Ch. VIII. 



5 TA FFORDSHIRE. 



i8i 



with deer in 1735. It was disparked and 

 divided into farms in the early part of the 

 present century. 



The last, though not the most recent, 

 of the parks of Staffordshire which re- 

 quires to be noticed, is that enclosed by 

 the present Mr. Newton Lane at Kings- 

 Bromley, in the neighbourhood of Ruge- 

 ley.. 



Existing Deer Parks in Staffordshire. 



1. Chartley . 



2. Bagots Park 



3. horecross . 



4. Okeover . . 



Earl Ferrers. 

 Lord Bagot. 

 Mr. Meynell 



gram. 

 Mr. Okeover. 



In- 



5. Wolseley . . 



6. Wrottesl-ey . 



7. Beaudesert 



8. ingestrie . . 



9. AQUELATE . . 



10. Trentham . 



11. Oakedge . . . 



12. HiMLEY . . . 



13. swithamley 



14. Weston . . . 



15. Kings-Bromley, 



16. Knypersley. . 



17. dunstall . . 



Sir Charles Wolse- 

 ley, Bart. 



Lord Wrotfesley. 



Marq. of Anglesey. 



Earl of Shrewsbury 

 and Talbot. 



Sir Thos. Boughey, 

 Bart. 



Duke of Sutherland 



Earl of Lichfield. 



Earl of Dudley, 



Mr. Brocklehurst, 



Earl of Bradford. 



Mr. Newton Lane. 



Mr. Bateman. 



Mr. Hardy. 



NO TTINGHA MS HIRE. 



The far-famed Forest of Sherwood on the 

 western borders of this county, contained 

 within its extensive limits several Royal and 

 Episcopal parks, of which the largest was 

 Beskwood, described by Leland as ' a 

 mighty great park,' a few miles north of 

 Nottingham, and computed, according to 

 a survey taken in 1609, to contain 3,672 

 acres. The first grant concerning it is in 

 the time of Henry I. In an ihquisition of 

 the thirty-fifth of Henry III. it is called 

 ' An Hay or Park of Our Lord the King 

 wherein no man commons.' Among the 

 Patent Rolls of the twenty-fifth of Ed- 

 ward III. is an order for its enclosure and 

 impalement, and in the regard of the 

 thirty-first of the same reign, the king's 

 Hay of Beskwood is said to be closed in 



' In 1604, there were 140 red-deer and 700 

 fallow-deer in Beskwood Park. Lambeth MSS. 



with a pale. Thoroton in his ' History of 

 Nottinghamshire,' printed in 1677, thus 

 describes it : 'It hath a very fair Lodge 

 in it, and in respect of the pleasant situa- 

 tion of the place, and conveniency of 

 hunting and pleasure, this Park and Lodge 

 hath for these many years been the de- 

 sire and atchievement of great men, &c. 

 Three Earls of Rutland had it. Before 

 the Troubles it was well stored with red- 

 deer,' but now it is parcelled into little 

 closes on one side, and much of it hath 

 been plowed, so that there is scarce either 

 wood or venison, which is also too likely 

 to be the fate of the whole Forest of Shire- 

 wood.'^ Whereas in Leland's time had 

 been ' great game of deere.' Thoroton, it 

 may be scarcely necessary to add, was 



No. 709. 

 2 Thoroton's Notts, p. 258. 



