A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



In the ' Means of Improvement ' with which the report concludes, Mr. Brown recom- 

 mended the providing shelter in the High Peak by planting such parts as were inaccessible to 

 the plough with larch, Scotch fir, and birch. 1 



About twenty years later Mr. John Farey, mineral surveyor of Westminster, began to 

 draw up a much more elaborate report for the Board of Agriculture on this county, which 

 eventually filled three 8vo volumes of considerable size. 2 In the account of the minerals 

 mention is made of the destruction of woods in the early mining period and the smelting of 

 lead by fires on the hill-tops blown by the wind only. It is stated that the miners claimed 

 the right of cutting wood and timber, not only for use in the mines, but also for smelting 

 in any of the king's forests. 'There are people,' he adds, 'yet living (1811) at Matlock 

 who have assisted in fetching timber, under this privilege, from Beechwood Forest, in Stafford- 

 shire, for the use of the mines in Matlock. 8 



In Farcy's second volume (1815) a good deal of space is given to arboriculture. The 

 planting of orchards was generally neglected in the county, though he found cherry orchards 

 at Derby, Fenny Bentley, and Hackenthorpe. Walnut trees were greatly on the decline, the 

 good price for the wood having caused many to be cut down.* He found copse woods 

 bearing underwood as well as timber, which were cut at regular intervals, well distributed 

 throughout the county, save in the Peak and coal-measure districts. A list is given of 

 ninety-nine places where Mr. Farey noted ' ancient woods, principally of oak, but often with 

 a mixture of ash, sycamore, elm, beech, poplar, alder, Spanish chestnuts,' and underwood. 

 The large majority of these still remain. Particular mention is made of the fine large woods 

 of Foremark, which had been under the attention of Mr. James Mathews from 1735 to I755> 

 and afterwards under his son. The props for coal pits took the greater part of the well- 

 grown underwood, when felled (usually after 25 years' growth), the remaining underwood 

 and tops of the larger trees were cut into cord-wood and turned into charcoal near the 

 spot. Mention is made of the entire cutting down in 1 784, by Mr. William Cox, 6 of Culland, 

 of 150 acres of ancient oak wood in Shirley Park, most of the trees being stunted and ill- 

 grown, with the result that the health and thickness of the new crop had been wonderfully 

 improved. Beech woods without undergrowth, such as abound in chalky counties, were 

 unknown in Derbyshire. Modern plantations, chiefly of mixtures of Scotch larch, silver 

 and spruce firs, with oak, ash, elm, sycamore, and birch are named as occurring at 

 sixty-eight different places. Particular mention is made of the thriving plantations of 

 Mr. Oldknow at Mellor, Mr. Strutt at Belper, and Mr. Milnes at Ashover. It is stated 

 that the Hon. Bernard Howard planted from 50,000 to 60,000 larch, Scotch fir, and 

 beech annually in Glossop parish, ' the Scotch intended as nurses, and to be cut away in 

 the thinnings.' Sir Joseph Banks, in planting a large tract of poor heathy land above 

 Ashover, in 1807-8, first planted strips or screens of Scotch firs about 40 feet broad, at a 

 distance of 100 yards from each other, these being crossed at larger intervals by other strips 

 at right angles ; the intention being when these had grown to some height to plant the 

 enclosed patches with larch. 6 



Mr. Farey devotes an interesting but brief section to the various sort of trees, both 

 indigenous and otherwise, that hefound growing in different partsof the county,and as to particular 

 practices in the way of planting and pruning.? Alder wood was used at Belper for turning bobbins 

 and spindles for the mills ; but at Edale and Findern the alder poles were peeled for the use of 

 Manchester dyers, the peel fetching from 6 to 6 lOs. delivered at the dye-houses. There 

 were few cedars in the county, but there was a remarkably fine one at ' Bradby Hall ' 

 (? Bretby), the trunk at 17 feet high measuring 13 feet 2 inches in circumference, from 

 which sprang three prodigious upright branches ; it was supposed to have been planted in 

 the year 1682. At Overton there was a grove of birch trees, tapped from time to time 

 for the making of birch wine. Exceptionally fine Spanish chestnuts were noted in several 



1 General View of the Agriculture of the County of Derby, 410, 55. 



3 Vol. i. (1811) is chiefly occupied with mineral returns; vol. ii. (1815) and vol. iii. (1817) 

 relate to agriculture and a variety of incidental circumstances. 



8 Farey, i. 381. * Farey, ii. 215-216. 



6 William Cox (the great-grandfather of the writer of this section), who died in 1827, and was for 

 ' many years an eminent agriculturist,' traced his prosperity to his common sense in felling the whole 

 of the gnarled oak woods on his property at Shirley Park. The prices he obtained from cabinet makers 

 for this sound, well-grained ancient timber enabled him to purchase the manor of Culland, where he 

 afterwards thrived and became an extensive landowner. 



6 Farey, ii. chap. 9, passim. 7 Farey, ii. 244-315. 



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