A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



and carry all the Bishop's corrody ' from Wolsingham 

 to the lodges . . . and carry venison to Durham and 

 Auckland. 



The object of the ' ropes,' of which frequent 

 mention is made in the Boldon Book, as forming 

 part of the forest service of the episcopal tenants 

 and villeins, appears at first rather obscure, but 

 according to Canon Greenwell, they were re- 

 quired to make the haia or inclosure into which 

 the deer were gradually collected. From this it 

 would appear that the great hunting parties lacked 

 all element of true sport, save the woodcraft re- 

 quired to collect the deer in the inclosure, where 

 the hapless animals, unable to escape, were 

 butchered by the bishop and his fellow-sportsmen 

 at their ease. The deer were apparently hunted 

 with greyhounds, or more probably, wolf or stag 

 hounds, the provision of which also formed part 

 of the obligations of certain of the episcopal 

 tenants or villeins. Thus, 'the dreng^ of Great 

 Usworth feeds a dog and a horse, and attends the 

 great chase with two greyhounds — lepororih — 

 and five ropes,' and when we consider that Us- 

 worth is 25 miles, as the crow flies, from Stan- 

 hope (where the confines of the forest proper 

 would begin), and by road is certainly more than 

 half as far again, and further, that the man's recom- 

 pense for this special service was only his food and 

 such share of the 'half ton of beer ' as he might 

 be lucky enough to secure at the termination of 

 the hunt, one can only presume that the fertility 

 of his holding at Great Usworth was adequate 

 indemnification for his trouble. 



Other forest service exacted of the tenants was 

 the special watching of the forest for forty days 

 in the calving or fawning season — tempus de 

 foyneson ^ — and again for a similar period in the 

 rutting-time — ruyth. 



The repeated mention in Boldon Book of the 

 bishop's roe-hunts shows these animals to have 

 been abundant in Durham in early times, and as 

 the roe is essentially a timber-haunting deer, it is 

 evident the county must have been more densely 

 wooded than at the present time.* 



No record exists of the exact year in which 

 Weardale was disforested, but it ceased to be 

 used for sporting purposes by the bishops on the 

 appointment of William Dudley to the see of 



' Corrody, food or sustenance. Here it refers to 

 the food and drink which the bishop gave to the 

 villeins who were making their stated work for him. 

 From this word Canon Greenwell derives the 

 word ' crovvdy,' still in use in the north, which is 

 porridge made of oatmeal with boiling water poured 

 on it. 



* ' Drengh,' a half-freeman ; one who was midway 

 between a free tenant and a villein. 



' This was held to extend fifteen days before to 

 fifteen days after Midsummer Day. 



" The present master of the North Durham Fox- 

 hounds informs me that his hounds occasionally still 

 find a roe-deer in Lord Bute's plantations between 

 Lanchester and Consett. 



Durham in 1476. That prelate, however, 

 granted a lease of it, in 1479, ^'^ Richard, Duke 

 of Gloucester. The lease lapsed with the bishop's 

 death four years later, and as farm-leases were 

 granted to the inhabitants of Weardale by Bishop 

 Ruthall in 151 1, the disforestment must have 

 taken place between these dates. 



Red deer, however, lingered on in the dale for 

 about another two centuries, owing to the ' parks ' 

 that had been inclosed with the increase of agri- 

 culture, both for the better protection of the 

 tenants' crops and the preservation of the deer. 

 One of these parks was at Stanhope and another 

 at Wolsingham. The date when they were first 

 inclosed is not known, but as early as 1327 

 Edward III is known to have camped in Stanhope 

 Park when conducting his fruitless expedition 

 against the Scots under Douglas and Randolph. 

 A new park is believed to have been inclosed by 

 Bishop Neville, of which Leland in his Itinerary'' 

 remarks that it ' was rudely enclosed with stone 

 of 12 or 14 miles in compass,' and further adds, 

 that ' there resorte many rede deer straglers to 

 the mountains of Weredale.' To such an extent 

 had these stray deer increased by 1530, that a 

 lease of Burnhope — the highest ground in Wear- 

 dale — contains provision for a ' frith,' for the 

 better preservation of the deer in that locality. 

 None the less, the deer kept steadily decreasing. 

 According to Matthew's Survey of Weardale^ 

 Stanhope Park, which had contained 200 deer in 

 1575, maintained but 40 in 1595, and half a 

 century later, in 1647, it is recorded that neither 

 red nor fallow deer existed in Weardale.' 



A number of causes had contributed to this ; 

 the great increase of agriculture, and especially of 

 the head of pastoral stock maintained by the 

 bishop's tenants ; lack of interest in sport on the 

 part of the prelates themselves, and consequent 

 neglect to feed the deer in the parks in winter ; 

 and probably poaching also, though no special 

 reference is made to this. None the less, long 

 after the above date red deer must frequently 

 have strayed into Weardale from the forest of 

 Teesdale, which marched with it, and was not 

 disforested until a very much later date. When 

 this actually occurred is not known, but in the 

 muniment room at Raby is preserved, under date 

 of 7 June, 1682, the ' Letters patent of Keeper 

 of the Forest of Teesdale to George Simpson of 

 Shipley, and Surrender to the Hon*"' Christopher 

 Vane.' '" Further, there is also a grant, dated 

 7 July, 1689, from William and Mary, to 



'1506. '1595- 



' I am indebted for much interesting information 

 respecting the forest of Weardale to Stanhope and its 

 Neighbourhood, by W. Morley Egglestone, published by 

 the author in 1882. 



'° The date of this surrender is not given in the 

 schedule of deeds at Raby, but it would presumably 

 coincide with the general pardon granted to Vane by 

 James II in 1688. 



386 



