JOINT MEETING. OF THE 
GHoolbope and Caradoc Field Clubs. 
JoNE 17TH, 1881. 
INTERESTING PAPERS BY DR. BULL, 
OF HEREFORD. 
On June 17th, the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club met the Caradoc Field Club 
in Deerfold Forest, when Dr. Bull, of the former Club, read the subjoined interest- 
ing and able papers, which he had specially written for the Caradoc meeting. 
WILLIAM SWYNDERBY AND THE LOLLARDS IN 
HEREFORDSHIRE.* 
Five hundred years ago the forest of Deerfold—about the centre of which we are 
now placed—was a wild and desolate region—surrounded as it was by the extensive 
chases of Bringewood, Prestwood, and Moctree, and by a succession of wooded hills 
on every side, all equally uncultivated ; it might, with some justice, be called a 
natural sylvan fortress. It had no roads, and the sharp declivities of its high 
grounds, the deep ravine of the Dirkendale brook, boggy and marshy wherever its 
banks were flat, made it almost unapproachable. It was, indeed, this extensive 
tract of difficult and unknown forest land which enabled Edric, the Earl of Shrews- 
bury, ‘‘Edric Sylvaticus” the forester, to maintain the Saxon cause for many years 
after the Norman conquest in England. LEdric, as we know, subsequently swore 
allegiance to King William, but owing to some offence given to him by the King, he 
revolted, c. 1072. Ralph de Mortimer was then deputed to reduce him, and having 
done so, with considerable difficulty, he was rewarded by William with a large 
share of Earl Edric’s possessions, including the forest of Deerfold. At the time of 
the Domesday survey (1085) the whole district was little more than a wild chase, 
and was otherwise wholly unproductive. It is there stated, with regard to it, “In 
his vastis terris excreverunt silve, in quibus iste Osbernus venationem exercet, et 
inde habet quod capere potest, nil aliud.” This Osborn was Osborn Fitz-Richards, 
the Lord of Richards Castle and Ludford, who was associated with Ralph de Mor- 
timer in the overthrow of Earl Edric. We may thus be sure that he did not 
lightly get the right of sporting over the forest ; though he only got from it, as the 
survey says, ‘‘ what he could catch and nothing more.” 
Five hundred years ago, that is after the lapse of three centuries, the char- 
*This paper, although originally read before the Club by Dr. Bull in 1869—(see 77an- 
sactions for that year, page 164, et seq.)—is again introduced here in abridged form, not only as 
a revised edition, but also for the benefit of those members of the Club who have not in their 
library a copy of the Volume for 1869. 
