CHAPTER XIII 

 THE FORESTS OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



THE ancient forest of Needwood was situated in the 

 northern extremity of the hundred of Offlow, and in 

 the four parishes of Tutbury, Hanbury, Tatenhill, and 

 Yoxall. It was famed not only for the beauty, extent, and 

 size of its timber, but more especially for the richness of its 

 pasture land. 



The earliest particulars with regard to Needwood forest, 

 whilst it was yet under the control of the Ferrers, occur in the 

 minister's accounts for 1255-6. The foresters named for Tut- 

 bury ward were Robert Coan and Robert de Wynfleth ; among 

 the receipts were 13^. lod. for the sale of dead wood, 3^. ^d. 

 for the sale of forty customary rent hens, JS. %d. for agistment 

 of cattle, 7-r. 8d., and for a charcoal-burner's licence for ten 

 and a half weeks, i is. ^d. The court fines of this ward in- 

 cluded several penalties of 6d. for collecting nuts, and one 

 for charcoal burning without a licence, but were chiefly for vert 

 offences. The total ward receipts were 2 i8s. 6d. Barton 

 ward produced 4. gs. 8d. ; Marchington ward, 3 i6.r. i\\d. ; 

 and Uttoxeter ward, 2 gs. id. The swine turned out in the 

 forest for pannage amounted to 227, of which twelve went for 

 tithe, six in alms, one to the steward, and one to the chief 

 forester. 



( On the attainder of Robert Earl Ferrers in 1266, his confis- 

 cated estates were granted by Henry III. to his son Edmund, 

 afterwards created Earl of Lancaster. One of the finest portions 

 of these estates, afterwards known as the Duchy of Lancaster, 

 was the honor of Tutbury, and within its limits was the splendidly 

 wooded and exceptionally fertile stretch of Needwood forest. 

 An extent of the lands of Edmund, the king's brother, drawn 



