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 mended over—Ellwood and the Great Doward Estates purchased—The blight—Single trees planted out by the roads—Blight on the oaks.
There is a statement of Lord Nelson’s relating to this Forest, written about the year 1802, [87] in which he says: “Nothing in it can grow self-sown, for the deer bark all the young trees. Vast droves of hogs are allowed to go into the woods in the autumn, and if any fortunate acorn escapes their search, and takes root, then flocks of sheep are allowed to go into the Forest, and they bite off the tender shoot.” He speaks of “a set of people called Forest free miners, who consider themselves as having a right to dig for coal in any part they please,” adding that “trees which die of themselves are considered as of no value to the Crown. A gentleman told me,” (he says,) “that in shooting on foot (for on horseback it cannot be seen, being hid by the fern, which grows a great height), the trees of fifty years’ growth, fit for buildings, fencings, &c., are cut just above ground entirely through the bark, and in two years die,” so becoming a perquisite to the authorities. Lord Nelson calculated that the Forest would sell for £460,000. He forcibly concludes: “The reason why timber has of late years been so much
reduced has been uniformly told me—that, from the pressure of the times, gentlemen who had £1000 to £5000 worth of timber on their estates, although only half grown (say fifty years of age), were obliged to sell it to raise temporary sums—say to pay off legacies. The owner cannot, however sorry he may feel to see the beauty of his place destroyed, and what would be treble the value to his children annihilated, help himself. It has struck me forcibly that if Government could form a plan to purchase of such gentlemen the growing oak, it would be a national benefit, and a great and pleasing accommodation to such growers of oak as wish to sell.”
Mr. Fordyce’s second report, as Surveyor-General of the Land Revenues of the Crown, appeared on the 14th of December, 1802; but neither this nor his third, dated the 4th of March, 1806, says anything about the Forest of Dean. In 1807 the free miners of the district held a meeting, at which a resolution was passed, earnestly requesting the wardens of the Forest to hold a Court of Mine Law, as soon as possible, with the view of regulating the levels, pits, and engines.
Mr. Fordyce’s fourth and final report appeared on the 6th of April, 1809, but it only speaks of the Forest so far as related to the lands called “Whitemead Park,” hitherto in the occupation of Lord Berkeley, but whose lease would expire in January, 1808, and was sought to be renewed. The Surveyor-General declined complying with the request for renewal, upon the ground that the Park was unfavourably situated for farming purposes, and that the buildings on it were in very bad repair; whereas a large quantity of very fine timber, valued at £11,736, had grown up on the land, proving the excellence of the soil for that purpose; besides which, it was situated in the midst of the Forest, and Mr. Fordyce determined to plant the whole of it with oak at the earliest opportunity. This circumstance appears to have stimulated the Government to commence in good earnest the forming of plantations, in accordance with the suggestions made in the Commissioners’ Report of
1788, [89] which had been kept in view ever since, and as authorized by the old Acts of the 20th of Charles II. c. 3, and 9 and 10 William III. c. 36.
The propriety, however, of acting upon these old enactments was now doubted, as they had been so long overlooked or irregularly executed; and hence the declaratory Act of the 48th of George III., c. 72, was passed in 1808, confirming the original power to enclose 11,000 acres, as well as legalizing the enclosures of Buckholt, Stapledge, Birchwood, and Acorn Patch, formed a few years previously, containing altogether 676 acres, and making it felony to persist in breaking down any of the fences belonging to the same. The above-named enclosures were the only ones then existing. The Buckholt principally contained beech; Stapledge was thinly stocked with oak, except on the north side, and there called Little Stapledge, on which there was plenty; and Birchwood had some clusters of natural young oaks scattered about it. The Acorn Patch was well filled with thriving young oaks about 25 years old. The same Act likewise directed that the contemplated plantations should be marked out under the supervision of not less than six Commissioners, who were named as follows:—
| Lord Glenbervie, Surveyor General of Woods, &c. | |
| R. Fanshaw, Esq., of Plymouth Dockyard. | |
| Right Hon. C. Bathurst, Lydney Park, | } |
| The Rev. Thomas Birt, Newland, | } Magistrates |
| The Rev. Richard Wetherell, Westbury, | } |
| Sir William Guise, Highnam, | } |
| Joseph Pyrke, Esq., Little Dean, | } Verderers |
| Edmund Probyn, Esq., Newland, | } |
| Roynon Jones, Esq., Hay Hill, | } |
| Edward Kent, Esq., Itinerant Deputy Surveyor. | |
| Edward Machen, Esq., Deputy Surveyor. |
The connexion with the Forest of two of these gentlemen, viz. Lord Glenbervie as Surveyor-General, and Mr. Machen as Deputy-Surveyor, dates from this period; and to their joint exertions, aided by the official labours of Mr. Milne, his Lordship’s excellent secretary, and at