The Forest of Dean: An Historical and Descriptive Account Part 9

The fifth and final Report of the Dean Forest Commissioners bore the same date as the preceding. It contains the evidence produced before them as to "certain claims of common of pasture" made by the inhabitants of the following parishes bounding the Forest, and paying a small sum annually, called "herbage money," to the lessee of the Crown of the manor and hundred of St. Briavel's, and the manor of Newland, as annexed:--

_s._ _d._ Little Dean 3 4 parish Newnham ,, 3 4 Staunton ,, 2 0 Longhope ,, 3 4 Abbenhall ,, 3 4 Mitcheldean ,, 7 0 Hope Mansel ,, 1 0 Ruerdean ,, 3 4 Bicknor ,, 1 0 Alvington ,, 5 0 will not pay.

Newland ,, 10 0 Huntisham 7 8 will not pay.

t.i.thing Bledisloe 3 4 Etloe Dutchy 5 0 } Etloe t.i.thing 3 0 } In Awre.

Box ,, 3 4 } Hagloe and 5 5 } Purton Blaisdon 6 8 Blakeney 4 0 t.i.thing Awre parish 8 0

It is highly probable that the above claims, and the payments for the ancient agistments, originated when the limits of the Forest comprehended the parishes by which they are made. The earliest authentic trace of them occurs in the agreement made by Charles I. with Sir John Winter in 1640, according to which about 4,000 acres of Crown land was to be taken in and attached to the bordering parishes in lieu of their rights of commonage; and in conformity with the principle of this agreement, the Commissioners recommended "that these commonable rights should be comprised in some general arrangement for the purpose of a commutation."

The last subject the Commissioners notice is the stone-quarries, which persons born within the hundred of St. Briavel's claimed the right of opening in the waste lands of the Forest, on payment of a fee of three shillings to the gaveller, and an annual rent of three shillings and fourpence, according to the custom of at least the last hundred years, a period too long to justify the withdrawal of any existing gale, unless by compensation. Hence all that the Commissioners found themselves justified in recommending to the Crown, with the view of putting the working of the stone-quarries on a better footing, was to re-issue gales on liberal leases to all parties born within the hundred who applied for the same within a specified time.

In bringing their labours to a close, the Commissioners urge the necessity of pa.s.sing an Act for definitively settling the several particulars to which their inquiries had been directed, adding that it would be well to incorporate the offices of Constable of St. Briavel's Castle, and Warden of the Forest, with the office of Woods, lest they should be found to interfere with its future administration, at that time under the charge of Lord Duncannon, B. C. Stephenson, Esq., and A. Milne, Esq.; and this was accordingly done in the following year.

We gather from Mr. Machen's memoranda that the nurseries in the Forest at this time (1835) contained:--

Oak. Chesnut. Larch. Scotch. Spruce. Ash. Quick.

310,000 1,300 66,500 74,700 5,300 120,000 124,000 total.

200,000 1,300 40,000 40,000 5,300 10,000 30,000 fit to plant out.

and, moreover, that 276,054 trees of various kinds had been planted out during the previous winter.

On the 27th of July, 1838, the Royal a.s.sent was given to "an Act for regulating the opening and working of mines and quarries in the Forest of Dean, and Hundred of St. Briavel's, by the agency of a Board of Commissioners." Thomas Sopwith, Esq., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was appointed by the Board of Woods and Forests a Commissioner for the purpose on behalf of the Crown; and John Probyn, Esq., of Longhope Manor-house, Gloucestershire, was selected by the body of free miners to act on their behalf; and the office of arbitrator between them was filled by John Buddle, Esq., of Wallsend, in the county of Northumberland; Thomas Graham, Esq., acting as their solicitor, and Mr. Henry Ebsworth as his clerk. {126}

Some idea may be formed of the necessity for such a mining Commission, and of the difficulties it had to overcome, from the following particulars, as Mr. Sopwith stated them in his valuable Paper on "Mining Plans and Records," read before the British a.s.sociation at Newcastle in 1838:--"Great distrust of any interference" (he says) "existed, and some of the mine-owners refused to allow of underground surveys being made.

