The Forest of Dean: An Historical and Descriptive Account Part 14

At this time, therefore, so much of the ancient road as lay between Mitcheldean and Nail Bridge was discarded for the present one, which ascends the Stenders Hill by a more even slope, and avoids the abrupt rise of Harrow Hill. The old line may yet be traced, and Nail Bridge remains; in allusion to which improvements the following advertis.e.m.e.nt appeared in _The Gloucester Journal_, Monday, Sept. 5, 1796:--"James Graham, at the George Inn, Mitcheldean, has great pleasure in returning his respectful thanks for the liberal support he has received, and announces to the public that the new road through His Majesty's Forest of Dean, leading from Mitcheldean to Coleford and Monmouth, which is the high road from Gloucester to South Wales, is already greatly improved, and in a short time will be equal to any in this part of the country. It is allowed that travellers will save a mile at least by taking this way from Gloucester to Monmouth; and when accurately measured, it is imagined that the saving will be found to be still greater. Graham has laid in a stock of admirable port and other wines, and every exertion will be made for public accommodation. Post chaises at 1s. per mile, and sober drivers."

Nor was this advertis.e.m.e.nt a mere puff, as Mr. Budge, writing in the year 1803, states--"The great travelling road to Monmouth from Gloucester now leads through Mitcheldean, which, with the good accommodation afforded to travellers, will in process of time be probably the occasion of raising it to a considerable rank among towns of this description." Besides which, there are sufficient intimations in the double approach to the George Inn and large yard adjoining it, as well as in the capacious stable-yards belonging to the other inns of the town, which is beset with six toll-bars, that its character must have been such as is here given; to which may also be added the numerous farmers' teams which were constantly pa.s.sing through the town to and from the collieries in the Forest, in droves of ten or fifteen together, the bells on the horses merrily jingling as they moved along. Connected with which circ.u.mstance it may be observed that the old roads of the district abound in horsepools, or watering-places, wherever a spring could be made available for their supply. At this time the two Mitcheldean toll-bars, situated on the Gloucester and Monmouth line of road, were let at 250 pounds per annum. The only link connecting in these respects the past with recent times was supplied until the last five years by our old friend Mr.

Yearsley's coach, running three times a week between Coleford and Gloucester.

For the next thirty years the Crown does not seem to have laid out any money upon the Forest roads, although their condition was so bad that it was urged as a reason for building churches and schools in the Forest, those of the surrounding parishes not being readily accessible to the inhabitants. But in 1828 and the two following years the Roads Trustees borrowed 5,000 pounds, with which they made the road

Leading from Park End to Bream 1.5 miles.

,, Nail Bridge to Little Dean 3 ,, ,, the White Oak to Lydbrook 1 ,,

besides widening and improving the road through Lydbrook for Bishopswood.

They likewise formed the road

Leading from Berry Hill to 1 mile.

Shortstanding ,, Christ Church to Symmonds 2 ,, Rock ,, White Oak to Eastbatch Lane .5 ,, End

when other parts of the roads were also improved.

In 1841 the large sum of 5,000 pounds was expended by the Commissioners in constructing roads

From Park End to Blakeney 5 miles.

,, Nail Bridge to Mitcheldean 2 ,, ,, Drybrook to the Bailey Lane 1.5 ,, End ,, Bishop's Wood to Nail 3.5 ,, Bridge ,, Long Stone, Berry Hill, and 2 ,, Fetch Pit

To which may be added a short length of road made from the Hawthorns to the top of the Stenders, by a grant from the Operatives' Relief Fund.

