FORESTRY 



In the county of Durham, however, the 

 forest rights with other jura regalia were usually, 

 for some four centuries at least, vested in the 

 bishop, and only during a vacancy * of the see or 

 the punitive resumption of the palatine privileges, 

 can we expect to find the king actively con- 

 cerned with the forest of Weardale. These 

 forest rights of the see of Durham were ratified 

 by Henry I in a charter repudiating the claims 

 of Balliol, baron of Bywell, and others as to 

 hunting and taking a certain quantity of wood 

 for fuel and shipbuilding. 1 The same king, 

 however, during the vacancy of the see which 

 followed the death of Ranulf Flambard, granted 

 to the prior and convent of Durham freedom 

 from forestage and pannage in all their demesne 

 manors, as well as to the clergy holding churches 

 in their gift.* 



The evidence to be gleaned from the various 

 rolls and records both of the see and the 

 priory of Durham, show that the county was in 

 many parts well supplied with woodlands, par- 

 ticularly in the western half. In addition to the 

 large parks of Weardale and the partially wooded 

 district comprising Hunstanworth, Edmond- 

 byers, and Muggleswick on the Northumberland 

 borders, there were the great parks of Raby and 

 Barnard Castle in lay hands in the south. Near 

 Newcastle the bishop held woodland at Winlaton, 

 and the prior at Hcdworth. Round Lanchester 

 there was much timber. Near Durham the 

 prior had the important park and woods of 

 Beaurepaire, and the bishop woodlands on the 

 manor of Killerby. And between Bishop Auck- 

 land with its park and Darlington in the south 

 abounding with timber and underwood, there 

 was an almost continuous stretch of wood-bearing 

 manors, such as Aycliffe, Heighington, and 

 Haughton. 



Considerable information may be derived as to 

 the actual working of the forest regulations 

 within the county of Durham during the twelfth 

 century from certain charters of Bishop Hugh 

 Pudsey granting various exemptions and privi- 

 leges. 



Amongst his manifold activities was the re- 

 building and reorganization of the Hospital of 

 St. Giles Kepier which had been destroyed during 

 the conflict between Cumin and Bishop William 

 de St. Barbara. This hospital possessed in the 

 Weardale a ' cow-close ' or dairy, and in the 

 winter months strict ward was needful against the 

 wolves of the fell, mastiffs or other dogs being 

 kept as guardians of the cattle. Bishop Hugh 



1 One reference to the woodlands of Durham 

 during the vacancy following the decease of Philip of 

 Poitou may probably be found in the entry on the 

 PipeR. ii John.m. 1 1 d. : ' Magister Simon de Fer- 

 llnton xl/ et iiij canes vulpectares pro misericordia in 

 qua posituserat pro bosco de Auelent (tie Auclent) scisso.' 



1 Surtees, Dur. I, pp. xx, cxxv-vi. 



1 Cal. Chart. R. ii, 484. 



Pudsey, amongst other privileges, granted * to 

 the brethren exemption for their dogs, whether 

 at Durham or on the Weardale, from the 

 ' lawing ' or mutilation * which the forest laws 

 prescribed. He, however, ordained that the 

 herdsmen who tended the cattle of the hospital 

 within his forest should hold their dogs in leash 

 that they might not molest the beasts of the 

 chase (feris). By a still earlier charter the bishop 

 had granted the brethren the right of pasture for 

 their cattle within the forest, as well as firewood 

 and timber and exemption from pannage.* 



As in the grants to the Kepier Hospital we 

 see the forest law impinging on the external life 

 of a religious community, so in the charter 7 to 

 Gateshead the predatory officials of the bishop's 

 forest are shown restricting, or at least harassing, 

 the activities of the townsmen, until the bishop 

 himself intervenes to grant greater liberty, and to 

 establish a standard of dues in place of arbitrary 

 exactions. In respect to ' forestage ' the bur- 

 gesses were to pay in future every half-year from 

 Whitsuntide to Martinmas for each cart (quad- 

 riga) which went to the wood 2d., and for each 

 horse 2d., and for each man carrying 8 id. No 

 forester was to be allowed to arrest any bur- 

 gess or resident of Gateshead, or stop his cart 

 or horse laden with timber or firewood in the 

 country lying between the forest boundary and 

 the borough. Any dispute arising between a 

 forester and a burgess must be heard within the 

 borough with a right of appeal to the bishop if 

 it could not be determined there. The burgesses 

 were permitted to take grass, reed, bracken and 

 heath for their own use wherever they were 

 accustomed, on condition that they made no sale 

 thereof. A burgess again might make a gift of 

 wood, bona fide, to anyone dwelling south of the 

 Tyne, but not sell it without view of the forester. 

 And the foresters on the other hand were for- 

 bidden to interfere with merchandise in the space 

 between the forest boundaries and the borough. 



Again in a charter* granted to Ralf Basset by 

 the same bishop in respect to lands in ' Pencher ', 

 he allows him timber from the forest for the 

 making and repairing of his mill, under the con- 

 dition that it should be taken by view of the 

 bishop's foresters and felled in the same place 

 where wood was procured for the bishop's own 

 mills. Ralf and his heirs besides being respon- 

 sible for a money payment were to provide for 

 the bishop's great hunt (magna chacea) one man 

 with two hounds (leporarm\ a customary service 

 annexed to the land of Nicholas de Pencher 

 which had been taken over by Ralf Basset in 



4 Mem. of St. Giles, Dur. (Surtees Soc. Ixxiii), 199 

 * It generally consisted in the removal of three 

 claw; or the ball of the fore foot. 

 ' Mem. ut sup. 195. 



' BoUon Bk. (Surtees Soc. xxv), App. p. xl. 

 8 Reading portante for fiicante. 

 ' BoUon Bk. App. p. xlii et seq. 



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