FORESTRY 



has been followed by Grafton, Stow, and Camden. Had these men actually flourished in Sherwood at 

 a later date, in the thirteenth century, or in the fourteenth century, there could scarcely fail to be 

 definite references to their marauding habits in the presentments at the forest pleas held at Notting- 

 ham, of which full particulars are extant. 



It was near the close of Maud de Caux's tenure of the office of keeper of this forest that the 

 great storm of the winter of 1222 occurred, when England was swept from end to end with 

 winds of extraordinary vehemence. Trees were everywhere overthrown in such vast numbers that 

 the old forest customs, whereby windfallen boughs, or rootfallen trees, were the perquisites of forest 

 ministers were suspended, and special writs were issued by the crown to the authorities throughout 

 England directing the sale of all such timber with a return of the proceeds. These special instruc- 

 tions were forwarded inter a/ia, to the (i) verderers and foresters of the forest of Sherwood, (2) to the 

 verderers and forester of the enclosures or hays of Sherwood (de haiis de Shirewood), (3) to Maud 

 de Caux, widow, keeper of the forest of Sherwood and of Clay, and (4) to Philip Marc, 

 keeper of the hays of Sherwood. 1 The hays or parks within a forest usually had a separate set of 

 ministers ; the two chief hays at this period were those of Clipston and Bestwood. 2 Maud de 

 Caux obtaining in 1222 the title of keeper of Sherwood and Clay was a survival of the time 

 when the districts placed under the then rigid forest laws had been much extended by Henry II and 

 John, including in Nottinghamshire a considerable part of the Clay 3 division in the north-east of 

 the county, as well as the northern part of Hatfield or Heathfield, above Warsop. In 1215 John, 

 by one of the articles of Magna Charta, was compelled to agree to the disafforesting of all the great 

 tracts put under forest law during his reign, and in 1217 the child-king, Henry III, was made to issue 

 in return for certain grants, the Charter of the Forest, whereby good men and true were to view forests 

 in every shire, and all that had been added since the coronation of Henry II was to be disafforested. 



We are not aware that there is any perambulation of this forest extant of earlier date than 

 1232, but in that year the Clay and Hatfield districts were declared outside the forest, and the true 

 bounds set forth in definite fashion. 4 This perambulation is identical in its main lines with one 

 taken in the year 1300, though the phraseology is not quite so clear. In both cases the perambula- 

 tion, or setting forth of the bounds, began at the king's ford (Conyngeswath), which was a ford over the 

 stream of Rainworth Water between Edwinstowe and Wellow at the north-east corner of the forest, 

 proceeding thence in both directions. 



The perambulation of 17 June, 1300, was made in the presence of the forester and verderers 

 and of the attorney of the justice of the forests, on the oath of Sir Gervais Clifton, Sir John Lecke, 

 and six other knights and four Serjeants. 6 They declared that the lord king's forest of Sherwood 

 begins at the ford of Conyngeswath, along the road which leads as far as the town of Wellow 

 towards Nottingham, so that the close of the town of Wellow is outside the forest, and so by the 

 road which goes between Wellow and Nottingham to a certain parcel of wood called Littlehawe ; 

 and so ascending by a certain way towards the west between the said wood and the wood of the 

 abbot of Rufford, which is called Brown, and extends so far as Rainworthford ; and thence turning 

 aside by a certain road towards the east between the aforesaid wood of Littlehaw and the wood of 

 Blidworth as far as the aforesaid great road, which leads from Wellow towards Nottingham as far as 

 Bakestanehowe on that same great road ; and so by the same road as far as the place where 

 the rivulet of Dover Beck crosses the aforesaid road ; and thence as the aforesaid rivulet of Dover 

 Beck descends into the water which is called the Trent ; and so along the same water of the Trent 

 to Nottingham bridge. 



The aforesaid perambulation also begins in the same county of Nottingham at the aforesaid ford 

 of Conyngeswath, ascending towards the west by the water which is called Meden as far as the 

 town which is called Warsop, and from that town ascending by the same water as far as Pleasley 

 Park ; and thence ascending by the same water as far as Haytrebridge ; and thence turning aside 

 along the high road of Nottingham as far as the bridge of Milneford, and thence ascending as far 

 as Mameshead ; and thence between the fields of Hardwick and Kirkby and the moor Kirkby as 

 far as the corner which is called Nonneker ; and thence through the assart of Ywayn le Breton as 

 far as Tarlesty ; and thence as far as Stolegate ; and thence along the high road as far as beneath 



1 Pat. 7 Hen. Ill, m. 6. As to the instructions of this period, De Cabkiclo, i.e. the cablish or windfallen 

 timber, on the Patent and Close Rolls, see Cox, Royal Forests, 6, J. 



' Beskwood was the old form of spelling, and generally maintained until the beginning of last century. 



* Called Clay from the nature of the soil, which differed from the usually sandy soil of Sherwood. 



4 Exch. Misc. Bk., No. 76. This is a small parchment book of thirteenth-century date, consisting of 

 115 folios, lettered on back 'Sherwood Forest Perambulation and other Proceedings,' Hen. Ill Edw. III. 

 It opens with a transcript of the Charter of the Forest ; this is followed by perambulations of Sherwood, 

 16 Hen. Ill and 28 Edw. I. 



4 There are three early MSS. of this perambulation at the Record Office, For. Proc. (Ancient) 

 Chancery, No. 102, m. 10; ibid. No. 44, and in Misc. Bk. 76, just cited. This English version is taken 

 from Turner, Pleas of the Forest (Selden Soc.) 1 18, 119. 