Numerous and conflicting parties were then working mines under customs which were totally inapplicable to the present state of mining; destructive at once to the interests of the free miners of the Forest; ruinous, as sad experience had shown, to the enterprising capitalist; and subversive of the rights of the Crown. So great was the perplexity, and so numerous and conflicting were the claims of contending parties, that the law advisers of the Board of Woods deemed it almost impossible to arrive at any satisfactory adjustment of them within the period of three years, as named in the Dean Forest Mining Act. The ruinous and unsatisfactory state of the mines must appear obvious on a slight consideration. As no plans existed, it was impossible to tell to what extent or in what direction the underground works were being carried.

The crossing of mattocks, that is to say, the actual meeting of the workmen underground, was often the abrupt signal for contention; the driving of narrow headings was a means by which one coal-owner might gain possession of coal which of right belonged to another; and a pit, though sunk at a cost of several thousand pounds, had no secured possession of coal beyond 12 yards round it, that is, a tract of coal 24 yards in diameter. At 40 or 50 yards from such a work another adventurer might commence a pit, and have an equal right, if right it could be called, to the coal. If a long and expensive adit was driven, another one might be commenced only a few yards deeper; and, from such a state of things, it is quite clear that great uncertainty and frequent losses inevitably ensued." Moreover, the receipts from mines and minerals, by the Crown, upon the average of the six preceding years, were only 826 pounds 2s.

10.5d.

The important Act by which these difficulties were to be removed, under the auspices of the three Commissioners above named, was framed in accordance with the suggestion thrown out in the fourth Report of the Dean Forest Commissioners, viz., that all subsisting mine-works should be released by compensation to the Crown, and the whole relet on a well-defined plan to such free miners as might make application for the same. The Act (1 and 2 Vict. cap. 43) provides that all male persons born and abiding within the hundred of St. Briavel's, being upwards of twenty-one years of age and having worked a year and a day in a coal or iron mine or stone-quarry within the said hundred, should alone have the right to hold or dispose of such works, a register of all such persons being kept as "free miners." It suppressed all claims to pit timber, with all "customs," and a.s.signed to the Commissioners under the Act the duty of fixing rents and royalties for twenty-one years, and to the gaveller power to limit and regulate as well as to enter and survey all works which might be re-awarded or galed. No engines were to be erected nearer than sixty yards to any enclosure, within which only air-shafts might be opened, and all unnecessary buildings were to be removed.

On the 16th of August, 1838, the annual Report of the Commissioners of Woods was issued, signed by Lord Duncannon, B. C. Stephenson and A.

Milne, Esqrs. It mentions that a piece of land in the parish of English Bicknor had been granted for school purposes, and that the Severn and Wye Tramway Company obtained the licence of the Crown to lay down a branch from Brook Hall Ditches to Foxes Bridge.

The only circ.u.mstance requiring notice in the following year is the decease of the second Commissioner of Woods, Sir B. C. Stephenson, who had long held the office, and he was succeeded by the Honourable Charles Gore.

The next annual Report bears date 29th July, 1840, and contains nothing calling for special notice.

The year 1841 is particularly important in the history of the Forest from its being the date of the present coal and iron mine awards, under the authority of the Mining Commissioners, the former being signed on the 8th of March, and the latter on the 20th of July. By these awards no less than 104 collieries were defined and a.s.signed, together with twenty iron-mines, and certain rules and regulations were laid down for working them.

The duties of the Mining Commissioners having now closed, it must have been highly gratifying to those gentlemen to receive from the Government the following expressions of commendation, communicated by Mr. A.

Milne:--"I am to convey to you our entire approbation of the zeal, ability, and sound discretion which appear to have marked all your proceedings in the performance of the very important, difficult, and laborious duties which devolved upon you, and their belief that, while the result will be very beneficial to the interests of the Crown, it will be attended with equal advantage to the great body of mining adventurers in securing their t.i.tles to the property on very reasonable and moderate terms, and subject to the regulations and conditions which seem to be well calculated to protect them from that constant and expensive litigation which had so long existed."

