96 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. IV. 



— 172/. \os. 6d.'^ Northwood is thus no- 

 ticed by Leland in his ' Itinerary ' : — 

 ' Nordwood Park, a mile by est from 

 Glaston ; John Selwood, Abbot, builded a 

 place there.' * This park was in two di- 

 visions, containing altogether 751 acres. 

 Sharpham, the country-seat of the Abbot, 

 is also noticed by Leland. ' Abbot Bere,' 

 he says, 'made also the Manor-place at 

 Sharpham in the park, and two miles by 

 west from Glaston ; it was afore a poore 

 lodge.' * The ' Survey ' before quoted in- 

 forms us that ' it containeth in circuit two 

 long miles of good mead and pasture 

 [with two fine ponds in the same], wherein 

 are 160 deer, whereof are of deer of antler 

 20, deer of "rascall" 140. Also within 

 the park of Sharpham, there are 80 acres 

 of wood, well set with oaks, ashes, and 

 maples, which always have been used to 

 be felled and sold every fourteen years, 

 and every acre is worth at this present 

 time 6j. %d. ; also within the same park 

 there are 200 oaks fit for timber, every 

 oak esteemed to be worth lu.' In 1583, 

 the Park of Sharpham belonged to Chris- 

 topher Symcoxe, Esq. ' 



Wyrral Park, on the west of the 

 town of Glastonbury, ' contained in 

 circuit one mile and a quarter; the 

 pales have need to be repaired, the 

 herbage very good and fertile, with a 

 running stream through the same; 100 

 deer, whereof are of deer of antler 15, 

 deer of " rascall " 85. Within the park of 

 Wyrral is 5o acres of fair timber, esteemed 

 to be worth 290/. loj.' Pilion, another 

 abbatical park, six miles east from Glas- 

 tonbury, contained in circuit, according 



' Survey quoted in Dugdale's Monasticon, 

 vol. i. p. 10, ed. 181 7. 

 2 Leland's Itin. vol. iii. p. 120, fol. 86. 

 ' Certificate of Parks in the County of So- 



to the survey at the period of the Disso- 

 lution, ' three long miles of good pasture, 

 the pales in good care, wherein are of 

 deer 350, whereof there are of deer 

 of antlers 60, deer of "rascall" 290.' 

 This park is marked both in Saxton's and 

 Speed's Surveys. 



Leland notices two other parks in this 

 county which had belonged to the Church : 

 ' A mile on this syde Bathe by southe est, 

 I saw 2 parks enclosyd with a ruinus stone 

 wauUe, now withe out Dere, one longyd 

 to the Byshope, an other to the Prior of 

 Bathe.' * The Bishop appears to have had 

 also a park at Welles, enclosed by license 

 in the third year of King John,* and the 

 Prebend of Wyndescombe {Wivelles- 

 combe ?), in the same church, obtained a 

 license to impark his wood of that name 

 in thefourth of Edward III.^ The Bishop 

 of Bath and Wells had also the right to 

 enclose a park within his Manor of 

 Chedder, near Axminster, which is alluded 

 to in ' Smyth's Lives of the Berkeleys ' 

 (p. 130.) Thomas, Third Lord Berkeley, 

 having been commanded by Edward III. 

 in the I ith year of his reign, 'to repress the 

 insolence offered by armed persons to the 

 Bishop, who being many in number both 

 of horse and foot, had beaten, wounded, 

 and imprisoned, yea and robbed divers of 

 the Bishop's servants, in his Manor of 

 Chedder, which Manor the King had li- 

 cenced him to disafforest, and to hold free 

 in severalty, and to make a park there.' 

 The riot above alluded to was evidently 

 the consequence of this grant. With 

 respect to the other ancient parks of this 

 county, we have in the north, near Bristol, 



merset. S. P. O. Domestic. Sept. 30, 1583. 

 * Leland's Itin. vol. vii. p. loo, fol. 14 b. 

 ' Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 3. 

 " lb. p. 109. 



