A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



Ten years later John de Winterselle, the bailiff, rendered account for cutting and squaring 

 beams in the park of Maresfield, and for making 7,000 laths from the same timber. 187 The next 

 year, during the reconstruction of the royal free chapel within Pevensey Castle, 2,000 laths were 

 made from timber from 'Essesdoun forest,' together with 150 props. In addition the chapel was 

 panelled with 400 beech-boards from timber of ' Assesdon.' 



In addition to the deer, the birds of Ashdown were objects of the poachers' depredations - f 

 partridges and pheasants are often mentioned in records as being killed by unlicensed hunters. The 

 hawk tribe, so much in request in falconry, were also occasionally taken from park and forests, and 

 in Ashdown a certain John de Holmdale took sparrow-hawks belonging to William de Maufe in ; 

 ia87. 188 Considerable care, however, was taken to preserve hawks ; in 1283 three sparrow-hawks 

 were taken in Ashdown Forest by the forester and sent to the king at Marlborough ; three years 

 later zs. was spent in taking care of two sparrow-hawks and two ' muskes,' and carrying them to the 

 court ; and in 1287 a charge of 6d. was made for looking for two sparrow-hawks and two ' muskes * 

 in the trees, and 2s. for sending them to Amesbury, with a piece of canvas to cover them. 189 As late 

 as 1539 the ranger received ^6 15*. for watching the hawks in this forest, while two falconers were 

 paid ' costs into Sussex to take hawks.' 19 



The Hundred Rolls record various illegal practices in connexion with this forest. In the 

 hundred of East Grinstead Walter le Dykere was charged with encroaching upon the king's 

 rights ' in the forest of Eschedune ' during the last four years. A charge was brought, a few 

 years later, against Roger Covert, of making a park in the vill of ' Bradebrigg,' in the forest-land. 

 Roger replied that he did not claim hunting rights in it, and a jury declared that it did not encroach 

 upon the king's soil or rights. As a result the inclosure was allowed the status of a legal park. 191 



The names of some bailiffs in the forest of Ashdown have come down to us from this period j 

 such as Walter de Brayboef, John de la Rude, and John de Waukeford. 192 In 1284 William de 

 Gulderig was master-forester of ' Essendon.' ls3 Ten years later Walter Waldeshef was appointed 

 to the same post, ' to be held, with all that appertains to it, as long as the king pleases.' 1! 



In the next reign the chief forester of Ashdown was Thomas Culpeper. 195 Edward I granted 

 to a certain Thomas Peynel licence to hunt with his own hounds the fox, hare, wild cat, and badger 

 in the king's forest of Ashdown, except during the fence month, so that he did not hunt the deer 

 or course within the king's warrens. Possibly one of these latter was at what is now called Gardine 

 Hill, in Hartfield, where, as a survey of the time of the Commonwealth tells us, a piece of land, 

 86 acres in extent, was ' formerly impaled, and employed and used as a coney warren, which paling 

 is all gone and taken away.' 196 



In 1350 a Sussex knight, William de Fifhide, obtained a grant from the king of ten wagon- 

 loads of beech faggots from the forest of Ashdown, to be taken every year, under the view of the 

 keeper of the forest, from the neighbourhood of the.manor of Birkham ; and in addition pasture for 

 thirteen cows and a bull, and pannage for thirty swine within the forest bounds. 197 The Assize 

 Roll of the next year narrates some poaching affairs in this forest, as when Roger Leukenore, 

 ' chivaler,' captured with his harriers a ' sour ' a four-year-old buck of fallow deer in the chase of 

 Plagh, within Ashdown Forest, doubtless in the neighbourhood of what is to-day called Flaw-Hatch. 

 Another ' evildoer in parks and chaces ' was Andrew Mulssh, ' who took a staggard ' a four-year- 

 old buck red deer at Mayeslond in the same forest. 198 



In 1370 Edward III granted to his third son, John of Gaunt, 199 the 'free chase of Ashdown, 

 with the rights and liberties pertaining thereto.' John of Gaunt being duke of Lancaster, Ashdown 

 Forest became a portion of the duchy, and was subsequently denominated in official documents 

 ' Lancaster Great Park.' There are a few notices of places within this forest, of the period of 

 Edward III, contained in the Inquisitiones Nonarum. The woodland parish of Hartfield is noted as 

 having some forest-right (quondam custumam) in connexion with its church, but its nature is not 

 stated. Apparently it was of more value even than that of Maresfield, since it is stated to be worth 

 40*. per annum, double the valuation set upon the privileges of the latter. 200 Another church noted 

 as possessing certain ' custom ' in the forest is Withyham, a parish lying partly within its metes and 

 bounds. In addition the jurors report as diminishing the value of their ' ninths ' the imparkation of 

 certain lands in Mayfield into the archbishop's park of Frankham, on the verge of the forest. 



Mr. Turner, the historian of Ashdown, considers the forest, or main part of it, to have been 

 imparked in this Edwardian period, but his sole basis for this supposition appears to be the use of 



187 Exch. K.R. Accts. bdle. 479, No. 16. 188 Assize R. 924, m. 10. 



189 Exch. K.R. Accts. bdle. 136, No. 18. 19 L. and P. Hen. PHI, xiv (2), p. 342. 



191 Assize R. 921, 7 Edw. I, m. 16. 19> Assize R. 912, m. 40. 



193 Mins. Accts. -Lf*. I94 Rot. Orig. 25 Edw. I, m. 17. 



195 Pat. ii Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 33. I96 Parl. Surv. No. 12. 



197 Pat. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 16. 198 Assize R. 941, 25 Edw. Ill, m. I. 



1M Pat. 44 Edw. Ill ; Orig. R. 46 Edw. Ill, m. 20. * Inj. Non. (Rec. Com.), 378. 



