A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



chance, might spring up under it. Where underwood was sufficiently good to pay for felling, it was 

 cut at about twelve or fourteen years' growth. 



It was considered that the thin clay land to the north of the county, then let under lOs. an 

 acre, was probably well adapted for the production of timber and underwood. 



More particular attention was paid to the somewhat insignificant amount of woodland in the 

 county in the extended survey of Bedfordshire which was issued by the board in 1808.*° This 

 survey corrects the obviously wrong estimate of the return of 1794 as to the woodland, which was 

 there stated to be 21,900 acres, by bringing it down to the much more modest estimate of 7,000 acres, 

 or less than a third of the original statement. The woods were chiefly to be found on the hills that 

 extended from Ampthill towards Blunham, and after an interval of some miles they appeared again 

 on the western side of the vale of Bedford at Holcot Marston, and thence were dispersed over much 

 of the north-west of the county. Wood was very scarce in several places in the south and east of 

 the county. The underwood and timber were usually felled late in the autumn, after fourteen years' 

 growth. The underwood consisted chiefly of hazel with a few ash poles ; it varied greatly in value, 

 according to situation and soils, from 5;. 8^d. to ^^i 2s. lod. per acre per annum. 



A table supplied by the agent of the Duke of Bedford, based on the results of three woods on 

 the Woburn estates, showed that they yielded an average gross product in timber, bark, and under- 

 wood, of ;^i 8j. id. per acre ; but it was thought that 201. an acre of clear yearly value would be 

 the right estimate for woods of an average quality. 



In the earlier report it was stated that the Earl of Upper Ossory and Mr. Francis Moore had, 

 within the last twenty-five years, planted light sandy soil with trees in the western part of the 

 county. 'Their plantations consist chiefly of mixtures of the fir tribe ; and it appears, although in 

 the outset ornament engaged a considerable share of their attention, that such plantations have 

 turned out extremely profitable.' The Duke of Bedford was at that time (1794) planting many 

 hundreds of acres of barren and waste land round Woburn Abbey, and Lord Carteret had raised 

 some very ornamental plantations near his seat at Haynes. 



To these improvements, it was added, in 1 808, that Lord St. John had planted much ground 

 with ash, oak, &c., near Melchbourne. Small plantations of ash had been made at various places, 

 as at Dunton, and there had also been a good deal of planting with coniferae on the hilly sands of 

 Sandy Warren and Millbrook Warren. 



As parks are always more or less well wooded, no account of forestry or arboriculture would be 

 complete without a brief reference to their nature or number. They have at no time been very 

 numerous in Bedfordshire. At the present day there are only two deer-parks in the county, 

 namely those of Woburn and Wrest. 



Woburn Park (Duke of Bedford) has an area of about 2,840 acres, but this includes about 

 845 acres of plantations and woods, and the detached portion in Ridgmont parish, on the north-east. 

 This fine park, beautifully wooded, and surrounded by an eight-foot brick wall, has no claims to 

 antiquity ; it is not shown on any of the early maps. It is well stocked with about 1,050 fallow 

 and 380 red deer, which are not kept separate. During the last ten years 666 acres have been 

 newly planted on the Woburn estate, namely 494 acres with forest trees, 26 acres with game 

 coverts, and 152 acres with ornamental trees.'" 



Wrest Park (Earl Cowper), in Silsoe parish, of 442 acres, though surrounding an ancestral seat 

 of the Greys, does not appear on the old maps of the county. The park had probably fallen into 

 disuse by Elizabethan days, for there was an ancient park at Wrest ; Roger de Grey was called 

 upon in 1330 to answer on what warrant he held a park on that manor.'' It is fenced in with walls 

 of sandstone. There are good clumps of old trees, particularly oak, but the chief feature of the park 

 is the avenues of fine elm trees. The acreage of the whole park is 756 acres, i rood, 29 poles, and 

 of the deer park 421 acres, i rood, 8 poles. It is stocked with 220 head of fallow deer. The little 

 planting that has been done on this estate during recent years has been for landscape effects, or as 

 game coverts.'^ 



Some consideration must also be given to deerless parks, and to others that have ceased 

 to exist. 



Flitwick Park (Major J. H. Brooks) is of small extent (28 acres, i rood), but picturesque and 

 well wooded. The late Mr. Brooks introduced about fifty fallow deer here in the early forties of 

 last century, but they were discontinued in 1867. Between 1867 and 1894 Major Brooks added 

 several plantations of coniferae to this estate. The Corsican pine {Pinus laricis) has done very well at 

 Flitwick.'' This park, a little to the south of Ampthill, is marked on Saxton's survey of 1576. 



"' Thomas Batchelor, General View of the Agrk. of the County of Beds. (1808), 460-9. 



'" From information kindly supplied by Mr. C. P. Hall, agent to his grace the Duke of Bedford 



" Quo Warr. R. 45. 



" From information kindly supplied by the Wrest Park estate office. 



" From information kindly supplied by Major Brooks. 



146 



