A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



wealth. 1 At the home-coming of the king this resumption was declared void, Winter entered 

 again and proceeded to repair his enclosures. But so strong was the opposition of the freeholders 

 and commoners, that a commission was appointed to inquire into the matter (28 December, 1661) ; 

 another careful survey was made, and the trees remaining in the forest were returned as 25,929 oaks 

 and 4,204 beeches; in all 30,233 trees containing 121,572 cords of wood and 11,335 tons of 

 timber fit for the navy. Sir Charles Harbord stated in an official minute at the time of the 

 appointment of this commission that the old trees standing in the Forest of Dean were of above 

 three hundred years' growth, and yet as good timber as any in the world. 8 No doubt he referred to 

 ' many trees there left at a great fall in Edward the Third's time by the name of forbid-trees, which 

 at this day are called vorbid trees,' concerning which Winter discoursed to Pepys over a venison 

 pasty at the 'Mitre ' one August day in the following year. 8 In consequence of the report rendered 

 by the commission, Sir John Winter surrendered his patent and received a fresh grant of the trees 

 of the forest except 11,33 5 tons ^ l ' m ber reserved for the navy, together with the king's iron- 

 works, and liberty to dig for and take iron-ore and cinders. 4 The fortunate grantee used his 

 opportunities to the full. In April, 1663, he had 500 cutters of wood employed in Dean Forest, 

 with the result that the timber was rapidly disappearing. And in spite of orders and recom- 

 mendations of the House of Commons, the waste went on for three or four years longer, a new 

 survey in 1667 actually revealing that of the 30,233 trees sold to Winter only 200 remained 5 in 

 the forest, while only 1,100 tons of the timber reserved for the navy had been delivered, a shortage of 

 7,000 or 8,000 tons. 6 The consequence of these proceedings and of the report of the committee 

 appointed to inquire into the complaints of the freeholders and commoners was the passing in 1668 

 of an Act for the Increase and Preservation of Timber within the Forest of Dean (20 Chas. II, C. 3). 

 It provided, amongst other things, that 11,000 acres 7 out of a total estimated area of 23,000 acres 

 might be enclosed within two years, and made and reputed a nursery for wood and timber only, 

 while all lands of late disafforested were to be re-afforested, as they were in the tenth year of 

 King Charles I, and governed by forest law. The deer at any one time were never to exceed 800 

 in number, and miners' lawful rights and privileges were to extend over all the forest except the 

 parts enclosed. 



Under the direction of the Marquis of Worcester and other commissioners appointed under 

 the above Act of 1668, 8,487 acres of the forest were speedily enclosed and planted, while the 

 remaining 2,513 acres were enclosed some time afterwards in order to complete the II,OOO acres 

 sanctioned. Great attention was paid to the protection of the young woods and enclosures by 

 Sir Charles Harbord, Surveyor-General of the crown lands, and his successors, and it was chiefly 

 from these parts of the forest that supplies of dockyard timber became available from about 1740 

 onwards. On Sir Charles Harbord's advice the forest was divided into six ' walks ' or districts, a 

 keeper was appointed to each ' walk,' and six lodges were built and enclosures made for the 

 accommodation of these keepers ; and these lodges appear to have been the only houses then to be 

 found within the forest bounds. 8 



For about twenty years after the passing of the Act of 1668 the woodmote and swainmote 

 appear to have been regularly kept, and the miners were thus prevented from wasting the wood- 

 lands ; but at the time of the Revolution (1688) and before the new government was fully settled 

 encroachments were renewed, while during the reigns of William and Anne the miners seem to 

 have made use of fuel (but not timber) from the forest. In 1 705 a careful survey was made and 

 a simple working plan drawn up for the management of the forest by Edward Wilcox, esq., 



1 'Cromwell in his Military Parliament resumed this forest and re-afforested the said 18,000 acres 

 (granted to Sir John Winter), and so preserved the same by the forest law, with all the wood and trees ; and 

 expelled near 400 cabins of beggarly people living upon the waste and destruction of the wood and timber, and 

 great numbers of goats, sheep, and swine that destroyed the young wood and soil thereof; all which (said he) 

 now began to invade the same as formerly' (Memorial by Sir Charles Harbord, 28 Dec. 1661) ; Third 

 Report, ut supra, 1 4. 



' Ibid. 14. 



8 Pepys, Diary (ed. Wheatley, 1903), ii, 306. It is worth notice that on 5 Nov. 1662 Evelyn in his 

 Diary (ed. Wheatley), ii, 154, reports a meeting of the Royal Society at Gresham College, 'where was a dis- 

 course suggested by me concerning planting His Majesty's Forest of Dean with oak, now so much exhausted 

 of the choicest ship timber in the world.' 



' Vast heaps of cinders which they find, and are now of great value,' as Winter told Pepys. 



* Winter's spoliation had been seconded by the ravage wrought by the great storm of 1 8 Feb. 1662. 



* Third Report ut supra, 15. 



7 10,000 being part of the waste lands. 



8 Sir Robert Atkyns, in his Ancient and Present State of G hue. (1712), p. 348, says that 'there are 

 only six houses in this great Tract of Ground, which are the Lodges for so many Keepers, each of which 

 have a salary of 15 yearly paid out of the Exchequer, and an Inclosure of Ground for their Encouragement. 

 'There had been many Cottages erected, but they have been lately pulled down as the best means to preserve 

 the Wood.' 



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