The Forest of Dean: An Historical and Descriptive Account Part 8

"(March, 1831, all died; renewed March, 1834--these mostly alive and flouris.h.i.+ng.)"

"May 28th.--The most extraordinary blight is now upon the trees that I believe ever was known: it is confined entirely to the oak, and chiefly to the large trees, although in some parts it is extending to the young plantations. The whole of the High Meadow woods and great part of the Forest, particularly Russell's Enclosure, and where the timber is thick, are entirely stripped of their leaves, and look as if fire had pa.s.sed through them. Where a beech stands amongst them, it is perfectly green, and the oaks all around quite brown. The grubs and their webs are so thick, that it is disagreeable to ride amongst the trees, and like going into a net."

On the 8th June, 1830, the First Annual Report of the Commissioners under the 10th Geo. IV., c. 50, was issued. It was signed by Lord Lowther, Wm.

Dacres Adams, and Henry Dawkins. Mr. Machen states in his Memoranda, that "this winter single trees were planted on Breem Eaves; triple rows on Clearwell Meend, by the roads on Coverham, on the Delves. We mended over the spots that have failed in Oaken Hill, Stapledge, Acorn Patch, Crab-tree Hill, Sallow Vallets (chiefly by drawing out where the trees are too thick). Most of the enclosures are now quite filled up." And under date Nov. 1831, he gives the following statement of the several plantations:--

Acres.

Land now under plantation in Dean 11,000 Forest, enclosed by Act of Parliament Whitemead Park 240 Ellwood 90 Old Keeper's Land (3) 90 ------ 11,420 High Meadow and Doward 3,288 Planted with single trees 1,114 Young trees of natural growth 150 Old timber 528 ------ Total 16,500

CHAPTER VII.

A.D. 1831-1841.

Riots--Sessions of the Dean Forest Commissioners relative to St.

Briavel's Court--Free miners' claims--Foreigners' pet.i.tion--State of the woods--Perambulation--Rights of Commonage--Relief of the poor--Free miners' pet.i.tion--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 destruction committed on the fences and banks of the enclosures, recorded by Mr. Machen as follows:--"In May, 1831, several of the single trees planted near Parkend, and on Breem's Eaves, were wilfully cut off in the night, and no discovery was made of the offenders. In the end of May a part of the wall of Oaken Hill Enclosure was thrown down in the night. When the workmen were rebuilding it, some of the colliers pa.s.sing by threw out hints that it would not stand long, and in one or two instances horses and cattle were turned into the enclosures, and the woodmen were told that they had been shut up long enough, and they ought to be thrown open.

The gates of several plantations had been broken in the night. On Sunday the 5th of June I saw Henry and Richard Dobbes pull away the bushes out of a gateway, and turn their cow into c.o.c.kshoots Enclosure, and when I went and expostulated with them they said they had been deprived of their rights long enough. Warren James had for some time been urging others to join him in the recovery of their rights, which they considered to be usurped by foreigners, in whose hands the princ.i.p.al coal-works of the Forest are, by purchase or lease from free miners; and on the 3rd June he had a hand-bill printed, calling upon all persons to meet and clear the Forest on Wednesday June 8th. I spoke to him on the 5th, and told him in the presence of numbers the folly and danger of his proceedings; but he paid no attention, and said the Forest was given up to them in Parliament the year before; that he had a charter, which he would bring and show me.

I published a notice, warning all persons not to join an unlawful a.s.sembly, and on Tuesday the 7th Mr. Ducarel and I issued a warrant to apprehend him; but it could not be executed. We swore in a number of special constables, and with the woodmen mustered about forty at the scene of action where they were to begin; but the rioters mustered nearly 200, with axes, &c., and began their work of destruction about 7 o'clock, and we found it useless to attempt to stop them. They were soon joined by others, and supplied with cider, and continued their work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sat.u.r.day, in which time they destroyed nearly one-third of the fences in the Forest, the reparation of which cost about 1,500 pounds. On Sunday military arrived, and they all dispersed.

Warren James was apprehended and sentenced to transportation for life, and seven or eight others to different periods of imprisonment from one month to two years. {111} Those who escaped suffered by lying in the woods and concealed where they could, and I believe all now repent and see the folly of their conduct. I suppose altogether nearly 2,000, including children, were employed in the work of devastation. None of the trees in the enclosures were injured, and where the cattle and sheep that were let in had eaten the gra.s.s in the drives and open places, they went back into the unenclosed Forest, and would not remain amongst the trees. In 1838 a pardon was sent out to Warren James, but he is not yet come home (June, 1839), and he has not written to any one. (1848: nothing heard of or from Warren James.")