{197}

The total length of the roads comprised within the present limits of the Forest is 41 miles 3 furlongs 31 yards. The tolls are not let, but collected in the name of the Commissioners, and yielded, in 1856, as follows, at their respective gates:--

pounds. _s._ _d._ Moseley 26 18 7 Nibley 97 16 6 Yorkley 67 7 9 Lydbrook 227 2 1.5 Slope Pit 17 8 7.5 Nail Bridge 19 18 1 Drybrook 205 1 1 The Stenders 58 15 11.5 Plump Hill 144 16 7.5 Little Lane End 34 13 10 St. White's 81 19 8 Little Dean 99 0 7 Woodside Reden Horne 16 7 8.5 Howler's Slade 14 19 8.5 Bream 73 12 6 Park End 145 5 2.5 --- -- -- Total 1,331 4 7.5

All these roads are now in excellent repair, but they have been, nevertheless, compelled to yield to the superior advantages of the railway system, here grafted, as is the case in some other places, upon the useful but less perfect tramway. {198}

In the years 1809 and 1810 a local Act authorised the construction of an extensive system of tramways throughout the Forest, under the auspices of "the Severn and Wye" and "Bullo Pill" Companies, traversing respectively the western and eastern sides of the district. The latter of these, the tramway which descends the eastern valley through Cinderford and Sowdley to the Severn, pa.s.sed into the hands of the South Wales Railway Company, who purchased it in 1849, with the view of forming it into a locomotive road; and this they effected after great difficulty, in consequence of being obliged to carry on the trade upon the tramway at the same time, and opened it on the 14th July, 1854. Its present length, extending from Bullo Pill to the Churchway Colliery, is nearly seven miles. There is a branch from it of three-quarters of a mile to the Whimsey, another of one mile and a half to the Lightmoor Colliery, one of three-quarters of a mile to the Crump Meadow Colliery, one of a quarter of a mile to the Nelson Colliery, and a shorter one to the Regulator Pits. It is a single line, constructed throughout on the broad-gauge principle, and for the present only conveys minerals. A central line, in addition to the above, is in course of formation. The tramway of "the Severn and Wye Company,"

on the west side of the Forest, has not been materially altered.

CHAPTER XIII.

The deer of the Forest, and its timber, plants, birds, ferns, and early allusions to the Forest deer--The Court of Swainmote, by which they were preserved--Act of 1668 regarding them--Reports of the Chief Forester in Fee and Bowbearer, and Verderers, in 1788, respecting the deer--Mr.

Machen's memoranda on the same subject--Their removal in 1849--The birds of the Forest--Unforestlike aspect of the Forest, now, compared with its former condition--Successive reductions of its timber--Its oldest existing trees described--Present appearance of the young woods--Table of the Timber Stock, from time to time, during the last 200 years--An account of the rarer plants and ferns.

The earliest allusion to deer in the Forest is, as might be expected, coeval with its being const.i.tuted a royal domain. William the Conqueror is said to have been hunting here when he first heard of the taking of York by the Danes in August, 1069. In Henry I.'s reign the deer were so numerous as to make the t.i.thes of them worthy of being given as a royal present by that king to the Abbey of Gloucester, which city, says Geraldus, was supplied with venison from the Forest of Dean; and the frequent visits of King John to Flaxley Abbey and to the Castle of St.

Briavel's during the latter years of his reign, arose probably from the abundant sport the neighbourhood afforded him.

The deer of the King's forests were preserved in ancient times with the greatest care by the execution of certain laws, administered by a Swainmote Court, which was regulated by officers called Verderers, Foresters, and Agisters, who disposed of all cases in which deer were killed without warrant: not that any man was to lose either life or limb, as formerly, for so doing; but he was to be heavily fined if he had property, or, if not, to be imprisoned a year and a day, and be then released, if he could find sufficient securities, or be abjured the realm. A curious exception existed, however, in the case of any archbishop, bishop, earl, or baron summoned to the King, and by the way pa.s.sing through a royal forest, when it was lawful for him to "take and kill one or two deer, by the view of the Forester, if he be present, or else shall cause one to blow an horne for him that he seem not to steal the deer." At the fawning season, or "fence-month," as it was called, commencing fifteen days before and ending fifteen days after Midsummer-day, the Forest officers attended within their own walks, and required all manner of dogs to be kept in at the peril of the owner, bringing before the verderers any persons found hunting or out of the highway with a bow or gun, or gathering rushes or bents, or driving swine or cattle, to the hurt or disquiet of the deer. They were also charged at all times with the preservation of the vert or underwood, on account of the shelter and food it afforded the deer.

