I90S-] 



The Alice Holt Woods. 



359 



a practical point of view, according to the methods of scientific 

 forestry. 



The Alice Holt Woods form part of the ancient Crown 

 property. By an Act passed in 1812, called "An Act for the 

 Better Cultivation of Navy Timber in the Forest of Alice Holt," 

 it was provided that the deer in the forest should be removed, 

 and power was given to the Crown to enclose, out of the waste 

 lands of the forest, not exceeding i,6oo acres, from such parts 

 as should be found most convenient to be enclosed, and to be 

 best adapted to the growth of timber, such enclosures to be 

 freed from all manner of rights and to be made a nursery, or 

 nurseries, for timber only, and to be accepted by the Crown as 

 an adequate compensation for all rights of soil or other right 

 over the remaining 827 acres of the waste lands of the forest, 

 which last mentioned lands were to become the property of 

 the persons having rights of Common over the forest. 



The enclosures made by the Crown under that Act extended 

 to exactly 1,600 acres. There were also 296 acres of land which 

 were the freehold of the Crown before the Act was passed, part 

 of which was occupied with lodges ; and various small parcels 

 allotted to the Commoners have been purchased by the Crown. 

 The area of the forest at the present time amounts to 1,884 

 acres. There is evidence to show that the Alice Holt Woods have 

 been stocked with oak for centuries past. During the last twenty- 

 five years of the eighteenth century, and probably during the be- 

 ginning of the nineteenth century, considerable quantities of oak 

 timber were cut for the Navy, so that about the year 1 8 10 little big 

 timber was left. At that time it was resolved to re-plant a con- 

 siderable area of the Crown lands, so as to create a reserve of oak 

 timber for the Navy. Under this movement the Alice Holt 

 Woods were planted w'th oak between the years 1815 and 1825. 

 In the course of time the plantations were periodically thinned 

 to such an extent that they are now too thinly stocked. The 

 development of the oak has been very uneven. In some parts 

 the trees have reached a fair size and shape, showing a height 

 of 60 ft. and upwards, in others the development has been so 

 poor that the height may be put down at from 30 to 40 ft. At 

 the present time, there are 315 acres bearing oaks of 60 ft. in 

 height and over, 1,146 acres of oaks from 40 to 60 ft., 331 acres 



