A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



The manor and liberties of Therfield were confirmed to Ramsey Abbey by Edward the 

 Confessor, and subsequently by the Conqueror. Particulars as to the customs and services of 

 this manor, as set forth in 1 27 1, show various references to the woodland of the estate. Each 

 customary tenant had to maintain a rood of fencing round the wood, to cut two faggots of 

 sticks before Hockday and three faggots afterwards, and also to cut three faggots of under- 

 wood before Hockday and five afterwards.' 



In tliis county, as elsewhere, the woodlands suflFered severely through the dissolution of the 

 monasteries. The new owners or Crown tenants endeavoured, as a rule, to make all they could 

 out of their new possessions without much thought for the future ; whereas the monasteries, 

 save in the case of an occasional corrupt superior, regarded their woods as a precious heritage 

 to be handed on unimpaired from generation to generation. As a check on this and other evils, 

 an Act was passed in 1541 establishing a Court of General Surveyors of the king's lands, one of 

 the officers being termed Master of the Woods, without whose assent no sales could be made.' 

 In 1 541 the Crown appointed under this statute Geoffrey Chambers, John Peryn, gentlemen, 

 and four others to serve as commissioners to sell, by the acre or otherwise, to the greatest 

 advantage, ' all the underwood and wood of Connes Grove (18 acres), and Hyllys Grove (4 

 acres), parcel of the manor of Hatfield lately belonging to the bishop of Ely, but saving all 

 manor of greate tymbretrees and saplyng oykes lyke to be tymbre and certyn standers in 

 every acre of the promisses according to the Custome of the Country.' Open proclamation of 

 the sale of the same to the highest bidder was to be made ' in the Church of the Town next 

 adjoynyng to the saide woode.' * At the same time other commissioners were charged with 

 the sale, under like restriction, of 36 acres of wood of the manor of Abbots Walden, late 

 parcel of the possessions of the abbey of St. Albans.' At the close of the reign of Henry VIII 

 the Court of General Surveyors was dissolved, and its powers over wood sales transferred to the 

 Court of Augmentations.'" This legislation, however, only apphed to Crown lands, and the 

 king's best advisers soon saw that woods in general were so speedily disappearing under the new 

 conditions of ownership that wider restrictions were requisite. Accordingly in 1543 an Act was 

 passed for the Preservation of Woods. The preamble sets forth that 



The King our sovereign lord perceiving and right well knowing the great decay of timber and woods 

 universally within this his realm of England to be such, that unless speedy remedy in that behalf be provided, 

 there is great and manifest likelihood of -carcity and lack as well of timber for building, making, repairing and 

 maintaining of houses and ships, and also for fewcl and fire-wood for the necessary relief of the whole com- 

 monalty of this his said realm, &c. 



It was thereby enacted that in every copse of underwood felled at twenty-four years' 

 growth twelve standrells or store oaks (or in default of oak, elm, ash, asp or beech) be left 

 standing on each acre ; when cut under fourteen years the ground was to be inclosed or pro- 

 tected for four years ; when cut from fourteen to twenty-four years to be inclosed for six 

 years ; cutting trees on waste or common land to be punished by fine of 6s. 8d. for each tree." 

 This Act of 1543 was strengthened and confirmed by Elizabeth in 1570, when the period for 

 inclosing copses against damage by cattle after felling was extended.'^ 



After this date various steps were taken during Elizabeth's reign to check the spoiling of 

 the woods of Hertfordshire. In 1575 a special commission was issued to inquire into the 

 wastes and spoils of wood on lands belonging to Colney Chapel " ; this district, now known as 

 Colney Heath, lay about 3 miles to the east of St. Albans, and its woods were of considerable 

 value. In 1577 another special commission was appointed concerning Her Majesty's park, called 

 Innings, in Bishop's Hatfield, as to the moss which caused the deer to die." The spoils of the 

 ivooJs in the manor of Hatfield formed the subject of a commission of 1591, and in the following 

 year there was a further inquiry relative to the woods of the late priory of Dunstable.'' 



Saxton's map of 1577 shows a large number of weU-wooded parks in Hertfordshire, and 

 Norden's Survey of 1590 marks about thirty. The latter authority states that: 'This shire at 

 this day is and more hath been heretofore, much repleate with parkes, wooddes and rivers.' 



A report on the agriculture of Herts, drawn up in 1795 for the consideration of the Board of 

 Agriculture includes references to the woodlands." It is remarked that 



independent of the woodlands contiguous to the seats ot gentlemen, nearly the whole county is interspersed 

 with small woods and coppices, and these generally occupy the most barren and gravelly spots, which are well 



• Cart. Man. de Rames. (Rolls Set.), i, 47. 



' Stat. 33 Hen. VIII, cap. 39. * Exch. K. R. Accts. bdle. 148, no. 28. 



9 Ibid. no. 29. 1" Brown, Ferestj of Engl. (1883), 225. 



" Stat. 35 Hen. VIII, cap. 17. " Stat. 13 Eliz. cap. 25. 



" Exch. Dep. Spec. Com. Eliz. no. 1020. i< Ibid. no. 1026. 



" Ibid. no. 1035, 1036. '• D. Walker, Gen. View of Agric. of Herts. 68, 70. 



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