Forests and chases

In the later Middle Ages, monarchs developed hunting forests. These forests were not necessarily covered with trees (it is estimated that only about one-fifth of legal forest was actually woodland), but had a variety of landscape features. In fact a forest is a tract of land which is subject to the Forest Laws. That means that all proceeds go to the king and that the royal household alone has the right to hunt. Special officials looked after the royal forests and brought poachers to justice.

Many a poacher sat in the dungeon of Goodrich Castle awaiting punishment for as little as snaring a rabbit to feed his family. Medieval law stipulated that a poacher could have a hand chopped off, be blinded or have his testicles severed. In reality, though, according to the evidence of court proceedings, he was usually fined, imprisoned, outlawed or pardoned. "The Pipe Rolls show that already by 1150 the main effect of Forest Law was to provide revenue" (Oliver Rackham, Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape, 1976).

The animals preserved in these forests were fallow deer, red deer, roe deer and wild boar. The king's hunters were regularly sent into the forests to hunt boar for the king's table. Henry III had 200 wild boars from the Forest of Dean for his Christmas dinner in 1251. Not long after this period, however, the wild boar died out. Wild boar love wooded areas, and the landscape archaeologist Oliver Rackham maintains that wild boar survived longest in England in the Forest of Dean, because this was a heavily-wooded area. However even here the death knell of the wild boar was due to the development of the mining industry in the Forest, encouraged by Henry III. The species was kept alive in semi-captivity in swine parks, which continue to this day (Oliver Rackham, see above, pp. 36-37).

Hunting with falcons was also a popular pastime. Falconry, also called hawking, were practised only by the very wealthy. The birds were expensive, as was their upkeep and training. King Edward I was particularly keen on falconry. In the 1270s he had a special room built for his falconers, which backed onto an enclosed garden in which was built a bath for the king's birds. An aqueduct carried fresh water to this bath, which had four brass leopard-head spouts - some birdbath! The falcons were fed with doves raised in a dovecote on site (Compton Reeves, Pleasures and Pastimes in Medieval England, Sutton Publishing, 1995, p. 112).

Edward was so involved with his birds that when one of them was ill, he not only paid to have it specially looked after, but had a waxen image of the sick falcon made so that it could be offered at the shrine of St. Thomas de Cantilupe in Hereford Cathedral. He hoped that the intercession (prayers for someone - in this case the bird) of St. Thomas would make his bird better (Account of the household expenses of Richard, Bishop of Hereford 1289-1290, Camden Society, 1855).

In England wolves were more or less exterminated under Edward I by 1281. A man called Peter Corbet was hired to destroy all the wolves in the counties in the west of England, including Herefordshire. This campaign was supposedly commemorated by an iron wolf's head on a medieval door at Abbey Dore (HER reference no. 892) (Oliver Rackham, see above, p. 35).

Clearing and farming were forbidden. The king sometimes allowed nobles to have private forests called chases. These private hunting areas were subject to common law, however the lord of the manor had the exclusive right to hunt. Poachers were severely punished. Hunting lodges were built for the use of visiting lords wishing to hunt. The Historic Environment Record records two hunting lodges, one belonging to the bishop, who as a lord also had the right to hunt.

The Forest of Haye (Haywood), just south of Hereford, was a large royal forest during the Middle Ages and provided much of the timber for the building of Hereford Castle. A survey in 1583 estimated it at 760 acres of oak woodland and 155 acres of waste ground. In 1383 Richard II granted Hereford town 30 oaks from the "King's Forest of the Haye" to repair the bridge across the Wye (Letters close 29 January 6 Richard II 1383 - see the royal charters of the city of Hereford).

Several early medieval kings came to stay in Hereford on various occasions to enjoy the hunting. In the Domesday Book, in the section where the customs for Hereford are listed, there is the following record:

"When the King was engaged in hunting, by custom one man from each and every house went to stall game in the woodland" (Frank and Caroline Thorn (eds.), Domesday Book 17, Herefordshire, C 3, Phillimore, 1983).

The overlord for the town of Hereford was the king, and helping out with the hunt was part of a number of responsibilities the English townsmen had. (The Norman townsmen were exempt from this duty.)

There were other royal forests in Herefordshire. The Domesday survey mentions forests 13 times with references to several places. The entry for Bullinghope (Bullingham), for example, tells us that "the woodland is in the Kings Forest" (Domesday Book 17, Herefordshire, 10,19). 

With regard to Cleeve (near Ross-on-Wye), it states: "In King William's Forest there is as much land of this manor as paid 6 sesters of honey and 6 sheep with lambs before 1066" (Domesday Book 17, Herefordshire, 1,8).

A very important forest was Treville, near Kilpeck. William Fitz Norman was the Royal Forester, paying £15.00 to the King. In the early 13th century Hugh Fitz Waryn was custodian of the Royal Forest in Herefordshire.

In the north of the county, forests existed in Bringwood, Mocktree and Darvold. In the west was Treville, and in the centre the Forest of Hay. Toward the south were Aconbury and Harewood and in the west, Malvern Forest/Ledbury Chase. (Information from Penny Farquhar-Oliver.)

[Original author: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2002]