FORESTRY 



THE mediaeval forests of Lancashire were of moderate extent, covering about forty-seven 

 thousand acres, but the lands included ' within the metes of the forest ' embraced the 

 fourth part of the whole county, including all Lonsdale south of the little River Keer 

 — except the lordships of Hornby and Whittington — and the whole of Amounderness. 

 In south-west Lancashire the townships which lay to the south-west of a line drawn 

 from Halsall to Warrington were reckoned within the metes of the forest. It seems probable that 

 Roger of Poitou, when he received his northern fief, put into the forest the townships which 

 belonged to his demesne and added those near adjoining, which he afterwards gave to his barons. 

 The region to the north of the Ribble had been devastated immediately before and after the 

 Conquest, and this naturally led to its reservation for the chase. Evidence is not wanting to show 

 that the formation of the forest in the strict meaning of the term was in process for a hundred years 

 after the Conquest. Thus the township of Hoton is named in Domesday as one of the manors 

 then (1086) dependent upon the chief manor of Halton ^ ; it appears no more as manor or vill, but 

 later evidence shows that it was thrown into Quernmore Forest. Again, when Count Roger was 

 forming his South Lancashire forest he arranged an exchange of lands with the ancestor of 

 Molyneux of Sefton, giving half of Down Litherland in exchange^ for Molyneux's half of Toxteth. 

 Henry II added part of his demesne lands in Hale, and in defiance of right put Croxteth and 

 Simonswood in defense, ousting the rightful owners ; whilst his grandson retained them as forest 

 in spite of the verdict of the perambulators in 1228.' Last of all King John took Smithdown, 

 or Smeedon, and laid it to his forest of Toxteth, giving Thingwall to the former possessor in 

 exchange.* 



The dealings of the early lords of the county with their forest lands are illustrated by various 

 grants to religious houses. In 1094 Roger of Poitou gave to St. Martin of S^es tithe of venison, 

 and of the pannage of all his underwoods, and of the produce of his demesne lands. By virtue of 

 this gift we read of the assignment to the vicar of Lancaster, upon the endowment of a vicarage 

 there in 1430, among other profits, of tithes of the agricultural produce of those dwelling in 

 Wyresdale and Bleasdale, tithes of agistment rents in Toxteth, Croxteth, and Simonswood, and of 

 certain Lenten fines of Fulwood, Cadley, and High Park.* Stephen, when count of Boulogne, 

 gave his forest of Furness and all the venison therein as part of the endowment of the monks whom 

 he established there. This wild region adjoined on the east the even wilder forest region of Kendal, 

 without any fixed boundary intervening. But the year 1163 saw a sworn inquest summoned by 

 the king's precept and a boundary established which for all time threw Windermere, then a 

 several fishery of the barons of Kendal, into the county of Westmorland.* A few years earlier 

 William earl of Warenne gave the monks of Furness liberty to take timber from his forest of 

 Lancaster for the repair of their fishery in Lune at Lancaster bridge, for which privilege they were 

 frequently called in after years to produce their warrant.' In 1325 the prescriptive right of the monks 

 to take timber for their buildings at Beaumont, for fuel, and for making and repairing wains, carts, 

 ploughs, harrows, ox-yokes, and hedges was certified by a sworn jury.* John, when count of 

 Mortain, granted many privileges within the forests. To his burgesses of Lancaster the right of 

 pasturage in the forest for their cattle to be led out at daybreak and driven home at even, with as 

 much wind-fallen wood for burning and timber for building as they required.' A similar privilege 

 was accorded to the burgesses of Preston in the forest of Fulwood,^" and to the men of Everton, as 

 regards building material, in the woods of West Derby.^^ To the time of Henry II belongs the 



' F.C.H. Lanes. \, 288^. ' Lanes. Inq. (Rec. Soc. xlviii), 14. 



' Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc. xi), 372. Halewood was disafforested by Henry III, having been granted 

 to Richard de Meath. 



* Lanes. Inq. (Rec. Soc. xlviii), 21 ; Cal. Close, 1227-31, p. loi. 



° Reg. of Lane. Priory (Chet. Soc), 9, 577. ' Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 310. 



' Ibid. 309 ; Rot. Liu. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i, 225^. * Reg. of Furness, Add. MSS. 33244, 71. 



' Lanes. Fife R. \\6 ; confirmed by the king in 1 199 ; Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 26. 



" Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 384^. " Rot. Litt. Claus. (Rec. Com.), ii, 64^. 



437 



