The Forest Of Dean: An Historical And Descriptive Account - free ebook by H. G. (Henry George) Nicholls

the FOREST OF DEAN; an historical and descriptive account, derived from personal observation, and other sources, public, private, legendary, and local.

By H. G. NICHOLLS, M.A., PERPETUAL CURATE OF HOLY TRINITY, DEAN FOREST. John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1858....

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PREFACE.

Disappointment expressed by others and felt by myself that a History of the Forest of Dean should never have appeared in print, and an impression that a considerable amount of interesting information relative to it might be brought together, combined I may add with the fact that there seemed no probability of such a work being otherwise undertaken until old usages and traditions had passed away, have induced me to attempt its compilation. I here venture to publish the fruit of my labours, in th

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CHAPTER I. a.d. 1307–1612.

Origin of the name “Dean”?—The “Buck Stone,” and other Druidical remains—“The Scowles,” &amp;c., and other ancient iron-mines, worked in the time of the Romans—Symmond’s Yat, and other military earthworks—Domesday Book, and investment of this Forest in the Crown—William I., and probable date of Free Miners’ Franchise—Castle of St. Briavel’s first built; Giraldus—Flaxley Abbey founded—King John at Flaxley and St. Briavel’s—The constables of St. Briavel’s and wardens of the Forest—Date of the

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CHAPTER II. a.d. 1612–1663.

Grants in the Forest to Earl of Pembroke—Mining restricted to the Foresters—Iron cinders of old workings re-smelted in the new furnaces—Last justice seat held in 1635, extending the limits of the Forest to those of Edward I.—Grant to E. Terringham—Forest surveyed in 1635—Sale of the woods to Sir J. Winter—Disturbances of the Civil War at Coleford, Highmeadow, Ruerdean—Adventures of Sir J. Winter at Westbury, Little Dean, Newnham, Lydney—Events on the north side of the Forest—Incidents of the Pro

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CHAPTER III. A. D. 1663–1692.

First “Order” of forty-eight free miners in Court—8,487 acres enclosed and planted—Speech-house begun—Second order of the Miners’ Court—The King’s iron-works suppressed—The six “walks” and lodges planned out—All mine-works forbidden in the enclosures—Third order of the Miners’ Court—Enclosures extended—Fourth order of the Miners’ Court—Speech-house finished—The Forest perambulated—Fifth order of the Miners’ Court—Proposal to resume the King’s iron-works rejected—Sixth and seventh orders of the M

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CHAPTER IV. a.d. 1692–1758.

Condition of the Forest described, and management examined—Depredations—Ninth and tenth orders of the Miners’ Court—Timber injured by the colliers—The Forest in its best state, 1712—Eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth orders of the Miners’ Court—Fourteenth order of the Miners’ Court—Swainmote Court discontinued—Extension of coal-works and injury of trees—Forest neglected—Fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth orders of the Miners’ Court—Grant of 9200 feet of timber to the Gloucester Infirmary. Reve

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CHAPTER V. a.d. 1758–1800.

Mr. John Pitt suggested 2,000 acres to be planted—The Forest surveyed—Great devastations and encroachments—The roads—Act of 1786, appointing a Commission of Inquiry—New plantations recommended—Messrs. Drivers employed to report on the Forest—Corn riots—Mitcheldean market. Reverting to the state of the woods and timber in the Forest, it appears that ere this the old enclosures had been thrown open, the trees planted early in this century having attained to considerable size, and some parts so far

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CHAPTER VI. a.d. 1800–1831.

Lord Nelson’s remarks on the Forest—Free miners endeavour to restore their Court of Mine Law—White Mead Park planted—Act of 1808, authorising the replanting of the Forest; six commissioners appointed for that purpose—Six enclosures formed in 1810—Mice—Inquiry as to the best mode of felling timber—Last of the enclosures formed 1816—First Forest church consecrated—High Meadow Woods purchased—General condition of the Forest—Unsuccessful efforts to restore the encroachments to the Crown—Plantations

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CHAPTER VII. a.d. 1831–1841.

Riots—Sessions of the Dean Forest Commissioners relative to St. Briavel’s Court—Free miners’ claims—Foreigners’ petition—State of the woods—Perambulation—Rights of Commonage—Relief of the poor—Free miners’ petition—Parochial divisions—Fourth and Fifth Reports of the Dean Forest Commissioners—Acts of 1838 and 1842—Award of the coal and iron mines—Enclosures thrown open, and new ones formed—Provision for the poor—Mr. Machen’s memoranda. The year 1831 is chiefly remarkable for the riotous destructi

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CHAPTER VIII. a.d. 1841–1858.

