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FORESTRY 



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Twelve persons held tenements nigh Myrescough and Fulwood, subject to the 

 usual restrictions against cultivation and high fences, with liberty to talce 

 timber for building and making low hedges, paying rents amounting to over 

 j^30 and worth much more ; one tenant had to find a parker at id. a day 

 and to maintain the pales of Myerscough Park, another had licence to take 

 ' wodekoks.' 

 The herbage of Myerscough .........80 



The herbage of Hornby Hay . . . . . . .400 



Wind-fallen wood . . . 040 



In Wyresdale and Bleasdale twenty-six vaccaries yielded rents amounting to ;£^ioo, 

 and there were also ten messuages containing 1 80 acres let by agreement for 

 j^l8 and worth j^2l. 

 Toxteth park, having a circuit of 5 leagues, was worth in herbage . . .1700 



Mast-fall and wind-fallen wood and branches felled for the sustenance of the deer 



there were not valued. 

 The pasture of Smithdown was put to farm for . . . . .070 



Croxteth Park, said to have a circuit of 4 leagues, was worth in herbage . .568 



In March, 1359, an eyre of the forest of Henry, duke of Lancaster, was made,'^ and many 

 presentments of trespasses against vert and venison committed between 1342 and 1358 are recorded 

 on the roll of proceedings preserved in the Public Record Office.^' There are numerous present- 

 ments against persons for keeping sheep and goats in the forest, animals which were not com- 

 monable there at any time, and for keeping swine at other than pannage time. Taking venison 

 with greyhounds was becoming an oiFence of more frequent occurrence. Several persons were 

 presented for taking oaks, crab trees, and 'holyn' in Croxteth Park and Simonswood, but there are 

 few references to offences against the vert elsewhere. No amercements are recorded, but eight 

 persons of importance in the county were pardoned during 1359 for trespasses done in the forest,^^ 

 and the fireeholders dwelling within the forest paid a fine of ^^i, 000 for trespass against the assize of 

 the forest, of which sum the men and freeholders of Quernmore Forest, and the natives of Lonsdale 

 contributed 5 20 marks for their portion."' 



Again in 1368 a commission was directed to John Knyvet and four others appointing them 

 justices in eyre to hold pleas of the forest in this county.'^ 



In 1372 Walter de Urswick, then chief forester of Bowland, was appointed warden of 

 Roeburndale, ' a place of wood and pasture ' which lay midway between the Duke of Lancaster's 

 forests of Quernmore and Bowland. Advantage was being taken of the situation of this valley by- 

 people of the country to hunt the duke's deer as soon as they entered the valley from the adjoining 

 forests, so much so that the duke's ' savagin ' was like to be utterly destroyed.^' The same year the 

 forester was ordered to repair the pales of Quernmore Park, to deliver a couple of bucks of grease to 

 Ralph D'Ipres, seneschal of Lonsdale and Amounderness, John Botiler, knt., and others, and six 

 oaks from Myerscough which the duke was willing to sell for timber to William de Hornby, clerk, 

 whose house had been recently burnt down ; and the next year to deliver to Mr. Ralph de Ergham, 

 the duke's chancellor, four oak trees from Fulwood with bark and branches to make pales around his 

 chapel of 'Sainte Marie Magdaleyne of Preston in Amondrenesse.' °' In 1374 the prior of Lytham 

 had three oak trees from Myerscough Park, and Ralph D'Ipres, parker of Quernmore, was ordered to 

 take there six bucks [deymes) of grease for distribution among the people of the country ' according 

 as may seem to him best for the honour and advantage of our lord.' " A similar order was given to 

 Walter de Urswick, forester of Bowland, to take there as many deer as seemed to him profitable for 

 distribution among the people of that country. The previous year six score oak trees were sold to 

 John Ermyte of Singleton for the construction of the bridge over Lune in the town of Lancaster, to 

 be taken in the duke's woods of Wyresdale.^"" 



Good timber appears to have been abundant in Lonsdale at this time, for in 1377 the keeper of 

 Quernmore had instructions to fell 260 oaks within the foreign or outlying woods there, for the 

 repair of Lancaster castle.^"^ In 1379 additional verderers were appointed for the hundreds of West 

 Derby, Amounderness, and Lonsdale; in 1387 for Quernmore and Wyresdale, and again in 1401 

 for Quernmore.^"^ 



'' The justices were appointed by the duke on 24 January, 1359 ; ^^P- Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 338. 

 ^ Duchy of Lane. Forest Proc. bdle. I, No. zo. 



^ Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 338-45. " Ibid. 347. 



^ Pat. 42 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 9 ^ 



" Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. xl, 73^. Adam de Hoghton, chief forester of Quernmore, and the sheriff 

 were ordered to arrest all ' ill doers and sons of iniquity ' hunting without licence ; ibid. 1 50. 



»» Ibid. 153, 163^, 194. =* Ibid. 209, zilb. >»« Ibid. 190. 



i"' Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 349. "" Ibid. 352, 360 ; xxxiii, 2. 



445 



