Cii- VIII, 



STAFFORDSHIRE. 



175 



^^ TA FFORDSHIRE. 



The Castle and Honor of Tutbury, the 

 principal seat of the great House of Ferrers, 

 and after the fall of that House, of the 

 Earls and Dukes of Lancaster, is built on 

 the banks of the Dove, on the borders of 

 Derbyshire, flanked on the west by what 

 was once the Forest of Needwood and an 

 attendant group of eight ancient parks,i 

 'besides the little park that the castle 

 stands in." These parks were called 

 Castle-hay, Stockley, Rolleston, Hanbury, 

 Agardesley, Barton, Heylyns, recte High- 

 lands, and Sherrold; besides Rowley and 

 Newpark, according to Sir Simon Degge's 

 list in Harwood's edition of Erdeswick's 

 ' Staffordshire.' All of them are described 

 as belonging to the Crown before the 

 Great Rebellion, though some had been 

 granted out, both for terms of years and 

 in fee, before that period. The following 

 description of these parks is from the 

 Harleian MS. No. 71 and No. 568, written 

 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and in 

 that of James I. 



' The Castle Park is in circuit one mile, 

 in good meadow XL acres, the rest all very 

 good and hateful pasture. 1 1 will bear well 

 seven score deer, and sufficient herbage to 

 make the king's rent. There are in it at the 

 present xxx deer. There is no covert in 

 all the park, but the clyff, whereupon the 

 castle standeth. The keeper therof is 

 appointed by the King's Majesty's Letters 

 Patent, under the Duchy seal. His fee is 



' Leland restricts the number to four, viz., 

 Castle-Hay, Hanbury, Barton, and the New 

 Park. 



* Harl. MS. No. 568, quoted in the Topo- 



yearly 4/., one horse grass for himself, one 

 other for his deputy ; six beasts' grass for 

 himself, and two for his deputy ; and such 

 other fees and rewards as belong to a 

 keeper.' 



'The park called Castle-hay, distant 

 from the castle a little mile, contains three 

 miles and a half about, and the deere 

 viewed to CCCCLXXX, and old dottred 

 oakes MMMMMC,and in timber trees young 

 and old CCCCXX, noe underwood, but in 

 meadow ground severed xl acres and 

 half and more.' This park is said to have 

 been divided from Needwood by a hay or 

 hedge by the first Robert Earl Ferrers, 

 who died in 1139, and hence its name of 

 Castle-Hay.* 



^Stockley Park contains in compass 

 XXI furlongs and an half.' 



This, together with several of the other 

 parks, was taken out of the forest of 

 Needwood during the lives of the two last 

 Earls of Derby, before the year 1262.^ It 

 was sold by the Crown in the sixth of 

 Charles I.* 



Rolleston, ' half a mile distant from the 

 castle on the east side, contains in com- 

 pass one mile and qup.rter : the deer 

 viewed to cxx ; in old dottred oaks M and 

 XL.' Rolleston was also alienated by 

 King Charles I. in the foulfth year of his 

 reign.* 



' Hanbury Park adjoyn^ on the south 

 side of the said Castle-H^', within one 



grapher, vol. ii. p. 174- 



' Mosley's History of Tutbui^ 

 ■• Mosley's Tutbury, p. 216. 



p. 15. 