Messrs. Clutton’s, &amp;c., Report on the Forest timber—Viscount Duncan’s Committee—Supply of 1,000 loads of timber to the Pembroke Dockyard resumed—Mr. Drummond’s Committee—Report of Mr. Brown—Messrs. Matthews’s Report. By this time (1842) some of the enclosures made in 1814 were become fit for being thrown open, the young trees having grown up sufficiently, and the following Commissioners, viz., Lord Lincoln, A. Milne, C. Gore, Sir T. Crawley, J. Pyrke, M. Colchester, C. Bathurst, E. Mache

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CHAPTER IX. THE ORIGINAL OCCUPIERS OF THE FOREST.

The inhabitants of the Forest—Its Aborigines—Celtic indications in the names of persons and places—The forty-eight free miners’ names appended to their book of “Dennis,” contrasted with the present roll of free miners—Traces of Saxon and Norman influence—Early civilization indicated in the methodical character of their mine laws, and in miners being summoned to several sieges, qualified by their acts of plunder—Successive notices of the inhabitants during the last 150 years, with their present i

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CHAPTER X.

Churches and schools—Religious provisions before the Reformation—Rev. P. M. Procter, Vicar of Newland, lectures in Thomas Morgan’s cottage—The erection of a place for worship proposed—Rev. H. Berkin opens a Sunday-school—Mr. Procter uses his chapel schoolroom—Mr. Berkin lectures in the Foresters’ cottages—Builds Holy Trinity Church (1817)—His assiduous labours and death in 1847—Christ Church, Berry Hill—Mr. Procter’s death—His successors—Rev. H. Poole builds St. Paul’s, Park End, and schoolrooms

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CHAPTER XI.

The history of the Abbey of Flaxley, or St. Mary de Dene—Its foundation by Roger Earl of Hereford in 1140—Confirmed and enriched by Henry II. and III., and Richard II.—Suppressed in 1541—Existing remains—St. Anthony’s Well—The Abbey, &amp;c., granted to Sir W. Kingston—His descendants—Mrs. C. Riches (Boevey), supposed to be Sir R. de Coverley’s “perverse widow;” her benevolent life, and death in 1726—Nature and cessation of the Flaxley iron-works—Erection of the present church in 1856. The l

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CHAPTER XII.

The Forest roads and railways—Vestiges of some very ancient roads, apparently Roman—The old “crooked, winding, and cross ways,” when no wheeled vehicles were allowed in the Forest—The original road across the Forest from Gloucester to Monmouth—Roads, first improvement in 1761—Road Act of 1795 carried into effect—Mitcheldean a post town—Roads further improved in 1828 and 1841—their present state and extent—The tramroads and railways of the Forest. Unusually perfect remains of very ancient roads s

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THE TIMBER.

Most strangers visiting the Forest do so in the expectation of seeing groves of stately timber covering the ground in every direction, and are much disappointed when they find the greater part to consist of oaks, barely fifty years old, comprised in enclosures, and the remainder of the surface disfigured by furnaces, collieries, and groups of inferior buildings. The Forest as it existed in the days of the Norman and Plantagenet kings, William I. and John, who resorted to it for the pleasures of

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CHAPTER XIV.

The Iron Mines and Iron Works in the Forest —Mr. Wyrrall’s description of the ancient excavations for iron—Their remote antiquity proved, and character described—Historical allusions to them—The quality, abundance, and situation of the old iron cinders—The early forges described—Portrait of an original free miner of iron ore—His tools—Introduction of the blast furnace into the Forest—Various Crown leases respecting them—A minute inventory of them—Mr. Wyrrall’s glossary of terms found therein—Mr.

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CHAPTER XV.

The Forest Coal Works —The earliest allusion to them—The original method of mining for coal—Grants to the Earl of Pembroke in 1610, &amp;c.—First attempt to char coal for the furnace—Prices for which coal was to be sold, as fixed by the “Orders” of the Court of Mine Law—Contents of the existing documents belonging to that Court described—State of the coal-works at the end of the last century—Gradual improvements in the mode of working for coal—Mr. Protheroe’s collieries—The superior characte

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CHAPTER XVI.

