A HISTORY OF DORSET 



of the Forest Charter at the opening of the reign of Henry III, occurs in the Book of Cerne in 

 the Cambridge University Library ; a translation is given by Hutchins, as well as a later one of the 

 year 1300.'' The latter of these perambulations were made, inter alia, by Walter de la Lynde, 

 Richard le Bret, and Ralph le Brox, former foresters in fee of this forest, and by Walter de 

 Thornhull and Roger de Plumber, verderers of the same. In the 1300 perambulation the jurors 

 recite a considerable number of vills, hamlets, and woods that had been afforested by King John and 

 added to Blackmoor Forest, but which had been disafforested in the time of Henry III and again by 

 a confirmatory writ of Edward I in 1279. Among them were the vills and woods of Melcombe 

 Matravers, Melbury Bubb, Batcombe, Wootton Glanville, Mappowder, West and East Dulham, 

 Haselbury, Fifehead Neville, Fifehead St. Quintin, Caundle Haddon, Caundle Beyn, Caundle Purse 

 and Duntish, with several others. 



The manor of Bere or Bere Regis, about the centre of the county, was of royal demesne in 

 Saxon times.'"' King John had here a royal residence, sojourning at Bere for repeated short visits 

 throughout his reign.''^ In 1259 this extensive manor was granted by Henry III to Simon de 

 Montfort, and hence ceased to be a royal forest. Ten years later it was granted to Edmund, the 

 king's brother. Edmund in the same year granted a moiety of it including the wood of Bere to 

 the abbess of Tarrant. This grant was confirmed by Edward I.*^ 



As to the forest or wood of Bere, which is difficult at times to distinguish in the records from 

 the forest of the same name in Hampshire, there are a few references on the Close Rolls of Henry III. 

 Thus in 1230, the sheriff of Dorset was directed to assign forty oaks to Henry FitzNicholas out of 

 the wood of Bere, for building the manor-house of Fordington ;''' and in 1 23 1 Hugh Paynel had 

 a royal gift from Bere of three roebucks." 



The large parish or liberty of Powerstock, in the south-west of the county, gave its name to 

 a compact, small forest district. It was not royal demesne at the time of the Domesday Survey, when 

 it was held by Hugh of Roger Arundel. From the Arundels it passed by marriage to the New- 

 burghs, and from the Newburghs it was acquired by King John, who exchanged it with Robert de 

 Newburgh for lands in Somerset, and who then proceeded to make it a forest, as is definitely stated 

 in documents of the reigns of Henry III and Edward I.^° 



Henry III gave the bailiwick of this forest to John de la Lynde ; it was valued at a mark a 

 year. He died in 1272, when Edward I accepted the homage of Walter de la Lynde, his son and 

 heir for all the lands which John had held in chief, together with the bailiwicks of the three 

 Dorset forests of Blackmoor, Gillingham, and Powerstock.''^ 



There are also occasional references to the wood or forest of Powerstock in the Close Rolls of 

 Henry III. In 1231 the king ordered that Thomas de Gorges of his household should always be 

 allowed a reasonable amount of dead or dry timber out of Powerstock.''' In the following year 

 Godfrey de Craucombe obtained the gift of six roe-deer out of Powerstock Forest, and six more out 

 of the king's park at Newton, Somerset, towards the stocking of his park at Bere.^^ At a peram- 

 bulation of this forest, held in 1300, Walter de la Lynde is named as taking part in it as forester 

 in fee and Robert de Bingham as verderer.'*' Although afforested as late as the time of King John, 

 this comparatively small forest was not affected by the Forest Charter of Henry III, as it was 

 genuine royal demesne. In the time of Edward III the manor and hundred of Powerstock were 

 held by a subject in chief of the king, and hence it became practically disafforested. Coker, 

 writing in 1732 and not understanding the nature of a forest, says, 'in former ages a forrest, 

 but nowe it is most destitute of woodes.' ^^ 



Some reference must be made in connexion with Dorset forestry to that great tract of country 

 known as Cranborne Chase. This great chase had originally been royal forest, but in quite early 

 days passed into the hands of a subject, and hence, though retaining much of the local administration 

 of a forest with some of its rights and customs, ceased to be under the particular jurisdiction of 

 the king's justices in Forest Pleas. The ' Outbounds' or Outer Chase of Cranborne embraced not 

 only the north-east corner of Dorset, but also a considerable extent in Wiltshire, together with 

 certain parts of Hampshire. It contained about 800,000 acres and seventy-two parishes, including 

 parts of the city of Salisbury and of the towns of Wilton, Shaftesbury, Blandford, Wimborne, and 

 Ringwood. Within this vast circuit was the chase proper or ' In-bounds,' which was about 



^ Dorset, iv, 5 1 6-1 7. '" Hutchins, Dorset, i, 136 ; Madox, Firma Burgi, 84. 



*' Close, 9 John m. 17, 13 ; 'John's Itin.' Jrci. xxii. 



" Hutchins, Dorset, i, 136 ; Close, 4 Edw. I. m. 7. 



" Close, 14 Hen. Ill, m. 74<j'. " Close, 15 Hen. Ill, m. 17. 



*' Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.) 16515 ; Hund. R. (Rec. Com.) i, 97 ; Perambulations off. 1225 and 1300. 



" Abbrev. Rot. Or'tg. i, 19. " Close, 15 Hen. Ill, m. 12. 



'' Close, 16 Hen. Ill, m. 17. 



*' This perambulation is given in extenso in Hutchins, Dorset, ii, 317. 



^ Coker, Sa;xrj) of Dorset, 26. 



292 