[Picture: The Tomb of John de Yrall, Forester in Fee, in Newland Churchyard. Round the sides of the Tomb is this inscription, in old characters--"Here : lythe : Ion : Wyrall : Forster : of : Fee : the : whych : dysesyd : on : the : VIII : day : of : September : in : ye : yeare of oure Lorde : m.cccc.lviii. on : hys : Soule : G.o.d : have : Mercy : Amen."]

By the Act of 1668 it is provided, that, "should His Majesty think fit to restore the game of deer within the said Forrest, the same shall not exceed the number of 800 deer of all sorts at any one time;" intimating that during the Civil War, and the period of the Commonwealth, that kingly pastime had been discontinued. The same Act directs that "the owners, tenants, &c., of any of the several lands lying within the bounds of the Forest may keep any sort of dogs inexpediated to hunt and kill any beast of chase or other game," except during "the fence month," and "the time of the winter heyning, viz. from the 11th of November to the 23rd of April," when all rights of common were to be in abeyance.

Charles Edwin, Esq., "Chief Forester in Fee and Bowbearer," in 1787, stated to the Commissioners that he claimed by virtue of his office to be ent.i.tled to the right shoulder of all bucks and does killed within the Forest, and also to ten fee bucks and ten fee does, annually to be there killed and taken at his own free will and pleasure, with licence to hawk, hunt, fish, and fowl within the Forest." As bowbearer, it was his duty "to attend His Majesty with a bow and arrow, and six men clothed in green, whenever His Majesty shall be pleased to hunt within the said Forest." Edmund Probyn, Esq., one of the Verderers of the Forest, stated at the same time, that the number of bucks and does which it contained could not be ascertained; but it was much understocked, so that the warrants were sometimes sent back unexecuted." Until the deer were removed, each of the four verderers was ent.i.tled to a buck and a doe every year.

[Picture: The King's Bowbearer]

"When I first remember the Forest," Mr. Machen remarks, in his private papers, "now 65 years since, the deer were very numerous. I recollect my father taking me up to the Buckholt in an evening for the purpose of showing them to me, and we never failed of seeing several:" this was about 1790. "From that time for 20 years, in consequence of the decrease of the covert and the increase of poachers, they rapidly diminished, until in 1810, when I do not believe there were ten in the whole Forest.

At this period the enclosures were made for the preservation of timber, and woodmen appointed to the care of them; the few deer that were left were protected, and as the young trees grew up so as to afford them shelter, they rapidly increased, and in thirty years, viz. in 1840, I should think there were not less than 800 or 1000 deer in the Forest."

"The red deer were introduced in 1842 by Mr. Herring, who brought down on 24th February, from Woburn, two stags and four hinds. They were in fine condition, and were turned loose in Russell's Enclosure, one mile from the Speech-house." Mr. Machen further notes as follows:

"October, 1842.--Two of the hinds have calves with them."

"October 20th.--One of the stags was hunted from Trippenkennet, in Herefords.h.i.+re, and swam the Wye three times: the hounds brought him into Nag's Head Enclosure."

"July, 1844.--Two stags, three hinds, and a calf are now in Park Hill Enclosure, and are frequently seen in the meadow in front of Whitemead.

One old stag is at Edge Hills. A hind is sometimes seen in the Highmeadow Woods, and it is known that one was killed there."

"October.--A young hind was sent down, and turned out in Haywood Enclosure."

"October, 1845.--The two old stags are wandering about, and seldom in the Forest."

"October 4.--Hunted the stag near Park End; ran four hours, but lost him, night coming on."

"September 20th, 1846.--The stag that was about Staunton and Newland was killed this day, after a run of three hours. He was found on the old hills near Newland, and killed in Coleford. This was a four years old deer, calved in the Forest; the hind and calf went to Staunton, and never returned: the hind was killed by poachers. The venison of the stag was excellent: the haunches were 45 lbs. each."

"October, 1847.--Another stag was killed after a good run. Two were found, and ran some time together before the hounds in Park Hill."

"October 6, 1848.--The last stag returned to the Forest, after having been in the woods, &c., near Chepstow almost a year. He was found in Oaken Hill, and killed, after a run of three hours, in Sallow Vallets.

