132 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



of the great work of the building of the church, as was done 

 in the forest of Delamere. 



In 1328 the chamberlain of Chester was ordered to pay 

 Richard de Weford the arrears of his wages as riding forester 

 of Wirral, and to continue them annually, as the king had 

 appointed Richard to this office at the request of Queen Isabel 

 before his accession, in consideration of his services to her, 

 and he was to hold this office for life provided he conducted 

 himself well in the bailiwick. There seems to have been some 

 neglect about this order, for it was repeated in 1329 to Oliver 

 de Ingham, justice of Chester. 



The citizens of Chester suffered so much from the shelter 

 afforded to marauders by the forest so closely adjacent to its 

 walls, that they petitioned Edward the Black Prince, then Earl 

 of Chester, to cause it to be disforested. This was accom- 

 plished, but not until after the prince's death, just at the close 

 of the reign of Edward III. The Stanleys valued the per- 

 quisites of the master forestership at 40 per annum, but 

 only received a pension of twenty marks on the abolition of 

 the forest jurisdiction. Although at this date they lost all 

 power and perquisites, the Stanleys of Hooton long continued 

 titular foresters of Wirral, and were so styled in documents of 

 the reign of Henry VII. 



There was a good deal of woodland throughout the forest of 

 Wirral in early days, as is proved, inter alia, by place and 

 field names such as Woodchurch, Ashfield, Maplegreen, 

 Okhill, etc. Place names also show where the lodges of 

 several of the old wards or divisions of the forest stood. There 

 is an old adage that says : 



" From Blacon point to Hillree 

 A squirrel could leap from tree to tree." 



That is, from Chester to the extreme north-western point of 

 the peninsula of Wirral ; but it is highly unlikely that this was 

 the case in historic times. At all events, the wood had seriously 

 diminished some years before Wirral was disforested, for in 

 1359 William Stanley, the hereditary forester, received a grant 

 of four oaks out of the forest of Greves from the Black Prince, 

 as he understood that Stanley had no wood for fuel in his own 

 forest. 



