A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



I mark for nuts and chestnuts reminds us of the famous wood of sweet chestnuts 1 within 



the forest. 



But it is to the rolls of the forest eyres 2 that we must turn for the most intimate picture 

 of the condition of the forest during the reign of Henry III and his successor. The terms of 

 the writs, sent to the sheriff of Gloucester and other officers, in respect to the highest forest 

 court, show how far-reaching were its powers. For instance, in 1232 the sheriff was ordered 3 

 to summon to Gloucester, on the Monday before St. John Baptist's Day, to the presence of 

 John of Monmouth and other justices of the forest, all prelates, barons, knights, and free 

 tenants within the bounds of the forest, also from each forest vill four men with the reeve 

 and the foresters of the vills, and also all men dwelling outside the forest who owed suit to 

 the forest pleas or have been attached in respect to the forest. All the king's foresters and 

 verderers were also to be present ready to produce all indictments of vert or venison which had 

 arisen since the last eyre, as well as the regarders with their regards duly signed with their 

 seals, and the agisters with their rolls of agistment. 



The interest of the earliest roll of a Gloucester forest eyre now extant, that for 1258, 

 lies principally in the mention of wild boar venison, such entries being by no means common 4 

 in the rolls of most forests and in some occurring not at all. In one of these cases the 

 slayer, John le Vilayn of Blakeney was dead ; in the other, two offenders who had killed 

 ' unum porcum in foresta de Dene ' had been lodged in Gloucester gaol, but did not put in 

 an appearance before the justices. 5 There is ample evidence that in the denser parts of the 

 forest wild boars were found in plenty, and King John had some forty years before 6 shown his 

 solicitude for their preservation by ordering John of Monmouth, constable and warden in 1 21 6, 

 to see that agistments were only allowed in the skirts of the forest and not in places where 

 the wild boars (porci silvestres) congregate and haunt. The tithes of wild boar venison, as well 

 as venison of deer in the Forest of Dean, were assigned to the abbey of Gloucester. 7 



The depredations of the forest wolves are once noticed on the rolls of this eyre. Geoffrey 

 son of Bernard 8 had found a deer (bestiam) strangled by wolves and carried off two of its 

 shoulders (scapulas). Like John le Vilayn, however, he was beyond the jurisdiction of any 

 earthly court. The fines for trespasses on the vert were sometimes as low as 12^., often 

 2J. and occasionally half a mark or higher ; those for purprestures, assarts, and waste ranged from 

 is. to over 20*. Other amercements were for keeping hounds or neglecting to law those dogs 

 permitted. 



The rolls of the next forest eyre held in Gloucestershire, before Roger de Clifford the 

 younger and his fellows in 1270, introduce us to that commonplace of forest proceedings, the mal- 

 practices of the royal officers. Robert le Waleys 9 constable of St. Briavel's and warden of the 

 forest under Robert Walerand took fines from all the foresters to appoint them, and they 

 recouped themselves by profitable connivance at offences, and by encouraging iron forges and 

 charcoal-burning. During the time of this warden the forest was damaged to the extent of 

 ^S ? 13;. 4^., in the time of John Gifford the loss was 1,320, and under Thomas de Clare 

 1,048 I2s. Even the very timber destined for the repairs of the castle of St. Briavel had been stolen 

 by Adam the reeve and his accomplices. 10 So serious u was the damage done by the excessive 

 number of charcoal burners, who bought wood from the foresters and stole still more, that an 

 order was issued that in future no one should hold any pit for making coals (foveam ad carbonanduni) 

 within the forest. The itinerant forges were also a serious nuisance from their enormous 

 consumption of fuel. No less than forty-three of their proprietors are named, and amongst 

 them Payn of Lydney, already mentioned. A notion of the very serious waste of timber 

 produced by even one forge may be gathered from the history of that owned by the privileged 

 abbey of Flaxley. Henry II had granted the monks the right of receiving two oaks a week 

 for their forge. Constant friction with the forest officers followed, with resultant appeals to 

 the Crown, until finally the early privilege of the two oaks a week was surrendered to King 

 Henry III in exchange for a parcel of the forest given in almoin to the monks 12 and afterwards 



1 The tithe of these chestnuts had been granted by Henry Plantagenet to Flaxley ; Dugdale, Mon. v, 590. 

 The original site of Flaxley was known as Castiard, probably from the abundance of chestnut trees. 



1 For an exact account of the various forest courts and their officers the reader must be referred to 

 Mr. Turner's Introduction to Select Pleas of the Forest (Selden Soc.). 



3 Close, 1 6 Hen. Ill, mm. <)J. \od. 



4 Attention was first drawn to this in Mr. Turner's Select Pleas of the Forest (Selden Soc.), xii. 



5 Forest Proc. Tr. of Rec. No. 28, m. 4 d. ' Close, 1 8 John, m. I . ' Cf. Close, 1 1 Hen. Ill, m. 26. 

 8 Forest Proc. Tr. of Rec. No. 28, m. 4^. 9 Ibid. No. 29, m. i d. 



10 Nicholls, Personalities of the Forest of Dean, 1 8. " Forest Proc. Tr. of Rec. No. 29. m. 2. 



u For this charter see the Appendix to the Flaxley Cartel, no. Reservations of interest were the 

 eyries of hawks and any minerals that might be found. In 1899 the Crown repurchased from Messrs. Craw- 

 shay & Co. 666 acres of the 800 odd granted to the abbey at this time (ex informations Mr. Philip Baylis,). 



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