FORESTRY 



When the Braose estates were seized by King John, Roland Bloet had the particular care of 

 Knepp entrusted to him. While this castle and park were in the royal hands the king paid them 

 more than one visit, and several missives were at other times sent by him to Bloet on the subject of 

 the deer, the boars, and the timber, evidencing a keen intent to make the utmost profit out of this 

 portion of the forest of St. Leonard. 101 Thus in 1212 he wrote directing Bloet to ' permit Michael 

 de Punning to take all the fat deer he can in the park of Cnapp, by bow or by hound, and to salt 

 the venison, and preserve the hides.' The next year the king sent various huntsmen, with more 

 than a hundred hounds, to hunt in what he now dignifies with the title of the ' Forest ' of Knepp. 

 A still larger pack of hounds was sent in the following year, namely, 240 greyhounds, accompanied 

 by nineteen huntsmen, to hunt the does in the park. About the same period Bloet received 

 an order upon the Exchequer for his expenses incurred in sending timber from St. Leonard's 

 Forest by sea for the construction of 'our hall at Dover.' Two years later the king wrote forbidding 

 the felling of timber 'in our park or forest of Cnapp.' In 1214 'Wyot, our huntsman,' was sent 

 with boarhounds into the park of Knepp, to take two or three boars daily. 102 This same year 

 Knepp was honoured by a visit of Queen Isabella, who stayed there for a period of eleven days, in 

 connexion with which the king ordered the barons of the Exchequer to pay certain expenses incurred 

 for the keep of horses, hounds, and keepers. 



South of Knepp was the manor of Ashurst, its name sufficiently indicative of the woodland 

 nature of its neighbourhood. Originally held by Earl Godwin, and subsequently by Harold, it 

 may possibly be identical with that ' Aishurst ' which appears more than once as forest-land in the 

 early Pipe Rolls. Thus in 1189 the sheriff of Sussex accounts for money received from the herbage 

 of ' Boscus de Aisherst.' 103 



Some few miles further north within the forest-land was the manor, park, and fortified dwelling 

 of the ancient family of Savage, called Sedgewick. In the near neighbourhood of Sedgewick was 

 Chesworth Park, containing also a hunting-lodge or dwelling-house. This park was the smallest of 

 these inclosures in the forest, and does not appear to have ever contained more than the 233 acres 

 credited to it in a survey of the year 1608. 1M To the north-east of Chesworth lay the park of 

 Shelley, anciently Shullegh, containing more than 600 acres. The adjoining part of the forest, 

 with the park itself, formed a woodland district once called ' Shepherds Field Forest,' and the name 

 appears on some few maps. Adjoining Shelley Park on the north was the park of Beaubush or 

 Beaubusson. It was the largest of the inclosures of St. Leonard's Forest, containing 757 acres. 



It may be there were other inclosures of woodland at a somewhat later period there is mention 

 I of a 'Little Park' in this forest or some of these already named may be referred to in the complaint 

 of two new imparkations which the jurors of Horsham voiced in the Hundred Rolls. A claim of 

 free warren made by the lord of Bramber in 1278, when brought to trial, disclosed a singular sporting 

 custom, in the right of the knights and free tenants of the barony to hunt and carry off any kind of 

 wild beast on Shrove Tuesday. 105 On a subsequent occasion Sir Roger de Covert claimed this ancient 

 privilege with the additional right ' to cut bludgeons in the woods to throw at the hares ' ' amputare 

 baculos in boscis ad jactandum propter lepores.' 1( 



Edward I doubtless enjoyed the pleasures of the chase in the forest of St. Leonard. For he 

 visited both Bramber, Chesworth, and Horsham, and while at Bramber made payment to a certain 

 William Bolle, ' coming to the king with thirteen staghounds.' 107 Edward II also hunted over 

 it while at Chesworth. A record of the reign of this king gives us a rough estimate of the size 

 of St. Leonard's Forest, and also of the park of Knepp. Seven thousand acres is stated to be the 

 area of the forest, while Knepp Park contained 1,000 acres, estimated at the exiguous value of IQJ. 

 beyond the cost of the upkeep of the fences and the feeding of the deer. 108 



Early in the next reign we find the lord of Ifield (a manor on the Verge of Shelley and 

 Beaubush parks), Sir John de Ifield, in possession of certain lands in St. Leonard's Forest or chase, 

 Edward III confirming the same to him in I329- 109 Possibly this was the same land which some 

 years later the jurors of the Nonae Rolls complain of as imparked by Sir Johnde Ifield at 'Shullegh.' 

 The grant thus confirmed included pasture for his horses, cattle and sheep, and pannage for his swine 

 * in the chace called the forest of St. Leonard,' and in the parks of Beaubusson and la Knepp. 



On the death of this William de Braose, the lordship of Bramber passed, by his daughter 

 Aline's marriage, to the Mowbray family, and John de Mowbray, her husband, obtained the royal 

 recognition of his succession to the Bramber barony, including ' the free chase of St. Leonard de 

 novo facta,' the meaning of this phrase not being apparent. 110 



By this new lord of Bramber a certain William de Green was appointed c Gustos ' of the park 

 of Knepp, for the long term of sixty years, and at the usual salary of id. per diem, an appointment 



101 Suit. Arch. Coll. m, 1-12. I0> Close, 16 John,m. 13. 1M Pipe R. I Ric. I. 



104 Ellis, Parks ondFortsts of Sussex, 179. 10J Assize R. 921, m. 16. 1M Ibid. 924. 



107 Lib. R. 9 Edw. I. m Inq. p.m. (re Wm. de Braose), 19 Edw. II, No. 89. 



109 Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 46. " Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 25 d. 



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