His haunches weighed 51 lbs., and the whole weight 307 lbs."

"The fallow deer of the Forest were reduced in number after the year 1850 by killing a large number of does. They were all fine animals, and when the enclosures protected them they got very fat, and the venison of fine flavour. They were generally hunted."

At the time of Lord Duncan's Committee in 1849 a general feeling prevailed against the deer, on the ground of their demoralising influence as an inducement to poaching, and all were ordered to be destroyed, there being at that time perhaps 150 bucks and 300 does.

The remarks "Going after the deer," or "You don't, may be, want to buy some meat?" are no doubt fresh in the recollection of many. Going about with guns, in numbers too formidable for the keepers to interfere, shooting the deer by day, and carrying them off at night, were by no means uncommon. Poachers of a poorer and more primitive stamp are said to have resorted to the expedient of dropping a heavy iron bar from where they had secreted themselves, on the projecting branch of an oak, so that it might fall across the neck of the deer which had come to browse beneath. Or they baited a large hook with an apple, and suspended it at a proper height by a stout cord over a path which the deer were observed to frequent. They also were known to set a number of nooses of iron wire in a row, skilfully fastened to a rope secured to a couple of trees, into which, aided by dogs, they drove the deer. With such kind of sport at command, we may be well a.s.sured of the truth of Mr. Nicholson's statement before Lord Duncan's Committee--"if once men begin to poach, we can never reckon upon their working afterwards." Ornamental to a forest as deer undoubtedly are, and disappointing as it may be to the stranger to find none in the Forest of Dean, we cannot regret that, in 1855, Mr. Machen records, "there is not now a deer left in the Forest, and only a few stragglers in the Highmeadow Woods."'

Besides deer inhabiting the Forest from the earliest times, no doubt it was also frequented by all such animals as used to be accounted "beasts of the forest," viz. the hare, boar, and wolf, in addition to the hart and hind.

Adverting to the feathered tribes which have been observed in this neighbourhood, Mr. Machen remarks--"The birds in the Forest do not differ much from those met with in other parts of the west of England. I have been struck with the contrast in the smaller number of large birds, mostly of the falcon kind, which are now seen, in comparison with those I remember fifty years ago. At that time you might often observe fifteen or twenty kites and hawks hovering over Church Hill and the Bicknor walks; but now it is not frequently the case that you see one. It appears to me also that there is a great diminution in the number of all kinds of birds, small as well as large, so that in some parts of the Forest and woods the stillness and absence of animals of every kind is surprising. Ravens too have become very scarce. A pair had a nest by Simmon's Rock this year (1857), but they are said to drive their young to a distance as soon as they can provide for themselves. The only kind of plover in the Forest is the green plover or lapwing, which were very numerous at one time in the wet greens. Woodc.o.c.ks used to be thought never to breed in this country, but they certainly do so now. In this Forest and in other places I have frequently seen them during the summer, and have observed their nests, made on the ground, of slight construction. One above Whitemead had only two eggs. When the plantations were first made, they became, even in the centre of them, well stocked with partridges; but as the woods grew up they all disappeared. Pheasants were turned out by me at Whitemead, and soon spread over the whole Forest. At one time there was a good stock, but lately they are much reduced. There are a great variety of woodp.e.c.k.e.rs, which do not, I think, hurt sound trees, but rather those which they find already decaying. Fieldfares and redwings come in great numbers.

Nightingales are not numerous in the Forest, although they abound in the neighbourhood. They do not like its depths, or large trees hollow below; but prefer a thick close cover, and the vicinity of a road or path where the bushes are low and thick: but I never heard one in the middle of the Forest. Although a country like this seems unsuited to the wheatear, as preferring the Downs of Suss.e.x, &c., still they come here in the spring, and are generally seen by the roads, or on stone walls in which they build their nests, and even in the heaps of stones, as also in the rails of bark. I remember that beautiful bird, the kingfisher, by the Forest brooks, but now you never see one. Flocks of rooks sometimes come into the neighbourhood when the oaks are much blighted, to feed on the grubs, and in such quant.i.ties that the trees are quite black with them. They come from a distance, as they are not seen at other times, and never breed in the Forest."