The above disturbance shows that an unsettled state of feeling existed in the minds of the foresters with regard to certain supposed rights of free-common, and which prevailed also on other points, such as the nature and extent of the coal-gales, and the fact that the various works were fast pa.s.sing from the hands of the native free miners into those of the foreigners; all which grievances a mischievous periodical called 'The Forester,' published at Newnham, set forth in an exaggerated and exciting manner. Under such circ.u.mstances the Act of 1831 (1 and 2 Gul. IV., c.

12), authorizing the appointment of Commissioners to investigate such complaints, was well timed. The Commissioners were instructed to ascertain the boundaries of the Forest and the encroachments thereon; to inquire into the rights and privileges claimed by free miners of the hundred of St. Briavel's, the const.i.tution, powers, jurisdiction, and practice of the court held there, as well as respecting a court called "the Mine Law Court," and to report on the expediency of parochializing the Forest.

It appears from the annual Report of the Commissioners of Woods, &c., dated the 8th August, 1831, and signed by Lord Duncannon, Wm. Dacres Adams, and Henry Dawkins, that no new works were commenced this year, except the erection of a water-mill for grinding ochre, near Sowdley, arising probably from the unsettled condition of the district. It states, however, that the Crown had created an endowment of 30 pounds per annum towards keeping the three existing churches of the Forest in repair, the congregations using them being considered too poor to do so.

On the 21st January, 1832, the following gentlemen were appointed to act as Commissioners of Inquiry under the late Act:--

Robert Gordon, Esq., M.P., Kemble.

Ebenezer Ludlow, Esq., Serjeant at Law.

Charles Bathurst, Esq., Lydney Park.

Edward Machen, Esq., Whitemead Park.

Henry Clifford, Esq., Over Ross, Herefords.h.i.+re.

_Clerk_, Thomas Graham, Esq., Mitre Court, Temple.

_Surveyor_, Mr. John Hosmer.

They held most of their sittings at the Bear Inn, in Newnham, although they also sat occasionally at Coleford, the Speech House, St. Briavel's, and Westbury. They were thus occupied most of the days in the months of February, March, April, and September, in hearing evidence "as to St.

Briavel's Court and Prison," or "as to making the Forest parochial," or "as to the rights and privileges claimed by free miners," and "as to the rights to open or work quarries."

Of all these sections of inquiry, the only one which the Commissioners found they could at this time bring to a close was that having reference to St. Briavel's Court, respecting which it appeared in evidence that out of the 402 suits brought into it during the last twelve months, all but five were for debts mostly under 5 pounds, to recover which a charge of 6 or 7 pounds might be incurred.

The prison attached to the Court is thus described:--"There is only one window, which is 1 foot wide, and in a recess. It does not open. The size of the room is 16.5 feet by 17.5 feet; 13 feet high; three corners cut off. In one corner is the doorway, 2.5 feet broad, but no door, leading into the pa.s.sage about 6 feet long, out of which the privy opens.

There is a door at the outer end of the pa.s.sage, and in it a hole which is considered necessary for air. The floor and ceiling are of wood, and in the former are several crevices and holes. There is a s.p.a.ce between the ceiling of the parlour beneath and the floor of the prison-room above, which is so filled with fleas and dust that in summer time it cannot be got rid of by any cleanliness. The privy is a dark winding recess, about 6 feet from front to back, taken out of the solid castle walls. It leads to a hole going down to the bottom of the building, which is always inaccessible for cleaning, but which till six years ago had a drain from it into the moat; the air draws up through it into the pa.s.sage and room. There is no water within the prisoners' liberty, and they are therefore obliged to get some person to fetch it for them. The Courtroom is in a bad state."

[Picture: Interior of the Debtors' Prison in St. Briavel's Castle]

In consideration of these facts, the Commissioners in their Report upon it, which was published 7th July, very properly declared that the said Court was an evil, and required remodelling altogether, and they suggested its conversion into a Court of Requests, in which the strict forms of law might be dispensed with, parties appearing and being examined in person, without the intervention of professional agents. Its Commissioners might comprise the Constable of the Castle of St.

Briavel's, the verderers of the Forest, the magistrates of the neighbourhood, and about thirty other persons, any two of whom, under the presidency of one of the former, should form a Court, and decide cases of debt from 10s. to 10 pounds, with power to direct payment of the debt by instalments, or levies upon goods on failure of payment, there being no imprisonment of the person except for fraud, which should then take place in the county gaol at Little Dean, where, or at Coleford, the Court should meet the first Monday in every month. Such was the purport of the Report the Commissioners made to Parliament on the 7th July in this year.

