FORESTRY 



1 



Domesday Survey affords conclusive evidence of the wide- 

 spread and considerable character of the woods of Middlesex 

 in the eleventh century, up to the very gates of the city of 

 London. Woodland was of such great value that it was 

 always entered on the survey of a manor. It was not only 

 an invaluable material for building purposes and a necessity as fuel, but 

 the acorns and beech-mast were of the greatest worth for the susten- 

 ance of the pigs. In some counties the Domesday Commissioners 

 endeavoured to estimate the extent of the wood in each manor by 

 means of measurement, but more often, as in the case of Middlesex, 

 by the number of swine that the wood would support in the time 

 of pannage or autumn feeding. Such returns can, after all, only supply 

 quite a rough estimate as to the extent of a wood, for its pannage 

 value would depend on the nature and density of the trees. Occasionally 

 in other counties there is entry of a si/va infrucfuosa, by which is meant 

 a wood where timber other than oak or beech prevailed, such, say, 

 as ash, which would be useless as far as swine were concerned. The 

 swine-supporting properties of the majority of the Middlesex manors 

 were, however, sufficiently large to betoken a most unusual amount of 

 woodland throughout this small county as compared with the large 

 majority of such divisions. The following list of all the manors that 

 had pannage woods, coupled with the size of the herds of swine they 

 could support, is of interest as showing the distribution of the woods of 

 Middlesex : 



Manor Swine 



Edmonton ..... 2,000 



Enfield ...... 2,000 



Harrow ...... 2,000 



Stanmore ...... 1,600 



Ruislip 



Fulham 



Stepney 



Harefield 



Kingsbury 



Hendon 



Hillingdon 



Tottenham 



Willesden 



Harmondsworth .. 



Isleworth ...... 500 



Colham ...... 400 



Hayes ....... 400 



Greenford ..... 300 



Ickenham ..... 270 



Manor 



Swine 



,450 



,220 



,200 



,200 



,000 



,000 



500 



500 



500 



Northolt ...... 200 



Kensington ...... 200 



Westminster ..... 200 



Twyford ...... 150 



' Slanestaple ' ..... 150 



Tottenhall ...... 150 



Harlesden ...... 100 



Hampstead ...... too 



Stan well ...... 100 



Lisson Green ..... 100 



Chelsea ....... 60 



Tollington ...... 60 



Hanwell ...... 50 



Tyburn ....... 50 



Elthorne ...... 50 



Cowley ....... 40 



Staines ....... 30 



Dawley ....... 15 



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