The Geology of the Forest, and its Minerals —Their character in general—Description of the beds of conglomerate, mountain limestone, iron veins, millstone grit, and lower coal measures—“The Coleford High Delf”—Elevation of the Forest range of hills—The middle coal veins—The upper veins—Mr. Mushet’s analysis of the Forest coal—Their fossils—The stone-quarries of the district. The geological conditions of the Forest of Dean merit careful observation, not only as regards the mineral wealth comprise

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No. I. Papers preserved in the Lansdowne Collection at the British Museum.

“Right Honourable, “Acoording unto your Lordship’s warrant, Wee repaired unto and have veiwed and duelie considered the severall woodes, known by the names of Great Bradley, Little Bradley, Stonegrove, Pigstade, Buckholde Moore, and the Copps; all lying together and conteyning by the measure of 16½ foote the pole, 520 acres. In w ch grounds we thinke (the woodes being muche differing in qualitie, by an equall proportion) there maie be raised for everie acre 30 coard of woode; reserving sufficie

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No. II. One of the Dean Forest Claims, put in at the Justice Seat, held in Gloucester Castle, 10 Chas. I.

Clamea posita in Itinere Forestæ de Deane tento apud Castrum Glouc. in com. Glouc. die Iovis decimo die Iulij anno Regni Domini Caroli nunc Regis Angliæ decimo coram Henrico Comite de Holland prænobilis Ordinis Garterii Milite Capitali Justitiario ac Justitiariis Itinerantibus omnium Forestarum Chacearum parcorum et warrennarum Domini Regis citra Trentam. (18) Foresta de Deane in Comitatu Glouc. Et modo ad hanc curiam venit Willielmus Skynne, per Edwardum Offley attornatum suum, et dicit quod ip

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No. III.

An Account of the Admeasurement of Trees in Dean Forest; viz., A, an Oak near the Woodman’s in Shutcastle; B, “Jack of the Yat,” an Oak Tree on the Coleford and Mitcheldean Road; C, a large Oak in Sallow Vallets; D, an Oak which appears to be formed of two Oaks grown together, on the Lodge Hill, 300 yards west of York Lodge; E, a black Italian Poplar in the Garden at Whitemead. All taken at six feet from the ground. [ Note : In each table, Inc = Increase in Size.] A B [265] C [265a] D [265b] E

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No. IV. Mr. Wyrrall’s Survey of the Forest of Dean Iron Works in 1635.

“ Canop Furnace .—Most p t new built, the rest repaired by the Farmers, 22 ft square, wheel 22 ft diam r . Furnace box built 4 years since by the Farmers. Bridge-house 48 ft by 21, 9 high, built 4 years, Bellow’s boards 18 ft by 4. Clerk’s house and stable built by the Farmers. A cottage built by the Workmen belonging to the Works, now occupied by the Filler. Built before the Farmers hired.—Founder’s house, Minecracker’s cabin, A Mine Kiln. “ Park Furnace .—Same dimensions, repaired 4 years

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No. V. Dr. Parson’s description of the mode of making Iron.

“After they have provided their ore, their first work is to calcine it, which is done in kilns, much after the fashion of our ordinary lime-kilns; these they fill up to the top with coal and ore untill it be full, and so putting fire to the bottom, they let it burn till the coal be wasted, and then renew the kilnes with fresh ore and coal: this is done without any infusion of mettal, and serves to consume the more drossy part of the ore, and to make it fryable, supplying the beating and washing,

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No. VI. Being Minutes, &c., of the Court of Mine Law.

“Forest of Deane to witt. Att a Court of Mine and Miners of Our Sovereign Lord the King, held att the Speech-ouse, in and for the Forest of Deane, on Tuesday the 13 th day of December, in the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty-eight, before Christopher Bond, Esq r , and Thomas James, gentleman, deputyes to the Right Honourable Augustus, Earl of Berkeley, Constable of the Castle of S t Briavels, in the County of Gloucester, Christopher Bond, Esq r , gaveller of the said mines,

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NOTES.

[2] It is absolutely certain that the stone may be made to oscillate: indeed one of the Hadnock woodmen states that when sufficient force is applied to it, at the proper point, you can even hear the gravel grinding underneath. [4] A corruption, apparently, of the British word “crowll,” meaning “caves.” [12] We must, however, remember, in calculating the price of labour in the middle ages, that the value of money was about fifteen times greater than at present; and the coins, which were of

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