[Picture: Court Room in St. Briavel's Castle]

The Fourth Annual Report of the Commissioners of Woods, &c., dated the 28th of August, 1832, states that Messrs. Hill had obtained the permission of the Crown, under a lease for thirty-one years, and a rental of 25 pounds, to remove all that they could find of the slag, cinders, and refuse of the ancient ironworks; thus resuming an occupation which had been discontinued for many years. The new Fancy Pits were now furnished with two engines and we also find that for a time timber ceased to be supplied from this Forest to the Royal Dockyards.

The Dean Forest Commissioners resumed their sittings the next year (1833) on the 12th of April at Newnham, and proceeded to hear further evidence "as to the rights and privileges claimed by free miners;" but the only important occurrence which ensued was the presentation of a "Memorial,"

by Mr. Mushet, on behalf of parties not free miners, specifying the claims which such proprietors and occupiers of coal and iron mines in the Forest had to the support of Government in maintaining their position in the district. The Memorial states that "foreigners" had possessed coal and iron mines time out of mind, as appeared by the case of several gentlemen and freeholders of the parish of Newland, who, as long since as the year 1675, claimed the right to open certain works without any objection being made by the free miners, a liberty which, whenever it was acted upon, seems always to have benefited the public; that none of the doc.u.ments of the Mine Law Court appear to exclude foreigners from working the mines; on the contrary, the Resolutions of that Court, pa.s.sed 1775, establish such a right, allowing the free miner to sell or bequeath his property in the mines to any persons he may think proper; that the old gale-books contain the names of many persons not free miners, which, with similar testimony from Messrs. Tovey, James, &c., showed such to have been the uniform practice for sixty years; that the foreigners have always carried on their works with the full knowledge and authority of the Crown; that the free miners do not possess the necessary capital for carrying on the works, in which the foreigners have invested 700,000 pounds; and, lastly, that the Crown has gained several thousand pounds per annum in consequence. Twenty-one persons signed this Memorial, as also the representatives of the Forest of Dean and the Cinderford Iron Companies.

Another Memorial was likewise presented by a dozen of the inhabitants of the Forest, showing that, instead of their cottages and gardens tending to throw a burden on the adjoining parishes, the very contrary was the case, as many were therefore enabled to support themselves without applying to those parishes. The pet.i.tioners also prayed that no further part of the Forest might be enclosed for the supposed benefit of the adjacent parishes, as thereby many persons would be deprived of grazing-land for their cattle, and in consequence be necessitated to apply to the next parishes for a.s.sistance.

Alluding to the state of the woods at this time (1833), Mr. Machen's Notes, under the date of the 29th of May, state:--"This is now the fourth year in which the blight has been so prevailing upon the oak and in the Forest. I think this year it is worse than ever, and now the young plantations suffer most, the large timber being comparatively free. Park Hill, Oaken Hill, Nag's Head, Barn Hill, Stapledge, &c., and especially all the higher parts of them, are leafless, except where a beech or a chesnut shows its green foliage amidst the brown oaks. I saw a few rooks in Russell's to-day, and last year I noticed great numbers. They seem to be drawn to the Forest to feed on the grubs, for they are not generally here, and I only hope they will increase. The woodmen complain that in some situations the running of the bark has been checked; but considering it has now been four years, it seems wonderful that more injury is not done to the trees: they put out new leaves at the midsummer shoot, and appear to recover. June 4th: found the grubs changed into a chrysalis, enclosed in a leaf, with a kind of web round it. June 18th: the moths appeared in vast numbers. The rooks are still about in Park Hill."

The usual Report to Government, being the fifth annual one, was issued on the 28th August, 1833, signed "Duncannon, W. D. Adams, B. C. Stephenson."

Licence was granted to construct 600 yards of tramway from the Severn and Wye line up to the Church Hill Colliery at Park End, and the Dean Forest Commissioners appointed under the Act of Parliament (1 & 2 Gul. IV. c.

12) had their commission extended.

In the autumn of 1833 the Dean Forest Commissioners directed their attention to the important object of settling the limits of the Forest, in doing which they wisely determined to be governed by the Messrs.

Driver's maps of 1787, according to which the Forest boundaries had for a length of time been regarded as practically settled, comprising the soil, timber, and herbage actually belonging to the Crown. Its boundaries as thus defined were perambulated in due ancient form, commencing on the 10th of September. {118} The cavalcade included Commissioners Robert Gordon, Esq.; Mr. Serjeant Ludlow; Charles Bathurst, Esq.; and Edward Machen, Esq., the Deputy-Surveyor; with Mr. Graham, their Clerk; and Mr.

