A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



apparent from the account rolls of the different 

 officials or obedientiaries. There was a fine 

 old oak wood at Aycliffe. On the manor was 

 a park and a park keeper and also a forester. 

 To the latter office various perquisites must 

 have been attached, for in 1396-7 the forester- 

 ship of ' Acleypark ' was sold by the convent to 

 Richard de Thikle, under their common seal, 

 for the large sum of ^lO. 1 King James, in 

 1606, wrote to the dean and chapter of Durham 

 complaining of their treatment of Aycliffe oak- 

 wood. It disappeared during the Common- 

 wealth, when much was felled for the repair of 

 bridges. 2 



At Hanging the priory had a wood of con- 

 siderable size. There must have been much 

 felling in 1278, for in that year the bursar's 

 receipts show ij from the sale of timber in 

 this wood. 3 The treasurer's book of the dean 

 and chapter makes mention of a keeper of 

 < Haning Wood.' * 



The vast amount of timber required by the 

 priory for churches, conventual buildings, mills, 

 bridges, granges, coal-mining, fencing, and for 

 every kind of carpenter's work, as well as for 

 fuel, was as a rule furnished by the Durham 

 Priory estates. In some rare cases it was drawn 

 from outside the county. Thus, in 1378, an 

 oak was bought from the abbot of Blanchland 

 (Northumberland) for IOJ. ; 6 and in 1418 the 

 carriage of a great oak from the priory estate 

 at Bywell (Lincolnshire) for the making of 

 tables cost 1 31. 4^. 6 



The priory accounts have many references 

 to oak bark and its value for tanning. Among 

 other trees that are named occur alder, ash, 

 birch, and maple. There are two interest- 

 ing entries respecting acorns. In 1389-90 it is 

 explained that there were no pannage payments 

 to enter, as the acorns had totally failed for 

 that year. 7 It has more than once been stated 

 that the sowing of acorns to grow oak trees was 

 first done in England in the sixteenth century ; 

 but 8d. was paid in 1430 for sowing acorns in 

 Beaurepaire Park, by order of the prior. 8 



In the sixteenth century the woods of Chop- 

 well, which came into the possession of the 

 crown at the dissolution of the monasteries, were 

 providing large quantities of oak timber for the 

 repair of Berwick Bridge, Norham Castle, 

 Dunstanburgh, and other places. In the seven- 

 teenth century the same woods were also called 

 upon to supply Berwick with timber for the 

 bridge, and Newcastle also received a grant for 

 the repair of Tyne Bridge. The greatest drain 

 upon these woods for oak timber was made in 



1 Dur. Acct. R. (Surtees So;, cxix-ciii), 600. 

 1 Surtees, Dur. in, 325. 



3 Dur. Acct. R. (Surtees Soc. xcix-ciii), 489. 



4 Ibid. 714. 5 Ibid. 387. 

 Ibid. 710. 7 Ibid. 136. 

 8 Ibid. 710. 



1634-6, when shipwrights were sent down to 

 pick out trees which were suitable for ship- 

 building, and an order was signed by the king 

 that 2,500 trees were to be cut ' before the sap 

 should come into them.' Phineas Pett, the 

 crown surveyor and naval architect, came down 

 to inspect this timber which was required for 

 building the first three-decker, The Sovereign 

 of the Seas, and found it necessary to go to 

 Brancepeth, ' where there was excellent provision 

 of long timber,' for 1,400 trees. This appears 

 to have exhausted the supply of the oak timber 

 in Chopwell, although the town council of 

 Newcastle applied for forty trees in 1649 for 

 repairing their bridge. 9 The old oak wood at 

 Aycliffe was also cut down during this century, 

 and in common with the remainder of the 

 county the stock of oak timber in Durham had 

 by then reached a very low ebb. 



In the eighteenth century most of the older 

 plantations which now exist in the vicinity 

 of country seats were formed, and in many 

 cases this work was contemporary with the 

 creation of the seats themselves. This period 

 seems to have marked several important stages 

 in the development of landed property, not only 

 in Durham, but throughout the kingdom. Of 

 the large country seats marked in Speed's Map 

 of Durham, which appeared early in the seven- 

 teenth century, very few now remain except in 

 name, and many seem to have fallen into decay 

 and been abandoned, more modern residences 

 being built in their stead. At this period land- 

 scape gardening was rapidly coming into fashion, 

 and tree-planting occupied an important place 

 in its development, while this work was greatly 

 assisted by the passing of Inclosure Acts which 

 enabled plantations to be formed on land hitherto 

 existing as open common. It was probably 

 owing to these causes that so many estates in 

 the county possess woodlands dating from this 

 period. In most of them beech largely pre- 

 dominates in the vicinity of the mansion house, 

 and is probably the surviving species of a more 

 or less mixed crop of beech, oak, larch, Scotch 

 pine, and other trees, most of which have been 

 taken out in various thinnings from time to 

 time. In many cases these beech have now 

 developed into very fine specimens, little if at all 

 inferior to those found in the southern counties 

 of England, and certainly form one of the most 

 striking arboricultural features in many parts of 

 Durham. 



Of the ordinary woodlands planted at this 

 time few now remain intact, but they appear 

 to have been formed on the ' coppice with 

 standards' system, which was almost universal 

 in the eighteenth century. The demand for 

 mining timber in most parts of the county led to 

 their being worked with a view to the production 



9 Arch. Aeliana, xix, pt. iii ; W. W. Tomlinson, 

 Chopwell Woods. 



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