The total cost of adjusting the working of the coal and iron mines was 10,459 pounds 1s. 3d. The valuable services of the Mining Commissioners were again noticed in the annual Report of the Board of Woods, published on the 9th August in the following year, when 408 acres 2 roods were thrown open in Blakeney Hill (south) and the South Lea Bailey Copse, a similar extent of open Forest being enclosed at St. Low and Great Kenseley. It also adverts to an Act pa.s.sed on 30th of July previous, dividing the Forest into ecclesiastical districts, const.i.tuting them "Perpetual Curacies," and attaching the churches of Christ Church, Holy Trinity, and St. Paul's to them, the stipends of each being raised to 150 pounds. The patronage of the two former was vested in the Crown, and the latter in the Bishop of the Diocese. The Act likewise authorizes the formation of a fourth district at Cinderford, and the erection and endowment of a church there: thus each district comprised the following number of acres:--

St. John's 5934 St. Paul's 7741 Holy Trinity 5859 Christ Church 3149 ------ Total 22,683

The same Report also notices the provisions now made for the relief of the poor, and for the abolition of the court and prison of the hundred of St. Briavel's. The Act for the relief of the poor is dated the 9th of July, and authorizes the introduction of the new Poor Law, dividing the Forest into the two townships of East and West Dean, by a line drawn in a diagonal direction from Lydbrook to Ayleford, being in fact almost the same boundary which separated the ancient divisions of "above and beneath the wood." The Act attached East Dean to the Westbury-upon-Severn Union, and West Dean to that of Monmouth. It also united the Hudnalls, the Bea.r.s.e, the Fence, and Mawkins Hazells to the parishes of St. Briavel's and Hewelsfield, Mailscot and an adjoining tract to English Bicknor, and Walmore and Northwood's Green to the parish of Westbury-upon-Severn, for the support of their own poor, by means of rates levied as their respective overseers for the relief of the poor should direct.

CHAPTER VIII.

A.D. 1841-1858.

Messrs. Clutton's, &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. Machen, P. J.

Ducarel, J. F. Brickdale, Esqrs., proceeded to authorize the laying open of 163 acres 2 roods 24 poles in Little Stapledge and Birchwood, directing that an equal quant.i.ty of land should be added to the Acorn Patch and the Bourts.

In the year 1843 Beechenhurst and Shutcastle Enclosures, comprising 467 acres 2 roods 31 poles, were disenclosed, an equal extent of land at the Delves, Harry Hill, Hangerberry, Old Croft, the Blind Meand, Cleverend Green, Clearwell Meand, and Birch Hill being taken in. Upon the 22nd of this October a sale was effected to the Crown, for the sum of 1,260 pounds, of the eligible school premises at Cinderford, erected originally by Mr. Protheroe for his workpeople. On the 22nd of October in the ensuing year, 1844, the church adjoining the school just named, to the erection of which Dr. Warneford and Charles Bathurst, Esq., largely contributed, was consecrated by Bishop Monk, the Crown endowing it with 150 pounds per annum, making the total sum given by the Government to church endowments in the Forest upwards of 10,347 pounds. The following year is almost a blank in the annals of the neighbourhood. The Report of the Commissioners of Woods was issued on the 5th of August.

In 1846 enclosures to the extent of 1,433 acres 3 roods 5 poles, comprising Blakeney Hill, Crab-tree Hill (North), Holly Hill, Bromley, part of Edgehills, and part of Stapledge, were thrown open, and instead thereof enclosures were made at Light Moor, Middle Ridge, and Phelp's Meadow, Blaize Bailey, Mitcheldean Meand (North, South), and Loquiers, the Delves No. 4, Crump Meadow, Bourts No. 1 and 2, Eastbatch Meand, and Coverham (North and South). The Commissioners of Woods published their yearly Report on the 25th of August this year, signed by Lord Morpeth.

