FORESTRY 



woods had been granted or given away by the queen's predecessors that there was but little harbour 

 left for the deer in the forest, and the deer in consequence were distributed all over the county, 

 eating up the corn and grass ; that their tenants had often to watch all night to keep the deer off ; 

 that their servants were terrified by several new keepers made by the present deputy-warder, who 

 'threaten them if so much as they do set a little dog at the deer though in the corn'; that not only 

 had they to watch their cornfields, where the deer often lay nine or ten brace together, but they so 

 destroy private woods as to injure them to the extent of from 10 to 50 a year. 



At the same time another petition was addressed to the House of Commons with about 400 

 signatures, wherein it was stated that the number of red deer in the forest, 'till very lately, had 

 never or seldom exceeded three hundred, which was a great number, considering the barrenness of 

 the soil and the great destruction of the woods, as the forest could maintain.' In the light of other 

 evidence this estimate, used for the sake of strengthening the petitioners' arguments, was probably 

 much below the mark. The petitioners proceeded to state that these deer now numbered more 

 than 900 ; that they roamed over the country to find sustenance, but more particularly that these 

 depredations were chiefly carried on in ' the division called Hatfield and the whole district of the 

 Clay ; and that these parts of the county were outside the forest limits according to the perambulation 

 and inquisition of Edward I.' This petition met with no favour, for it was argued, though 

 incorrectly, that the owners had never before been asked to stint the number of deer, and that it was 

 a request to Parliament to take away the queen's liberty and right without her consent. On a copy 

 of this petition still extant is endorsed : 



'Tis no doubt but that if there were no more than fifty deer in the whole forest, and if it should 

 happen that they were on any one particular man's two or three acres of corn or turnips, they would 

 be sure to lessen his crops ; yet he bought the land with the encumbrance, and it is past all dispute 

 that the queen has as much right to it as any man has to his own coat.' 



The forest was no source of profit in Anne's reign. Contrariwise ^1,000 a year was granted 

 to maintain the deer and the new park at Clumber, and to hunt with two horsemen, forty couple of 

 hounds, eleven horses, and four grooms. There were four ' forest keepers,' and four ' deputy 

 purlieu rangers ' ; the winter hay for the deer averaged 100 a year. 



In the eighteenth century the open forest area was continuously decreasing, partly by grants in 

 the northern part for parks, but still more by the enclosure acts of the latter part of the century. 

 Between 1789 and 1796 inclusive acts were passed for the enclosure of Arnold Forest, Sutton in 

 Ashfield, Kirkby in Ashfield, and Lenton and Radford, whereby 8,248 acres were brought into 

 cultivation. Earlier in the reign of George III, enclosure acts of Blidworth (1,800 acres), Carlton 

 (220), Epperstone (70), Ollerton (500), and several others of smaller extent had enclosed yet more 

 of the open forest tracts. 2 



In 1793 the Commissioners of Woods and Forests and Land Revenues of the Crown issued 

 their fourteenth report (70 folio pages) which dealt exclusively with Sherwood. They describe 

 it as the only forest remaining under the superintendence of the chief justice in eyre north of 

 Trent, or belonging to the crown in that part of England. The chief officials were the lord- 

 warden, the duke of Newcastle, by letters patent ; the bowbearer or ranger, Lord Byron, by the 

 lord-warden ; four verderers, elected by the freeholders ; and steward, John Gladwin, appointed 

 during pleasure by lord chief justice. There were also nine keepers of nine walks, appointed by 

 the verderers, each receiving a salary of 2OS. from the lord-warden. Two woodwards were 

 annually sworn for Sutton and Carlton. Each verderer and the steward received an annual fee tree 

 out of the hays of Birkland and Bilhagh. There were no deer in the forest save in Thorney 

 Woods, of which Lord Chesterfield (as hereditary successor to John Stanhope of Elizabeth's days) 

 was keeper ; but evidence was given of there having been a great many red deer in Birkland and 

 Bilhagh until about 1770, when they were killed ofF by the keepers of the dukes of Newcastle 

 and Kingston, assisted by the inhabitants, since which time the forest farms had proved much 

 more valuable, and the wheatfields no longer wanted guarding by horns in the daytime and by fires 

 at night. The four verderers at that time each demanded and obtained a fee buck and a fee doe 

 annually from Lord Chesterfield. 



The accounts of particular ancient trees, or of special groups, as at Haywood, near Blidworth, 

 or in the beautiful glades of Birkland and Bilhagh, together with the recording of other forest 

 survivals, will be more appropriately discussed under their respective parishes in the topographical 

 section. 



Though there was so much grievous destruction of timber in Sherwood Forest in the 



1 White, Worktop and Sherwood Forest, 2189. Cited chiefly from Bailey, Annals. 



' General Rep. on Enclosures (1808). Nottingham had 88 enclosure acts in the first forty years of 

 George III, and was only surpassed in the acreage enclosed by Lincoln, Leicester, and Northampton. According 

 to the Agricultural Report of 1794 (App. v) there had been in that century 10,666 acres of private enclosures 

 from the forest and its borders. 



377 48 



