A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



Nottingham fifty leafless oaks from the archbishop's wood of Blidworth, to be used for charcoal and 

 for boards for dressers (tabulis ad dressoria) ; also thirty oaks from the king's woods in the forest near 

 the Trent for firewood for the king's hall, and thirty more for the king's chamber, against the 

 ensuing Parliament. The wood was to be felled by the sheriff, carried to Lincoln, and there 

 delivered to the clerk of the king's scullery. 1 



The owners of woods within a royal forest had no power of felling timber or cutting 

 underwood therein, save under direct warrant. In 1316 Edward II permitted Ralph de Crumb well 

 to fell and sell, whither he will, twenty acres of his wood of Lambley, within the bounds of Sherwood 

 Forest, in compensation for the losses sustained by him in the king's service in Scotland. 2 



The oaks of Sherwood were always held in good repute when choice timber was required. 

 When Edward II was preparing, at the close of the year 1324, for the expedition into the duchy 

 of Aquitaine, the sheriff of Nottingham was directed to supply nine springalds and a thousand 

 quarels. These springalds were military engines of the catapult kind, constructed to discharge heavy 

 arrows or quarels with iron heads. The sheriff was instructed to prepare the springalds so that some 

 of them should be capable of discharging quarels of the length of three-quarters of a yard and others 

 of five-eights of a yard. The justice of the forest south of the Trent was ordered to suffer the 

 sheriff and his carpenters to have as many oaks and other trees fit for timber out of Sherwood Forest 

 as were deemed necessary for the construction of these engines. 3 



A curious case of forest claims outside the limits arose in 1338. John de Wyne had a pasture 

 called Fulwood, in Pinxton and Normanton, partly in Nottinghamshire and partly in Derbyshire. 

 It was near to the town of Kirkby, and about a mile from the field of Kirkby, which was a mete of 

 the forest. Although well outside the limits according to the perambulation, the deputy of the 

 keeper and other forest ministers, asserting that the pasture was forest, compelled John, by distraints 

 on his cattle, to pay a custom called wardefet for the king's use. On John's complaint a commission 

 was appointed in April, 1338, to hold an inquisition. This inquiry showed that the facts were as 

 stated, and Ralph de Nevill (the keeper) and his ministers were ordered not to intermeddle further 

 with the pasture. In the following year, however, further evidence came to light, particularly 

 that of the woodward elected by the township of Hucknell under Huthwaite, to the effect that 

 wardefet had in old days been claimed from Fulwood, and a further commission was appointed. 



After an interval of nearly fifty years, the forest pleas for Sherwood were again held at 

 Nottingham. They were held in the spring of 1334, before Ralph de Nevill, Richard de 

 Aldborough, and Peter de Middleton. 4 The number of venison presentments at this eyre was 119, 

 which was but a small amount considering the long period since the last court. In several cases 

 there was no definite charge of deer-slaying, or even of being found with dogs or bows, but simply 

 of trespass. Such trespass would be by strangers at night or during the fence month. Some of the 

 transgressors, as was usually the case, were of good position. Such were John lord de Grey, who 

 was found in the Bestwood enclosure with bows and six greyhounds running a herd of hinds (herdum 

 bissarum), of which he killed two ; and Henry Curson of Breadsall, who killed a hind in Clipston Wood. 



The roll of amercements of persons convicted of vert trespass at the attachment courts at 

 more than \d., and who could only be amerced at the eyre, was presented to the justices. This 

 roll embraced about 750 trespasses, varying in value from 6d. for honey found in an oak, or for boughs 

 and trunks, to 2s. for a single oak. These values had been already paid to the verderers at the 

 time when the attachment court was held, and the additional fines imposed by the justices varied 

 from is. to 2s. In each case the name of two who had been bound over to secure the trespasser's 

 appearance follows the entry of the offence. 



It is scarcely surprising to find, after the very long interval since the last eyre, that some of the 

 verderers' rolls of the different attachment courts were missing. Those for 1288, 1289, 1290, 

 and 1291 were not forthcoming. The fines imposed in 1334 upon the defaulting verderers or their 

 heirs amounted to 20 8s. 2d. 



At this eyre the forest ministers were asked upon their oath to state from what person or persons 

 the foresters were wont to receive and have their living. In reply they cited from an inquest 

 held in 1289, shortly after Edward I had removed Robert de Everingham from his bailiwick as 

 hereditary forester, stating his extensive perquisites and privileges. It is interesting to note a 

 particular difference between the privileges there cited and those already named of the time of 

 Richard I. There is no mention of a skep of salt from the salt carts going through the forest, but 

 he had an average of 2OJ. a year on the carriage of millstones. Robert de Everingham, as chief 

 forester, also held ten knights' fees of the king, but he was exonerated from that charge in return 

 for finding foresters at his own cost. It therefore followed, after the keepership was forfeited to 

 the crown, that the foresters were to continue to be paid by whomsoever the crown should appoint 

 as keeper. 



1 Close, 9 Edward II, m. 20. ' Ibid. 10 Edward II, m. 18. 



1 Ibid. 1 8 Edward II, m. 21. For. Proc. Tr. of Rec. No. 132. 



372 