It states that since 1841 upwards of 291 pieces of encroached land had been purchased by the foresters for 201 pounds 13s. 3d., and that no less than 193 grants of coal and iron mine had been galed under 1 and 2 Vict.

c. 48, at a total annual rent to the Crown of 3,783 pounds, in sums varying from 1 to 250 pounds, as at the Bilson Colliery, besides 315 grants of stone-quarries at a total rent of 87 pounds 9s. 7d. This includes the following coal-works lately galed, viz., the collieries of Nash's Folly, New Mill Engine, Unity Colliery, Nag's Head, Smart's Delph, Gosly Knoll, producing a rental of 16 pounds, and the iron-mines at Old Park, Scarpit, Easter, Slope Pit, Yew-tree, Bromley Hill, Drybrook, Prince of Wales, Belt, and Wigpool, bringing 81 pounds 10s. to the Crown, to all which receipts a royalty of so much per ton on the mineral sold was added.

Mr. Machen's Notes inform us that in the autumn of 1846 "there was the most abundant crop of Spanish chesnuts we have ever had, and they ripen well, but the people injure the trees to get them. No acorns at all--there are some on the Turkey oaks. The fruit of most kinds has failed this year, as well as the potatoes; but of some kinds, such as chesnuts, grapes, blackberries, the crop is abundant. The spruce firs are looking very bad; many of them are nearly dead."

Except as respects the granting of additional coal and iron gales, the succeeding year of 1847 may be pa.s.sed over. It appears by the annual Report which came out on the 29th of June, that the new iron-mines galed were those of Wigpool, Dean's Meand, Fairplay, Lydbrook, Symmond's Rock, Earl Fitzharding's Frog Pit, Penswell's, Eastbatch, and Tufton, paying a rental to the Crown of 104 pounds, and Morgan's Folly Colliery, rented at 4 pounds.

Proceeding to the year 1848, the Report of the Commissioners of Woods, which appeared in September, informs us that upwards of 18,000 acres in the district of the Forest were covered with wood and timber.

Unfortunately blight again prevailed, of which in the month of June Mr.

Machen's MS. records:--"The oak-trees have been attacked for several years past by a small caterpillar which eats all the leaves, and this year the destruction has been greater than ever; the whole Forest has been almost leafless; the high ground and the low, the large timber and the young plantations, have all suffered alike. The first time I noticed this blight was in 1830, when the High Meadow woods and many parts of the Forest suffered, but it was princ.i.p.ally confined to the large timber. It has continued more or less every year since, but this has been the worst year of any; yet it is remarkable that the High Meadow Woods are free from it and in fine foliage, but no part of the Forest has escaped. The grub, a little black caterpillar, comes to life just as the oak is coming into leaf, and feeds upon the leaves. It attacks no other tree; the beech, chesnut, &c., stand in full verdure surrounded by the brown and leafless oaks. They envelop the tree in a web they spin about the end of May; they enclose themselves in a leaf curled up, and remain in a chrysalis state until the middle of June or July, when they change into a pale greenish small moth that flies about the trees in myriads, and lay their eggs in the bark of the trees for future mischief, and then die.

There seems to be no means of checking their ravages. The rooks come in great numbers, and they and other birds destroy great quant.i.ties. The trees put forth a second foliage at the midsummer shoot, but not full, and the shoot of the year and the growth of the trees must be injured."

Under the date of the 30th of April, 1849, Messrs. John Clutton and Richard Hall report to the Government, on the Forest of Dean, that "there are about five hundred acres of the open Forest now covered with old timber, which is for the most part very fine and of very large size, and is nearly all of good quality. Our opinion is that a large portion of this timber is fit for naval purposes, and we suppose it to be worth 49,000 pounds. Its precise age we are not enabled to discover, but our impression is that this timber is about 160 years of age. It has clearly been planted since 1667, as it is recorded that only 200 trees remained on the Forest in that time. There is some old timber fit for the navy in the enclosed plantations, of the probable value of 34,500 pounds. There are also about 500 acres of land planted in the Forest with single trees, which are in process of becoming fit for naval purposes; and there is a further portion occupied with trees of spontaneous growth. These, with the plantations thrown open, we estimate at 3,000 acres; the value of these we estimate at 106,000 pounds. The Crown has now occupied with young and old timber about 14,000 acres of the Forest."

