INDUSTRIES 





not later, as the chief iron-producing district in 

 the south of England. 



Direct references to the ironworks of Dean 

 Forest under the Angevin dynasty are, however, 

 more scanty, but bear out the impression pro- 

 duced by the entries already cited. Henry Plan- 

 tagenet * before his accession had confirmed the 

 gifts of Roger, earl of Hereford, to Flaxley Abbey, 

 as amongst which were included 'a certain iron- 

 work at Ed land,' 3 and after his coronation he 

 again confirmed 3 the privileges of these Cister- 

 cians, using the significant words : 



' Et de eadem forest* dedi eis . . . unam forgeam 

 ferrariam ita liber am et quietam et operantem per- 

 omnia, sicut meae dominicae forgeae.' 



As early, then, as the middle of the twelfth cen- 

 tury, and probably before that time, the king's 

 forges were at work in the forest, and the same 

 remark may apply to itinerant forges in private 

 hands. Among forges 4 known to have been 

 authorized by Henry II may be mentioned those 

 of Walter dc Lascy and Richard de Eston. 

 The second of these lay at Staunton. In this 

 connexion may be cited an entry on the first 

 Pipe Roll of King John that William the son of 

 Hingan paid 10 marks for holding his 'fabrica" 

 in peace till the king's pleasure were ascertained. 

 Besides those already enumerated one of the 

 best-known of these early itinerant forges was 

 that of the Cantelupes, and the terms' of 

 the grant to Mabel de Cantelupe in 1231 

 imply that the privilege was of long standing, 

 * as in the time of King John and his prede- 

 cessors.' This forge lay at Etloe (Ettelawe\ and 

 was privileged to receive an oak every fifteen 

 days from the forest as late as the middle of the 

 reign of Henry III. The same family also 



1 Dugdalc, Man. v, 590. 



' Or Erdland.as in Forest Proc. K.R. bdle. i.No. 25. 



* He also granted them the two oaks a week which 

 they received till about 1258. Cf. Forest Proc. K.R. 

 bdle. i, No. 25, and App. to Cart, of Flaxley. 



4 Close, I Hen. Ill, m. 1 1 ; and 4 Hen. Ill, m. 3. 



* This entry occurs amongst the forest amercements, 

 and thus we shall be tolerably safe in assuming that 

 the ' fabrica ' in question was an iron forge, that is, 

 probably, a smclting-hearth or bloomer)', with ad- 

 jacent smithy. It is possible that the rare word 

 ' blissahiis,' which occurs in connexion with iron- 

 works in a mandate cited below, may be a local term 

 for the smelting-hearths or small furnaces as dis- 

 tinguished from forges in the narrower sense. As 

 Mr. H. S. Cowper, F.S.A., points out in discussing 

 the ' Excavation at Springs Bloomery ' (Arch. J. Iv, 

 loo), ' in all these smaller bloomeries [in the Furness 

 district] there was a small smithy at hand for working 

 up the metal on the spot.' In the Forest of Dean 

 the same conjunction probably existed in most cases, 

 and the word ' forge ' may thus be understood. The 

 Close Roll of I Hen. Ill, pt. ii, m. 15, supplies 

 evidence that three classes of forges were then at work 

 in the forest : those of the demesne, a few under 

 licence, and the rest unauthorized. 



* Pat. 1 6 Hen. Ill, m. 10. 



possessed three ' fossatas de bosco sicco,' doubtless 

 charcoal pits for providing coals. 7 



Another forge of special interest, long worked 

 by the Malemort family, lay in the demesne land 

 near the castle of St. Briavel, and furnished for 

 at least a century much of the war material, 

 especially cross-bow quarrels required by the 

 armies and garrisons 8 of successive kings. In the 

 Pipe Roll of the eighth year of King John, after 

 a notice of if. 6</. paid for the carriage of 2,000 

 quarrels to Montgomery, we read of William de 

 Malemort, who has been forging quarrels, with 

 two assistant journeymen (garcianitus), at $d. a 

 day, and of William the fletcher, who has 3^. a 

 day, 7 marks 91. and \d. having been paid to 

 them in wages for fifty-four days from the mor- 

 row of Michaelmas to the 3 March inclusive, 

 while 301. were expended in iron, charcoal (car- 

 bone), and other materials for the quarrels. And 

 further details of the process of manufacture at 

 this miniature arsenal are furnished by the ac- 

 count of Amaury de St. Amando, Constable of 

 St. Briavel's, which is enrolled on the Pipe Roll ' 

 2O Henry III. Another member of the family, 

 possibly a son, John de Malemort, is still forging 

 quarrels, and is paid the considerable sum of 

 14. 5s. 4^. for his expenses in iron, coals, 

 wood (fuito) t feathers for arrows, and bran and 

 lard for preserving the quarrels (bren et lardio 

 ad eos reiervandos), also barrels for storing them, 

 and a grindstone and a smithy for making them 

 (domo fabrili ad eotdcm fabricandoi). This forge 

 again was privileged to receive an oak a week, 

 and other supplies from the forest, ' to the 

 damage of the king and the detriment of the 

 forest,' according to a 'Verdict 10 of the three 

 foreign hundreds,' which is certainly earlier than 

 1258, and not improbably than 1250. And it 

 may be noted that in this document John de 

 Malemort is styled sheath-maker (gaynarius) of 

 our lord the king, 11 but by 1282 he had ap- 

 parently been succeeded by a son or other relative 

 named Stephen. In the reign of Edward II, two 

 members of this family, Richard and Osbert, were 

 men of some local standing in the neighbourhood 

 of Lydney. 1 * 



In the early ' Verdict ' just cited, which seems to 

 be an answer to the chapters of a regard, mention 



' Forest Proc. K.R. bdle. i, No. 25. 



' Cf. in Pipe Roll Glouc. 1 3 Hen. Ill, a note of 

 15,000 quarrels to be delivered to the Constable of 

 Winchester. 



' m. 2. Forest Proc. K.R. bdle. I, No. 25. 



11 Early in 1278 a mandate was sent to the Con- 

 stable of St. Briavel's to allow John de Malemort to 

 have two beech-trees from the forests for shafts 

 (' flecchas ') for quarrels, and two oak-trees to make 

 two chests for the king's use, to place the said 

 quarrels in. 



" Harl. Chart, iii, C. 32. One of these is not im- 

 probably the ' Osbert le Gaynere ' who accounts for 

 wood sales in Dean in the early years of Edw. III. 

 Exch. Accts. bdle. 140, No. 20. 



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