 

 unless he be able to free himself in my court from his wickedness and 

 treachery." 