The same reporters speak of "the existing plantations being in a very good state, having been judiciously and well planted, fully stocked, well managed, and sufficiently protected. They are properly drained and amply thinned; so that there is upon the ground, in a state to proceed to maturity, as good a crop as can be found to exist in any part of England, taking extent and quality of soil into consideration. The plantations reflect great credit upon all parties concerned in their management, the system of which we should strongly advise to be continued. To remove the young trees with the view of converting the land into arable cultivation would involve a loss of 280,500 pounds, besides that of the increasing net annual profit, which official returns prove to be as follows:--

pounds. _s._ _d._ From 1828 to 1531 17 4 1832, or average of 5 years ,, 1833 to 2475 16 2 1838 ,, ,, 1839 to 3566 17 1 1843 ,, ,, 1843 to 5482 11 3 1848 ,,

Early in this year a select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the expenditure and management of the Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues of the Crown, Viscount Duncan being in the chair. Mr. Machen was examined by the committee with regard to the Forest of Dean, and amongst other particulars stated that "the fact of the expenditure on account of this Forest having increased within the last six years was explained by the circ.u.mstance that 3,000 pounds a year had been laid out on the new plantations, and that the balance in favour of the Crown had been still further reduced by the recent fall in the price of bark and also of timber, owing probably to peculiar difficulties attending its removal." He observed that large immediate profits could not be obtained from the oak plantations, which would, however, increase in value at the rate of about 15,000 pounds a year; and moreover that a considerable revenue from the sale of timber-props for the mine-works, &c., might be expected. Mr. Machen also reported an improvement in the order and conduct of the inhabitants of the Forest generally, the fruit, it may reasonably be a.s.sumed, of the many years of pious labour which the clergy and Christian teachers of the neighbourhood had bestowed on the people. The Act of 1841, under which the mines of the Forest were awarded, had, he said, been found most useful. Before the arrangements under this Act were effected, much quarrelling and litigation were continually taking place. The royalty paid by the various mines to the Crown amounted to 4,000 pounds a year, and was steadily increasing; eight years ago it was only 700 pounds.

The evidence of Mr. Langham, the a.s.sistant Deputy Surveyor, relates to the mode in which pit-timber and cordwood for the charcoal burner were supplied, as well as the method pursued in planting, being that of about 1,300 young oaks to the acre, and the same of larch, four feet apart.

Mr. Nicholson, a tenant of the Park End Colliery, forcibly urged the construction of branch lines of railway, connecting the different works in the Forest with the leading lines, to the certain benefit of the coal-master, the consumer, and the Crown, the existing tramways being inadequate to their purpose.

Mr. Isaiah Teague took the same view, and further supported the recommendation that greater facilities should be given, not only to the mineowners to build cottages for their men, but also that the operatives themselves should be enabled to buy small plots of land for the purpose, they being now frequently obliged to live far distant from their places of work, there being few, if any, houses situated near them. These witnesses, as well as several others, agreed in stating that it was inexpedient to have deer in the Forest, as unsettling the habits of the people, and encouraging poaching. They yet admitted, however, that the deer were highly ornamental.

It was also stated in evidence that the Forest was now fully planted; and whereas some of the witnesses recommended that the larger portion of the wood should be cut, and the remainder converted into arable or pasture land, it was shown by others that to do so would be like cutting a crop of wheat whilst green, and be defeating the original intention of the Government, which was to raise timber for the use of the navy, which the private woods of the kingdom could not supply. Much, too, of the soil was said to be unsuited for farming purposes, being so precipitous in some parts, and stony in others, as to be unfit for ploughing. Much of the timber was reported to be of the finest character, and the young trees, for the most part, doing very well. No improvements in the management of the estate were suggested, and at the close of the inquiry the committee reported that the plantations were growing luxuriantly, having been well thinned, and did credit to all concerned in their management.