FORESTRY 



Surveyor-General of Woods, which was sanctioned by Lord Godolphin. In his memorial to the 

 Treasury the Surveyor-General stated 



that he had carefully surveyed the Woods in the Forest of Dean, and found them very full of young 

 Trees, Two-third Parts whereof were Beech which overtopped the Oaks and would prevent them from 

 ever growing up to be Ship timber, so as to answer the Purposes intended by the Act of Parliament ; 

 and setting forth that 1 1 ,000 acres had formerly been inclosed ; and that if the same should be 

 divided into Sixteen Parts and One Sixteenth Part, being near 700 acres, should be cut down each 

 year and inclosed, leaving Standards of Oak or Beech, each Cutting would yield 3,500, and Room 

 would be given for the Standards to grow and come to perfection. 



The inhabitants of the forest strongly objected to this as interfering with their right to 

 common of herbage and pannage, but the right of the Crown to enclose 1 1 ,000 acres was fully 

 maintained as indisputable. About this time (1705-12) the forest was probably in its best state, 

 but soon after 1712 all care of the forest seems to have ceased, the forest courts no longer being 

 so regularly kept as formerly, and abuses and neglect on the part of officials increased to such a 

 degree that the yield of timber for the navy was unsatisfactory, and great waste was made in the 

 forest. For example, in a list of officials made up at a swainmote, or swanimote, court on 

 25 September, 1787, no regarder is named, though there ought to have been twelve regarders ; 

 and encroachments had taken place to such an extent since 1712 that there were in 1788 'no 

 less than 589 Cottages, and 1,798 Patches or small Inclosures of Land containing 1,385 Acres, 

 encroached from the Forest.' The regular holding of the woodmote had long been discontinued 

 and the swainmote was held only once a year, on 25 September, at the Speech House in the 

 forest, when it seemed to be held merely for the sake of form. 1 



About the year 1758 John Pitt, then Surveyor-General of the Woods, proposed that 

 2,000 acres should be enclosed in the Forest of Dean, and order was given accordingly. In 

 1764 a survey had been made of the timber in the forest, when it was estimated that there were 

 27,302 loads fit for the Navy, 16,851 loads of about sixty years' growth, and 20,066 loads dotard 

 and decaying. But six years later Pitt, who had been removed from office in 1763 and reinstated 

 in 1767, reported to the Treasury that great quantities of wood and timber, amounting in value to 

 ;3> 2 35> had been cut by order of his predecessor, Sir Edmund Thomas, without warrant. He 

 accordingly recommended further enclosures which were authorized, and a survey in 1783 showed 

 that there then existed in the forest 90,382 oak trees estimated to contain 95,043 loads and 

 17,982 beech trees reckoned at 16,492 loads. 



Several Acts had been passed during the eighteenth century for the protection of woods in 

 general and the promotion of a secure supply of timber for shipbuilding, but the outlook in these 

 respects was not very hopeful, when an Act was passed in 1786 for appointing Commissioners to 

 inquire into the state and condition of the Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues of the Crown. Of 

 the seventeen reports issued by these Commissioners between 1787 and 1793 the third, issued in 

 1788, deals in an exhaustive manner with the later history of the Forest of Dean, and has been 

 largely drawn upon for the purposes of this account. The officers of the forest existing at this time 

 were the Lord Warden and six deputy wardens, four verderers, a steward of the Swanimote Court, 

 nine foresters in fee, of whom one was chief forester and bow-bearer, nine woodwards, but not one 

 regarder, and six keepers ; but most of these forest offices had become merely nominal, and the real 

 government of the forest ' in every particular except the mines and coal ' had been for many years 

 in the hands of the Surveyor-General, 1 the Deputy Surveyor, and the six keepers. As to the abuses 

 prevailing from the system of perquisites and other causes the Commissioners were very plain- 

 spoken, and distinctly stated that ' it was not to be expected that the resident officers of the forest 

 would point out the true causes of the devastation from which their advantages arose." There were 

 at this time believed to be about five hundred deer 'of all sorts' in the forest. 



The main subsequent result of the inquiry into the state and condition of the Crown Woods 

 and Forests was the passing in 1 808 of An Act far the Increase and Preservation of Timber in Dean 

 and New Forests (48 Geo. Ill, cap. 72). As its preamble states, it was designed to overcome the 

 ' great and increasing difficulty ' of procuring heavy timber by giving more thorough effect to the 

 Acts of 1668 (Dean Forest) and 1698 (New Forest) 'which said Acts have not been duly put in 



1 The woodmote, or Court of Attachments, is now regularly held at the Speech House every forty days 

 before the verderers (ex informatione Mr. Philip Baylis). 



' By the Stat. 33 Hen. VIII, cap. 39, the Court of General Surveyors of the King's Lands was established, 

 which was to consist of the king's general surveyors and other officials. This court was dissolved by letters 

 patent of the same reign (38 Hen. VIII), and a new court, called the Court of Augmentations, was created 

 with all the power* of the former court. One master, one surveyor of the woods for the south, and one of 

 each for the north of Trent, were members of it. The duties of the office of Surveyor-General are now 

 discharged by the Commissioners for the time being of His Majesty's Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues ; 

 and the office of ' Deputy Surveyor ' is the only survival of the Court of Augmentations connected with the 

 management of the forests. 



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