THE FORESTS OF STAFFORDSHIRE 141 



the monastic estates were conferred not unnaturally endeavoured 

 to sustain claims that had not been resisted when made by 

 the public almoners of a district. Considerable conflict arose 

 with regard to such matters at Needwood, and the absence 

 of the checks exercised by the woodwards, appointed by various 

 religious houses in most English forests, was one of the chief 

 causes that led in this district to much wrongdoing on the part 

 of the officials. 



The detection of a particular keeper in a grave case of 

 peculation in 1540 brought about a careful inquiry into the 

 general conduct of the officials. It was then ascertained that 

 in a single year the keeper of Tutbury Wood had .cut down 

 and sold 45 loads of timber, the keeper of Marchingdon, in 

 loads ; the keeper of Barton, 170 loads ; the keeper of Yoxall, 

 124; and the keeper of Uttoxeter, 64. No forest could possibly 

 stand the drain of an annual sale of 841 loads. The fraudulent 

 keepers were discharged, and a certain amount of reformation 

 achieved. 



A survey of the parks of Needwood was taken in the reign 

 of Philip and Mary, when the jury found that the deer of 

 the castle park numbered 137, that those in Rolleston Park 

 numbered 105 ; those of Stokeley Park, 160 ; those of Barton 

 Park, 104 ; those of Shireholt Park, 144 ; those of High Lynns 

 Park, 127 ; and that Castlehay Park had been disparked in 

 favour of the king's "race of great horses," and Hanbury 

 Park reserved for the king's stud mares. A great waste of 

 trees was in progress, and it was known that many had been 

 cut down without any warrant, as the stools still standing showed 

 no sign of the mark of the king's axe. Among the claims then 

 made by the tenants or commoners was that of "hoar lynt." 

 This term signified the white wood of the lime or linden 

 tree after the basters had stripped such timber of the bast or 

 inner bark for cordage or mats. 



, The survey of the first of Elizabeth, cited at length in Shaw's 

 Staffordshire, says : 



"The forest or chase of Needwood is in compasse by estimation 

 twenty-three miles and a half, and the nearest part thereof is distant 

 from the Castle of Tutbury but one mile. In it are 7,869 acres and 

 an halfe, and very forest-like ground, thinly sett with old oakes and 

 timber trees, well replenished with coverts of underwood and thornes, 



