THE ANCIENT INDUSTRIES OF CANNOCK CHASE. 128 
Land. He sold the vassalage of Scotland, several important fort- 
resses, and many manors and revenues belonging to the Crown, 
among them the Manors of Cannock and Rugeley and the Forest 
rights therein. The purchaser was the Bishop of Coventry and 
- Lichfield, whose ancient rights in the Forest had always been a 
source of friction between the Royal and Episcopal claimants. In this 
way a portion of the ‘‘ King’s Forest ” became the ‘‘ Bishop’s Chase.” 
The Forest Laws which had been in operation under the Norman 
Kings up to the 13th Century were barbarous in their severity, for 
the offence of killing a stag a man paid penalty with his life, and for 
less offences with the loss of a limb! Men were driven to 
desperation by such cruel laws, and bands of outlaws bid defiance 
to them and lived by poaching and robbery. Whether Robin Hood 
and his Merry Men haunted the forest glades of Cannock as well as 
Sherwood we do not know, but it is an interesting fact that in an 
old document of King Edward VI’s. reign allusion is made to 
“Robin Hood’s Ford” somewhere on the banks of the Trent. 
At any rate, travelling was then exceedingly dangerous, and 
the Forest roads especially were full of peril, so much so that the 
powerful Karls of Chester paid a regular subsidy to the Warden of 
Cannock Chase for providing a safe escort through the Forest. The 
so-called Norman custom of ringing the curfew bell at nightfall was 
in general use, and was continued at Cannock long after it fell into 
disuse elsewhere to guide benighted travellers across the waste to a 
place of safety. 
The Mineral which was first mined in Britain to any great 
extent was Iron. It seems strange in these days, when the Coal 
Trade has assumed such enormous proportions, to be reminded that 
in days gone by people got along very well without coal, but they 
could not do without iron. Iron was an absolute necessity for a 
people advancing in civilisation. It is thought by some writers that 
the Ancient Britons were not behind ,their neighbours the Gauls in 
their knowledge of iron mines and works, but it is quite certain that 
during the Roman occupation of Great Britain there must have been 
