204 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Cil. IX 



Immediately south of Shrewsbury was 

 the Lye Forest, now Lythwood. Here in 

 the nineteenth of Edward III., and again 

 in the first of Richard II., license was 

 granted to the Abbot of Shrewsbury to 

 impark 459 acres. ^ 



In the southern parts of this county 

 several other parks remain to be noticed. 



In 1813 there was one at Walcot, near 

 Bishops-Castle, ' very extensive, finely laid 

 out and abundantly stocked with deer."^ 

 Another and a more ancient one, as it is 

 laid down by Saxton, was at S.toke St. 

 Milburgh in this neighbourhood, and also 

 at Oakley near Ludlow, and at Dean Park 

 near Burford, near the verge of the county 

 of Worcester. 



Saxton also marks a large park at Cleo- 

 bury, within that part of the once large 

 and Royal forest of Wyre, which was 

 within the bounds of this county. This 

 was originally a Royal chase or park, but 

 in very early times came to the Mortimers, 

 and again merged in the Crown. 



Earnwood, now a manor in the parish 

 of Kinlet, in this district, was originally a 

 forest residence ("with a park attached) of 

 the Mortimers. On February 13, 1225, 

 King Henry III. ' commands Hugh de 

 Neville (he was justice of the forest) to let 

 Hugh de Mortimer have ten fallow-deer, 

 (damas) from the Royal Forest of Fecken- 

 ham, which the king has given him to- 

 wards stocking his park of Ernewood.' 



A park at Mr. Child's sX.Kinlet'hzs been 

 only recently disparked. 



Existing Deer Parks in Shropshire. 



r. Otley . . . , 



2. boreatton . . 



3. Hawkstone ^ . 



4. Chetwynd . . , 



5. Apley. ... 



6. Acton-Burnell . 



7. LONGNOR . . . 



8. Attingham . . 



9. LOTON . . . . 



Mr. Mainwaring. 

 Mr. Hunt. 

 Viscount Hill. 

 Mr. Borough. 

 Mr. Whitmore. 

 Sir F.C. Smyth, Bt. 

 Mr. Corbett. 

 Lord Berwick. 

 Sir Baldwyn Leigh- 

 ton, Bart. 



CHESHIRE. 



'Smith, writing in the reign of Eliza- 

 beth,' observes Ormerod in his admirable 

 ' History of Cheshire,' 'mentions "the great 

 store of parks, for every gentleman almost 

 hath his own park." The same might yet 

 be said of park-like enclosures, but the 

 number of those imparked by license, in 

 which the vert venison and enclosure 

 have been uninterruptedly maintained, is 

 extremely limited.'* 



1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, pp. 152, 199. 



2 Beauties of England and Wales, Shrop- 

 shire, p. 256. 



Before we notice in detail the Cheshire 

 parks, it will not be out of place to remark 

 that although there is no mention in the 

 Domesday Survey of any park within the 

 county, there are frequent notices of Haize 

 or Hayes in various parts of it, and that 

 these Hayes differed but little from parks 

 we have already observed;* they were 

 rather intended for the capture of deer 

 from the forests, than for their permanent 



' Eyton, vol. iv. p. 278. 



' Ormerod's Cheshire (1819), vol. i. p. 1. 



' See p, 12. 