Hosmer, their Surveyor; followed by the keepers and woodmen. "We began"

(writes Mr. Machen) "on Tuesday at Little Dean, and ended at Breem; Wednesday we ended at h.o.a.rthorns, Thursday at Drybrook, Friday at the Stenders, and Sat.u.r.day at Little Dean. We were occupied eight or nine hours each day, accomplis.h.i.+ng about nine miles daily by the map, but the actual distance must have been nearly double."

The year 1834 is marked by the Dean Forest Commissioners issuing their second Report, dated 1st of May, in which, after briefly explaining the data on which the late perambulation had been conducted, they proceed to state that, as respects the various encroachments, 1,510 acres 2 roods 32 poles were taken in before 1787. Since that date, and up to the year 1812, further encroachments to the extent of 573 acres 10.5 poles had been made, and again from 1812 to the present time 24 acres 2 roods 9.5 poles had been taken in. In consideration of the Crown never having reclaimed the old encroachments, the Commissioners recommended that all such lands "should be declared to be freehold of inheritance," provided no additional dwelling-houses were erected on them without the licence of the Crown. They advised that the next oldest encroachments "should be granted to their present possessors for three lives, not renewable except at the pleasure of the Crown, and paying rents varying from one s.h.i.+lling to two s.h.i.+llings per acre." As to the latest encroachments, they gave their opinion that "their possessors should have terms varying from fourteen to twenty-one years, paying rents varying from four to eight s.h.i.+llings per acre; the condition as to building dwelling-houses to apply to these cla.s.ses also." The following table, showing the acreage of the encroachments, cla.s.sed as stated above, with the number of houses situate in the six "Walks" of the Forest, serves to exhibit the localities of the population of the district for the last hundred years.

Name of Houses. Previous Between Since "Walk." to 1787. 1787 and 1812.

1812.

A. R. P. A. R. P. A. R. P.

Worcester 404 324 1 38 160 2 3 0 1 19 Park End 304 473 0 18 43 3 34 14 2 6 Blakeney 249 180 2 25 62 0 35.5 2 0 9.5 Little 196 174 1 6 104 0 33 4 3 26 Dean Speech 0 2 7 House Ruerdean 290 353 0 26 199 3 36 2 1 11 Hillier's 17 5 3 39 1 2 22 Lane Yorkley 2 1 0 0 0 1 18 Lane --- ----- ----- --- ---- ---- --- ---- ---- ---- 1462 1510 2 32 573 0 10.5 24 2 9.5

During the greater part of September this year the Dean Forest Commissioners were engaged either at Newnham, Westbury, or the Speech-house hearing evidence "as to forming the Forest into a Parish,"

and respecting "Rights of Common." With the design of eliciting the opinions of the neighbourhood on the first head, for civil purposes only, "a circular was drawn up on the subject of enclosing lands on the outward boundaries of the Forest, with a view of relieving the conterminous parishes from the support of the Forest poor." It was sent to the parishes bordering on the Forest, requesting the attendance of the clergymen, overseers, and landowners, for the purpose of discussing such a plan. This courteous invitation was responded to by the parish authorities of Westbury, Flaxley, Little Dean, Mitcheldean, Awre, Staunton, Ruerdean, the Lea hamlet, Bicknor, and St. Briavel's, the Rev.

H. Berkin attending on the part of the Forest clergy, when the scheme of the Commissioners was unanimously approved. By the evidence taken under the second head, it appears that the parishes or t.i.things of Westbury, Little Dean, Awre, Ruerdean, Bicknor, Lea hamlet, Breem, Clearwell, Newland, Lydney, St. Briavel's, Newnham, Woolaston, and Purton, claimed the right of Common of Pasture.

In the same month "the Free Miners of the Forest" presented to the Commissioners an able memorial of their rights, in reply to that preferred the year before by persons not free miners, but who were proprietors and occupiers of coal and iron mines in the Forest; its object being to prove that "foreigners possessing and working mines therein was in direct violation of the rights and privileges of the free miners, contrary to their customs and franchises, and are acts of injustice and usurpation." They affirmed that the present usage of foreigners possessing mines was not of long standing,--that it dated from the discontinuance of the Mine Law Court in 1777, by which all such intrusions were strictly checked and prevented; that this Court had been in full operation upwards of 500 years, as they verily believed, and so continued until the last 60 years, meeting periodically under the presidency of the Constable appointed by the King, and attended by his deputies and by the King's Gaveller; and that, if this Court were re-established, and their rights and privileges restored to them, there would be no difficulty in finding capital for the proper working of the mines. The memorial was signed by 1,036 persons, professedly free miners. But, as to this being the fact, a further memorial was presented to the Commissioners on the 23rd of December, urging "that no person should be considered a free miner whose birth from parents free miners cannot be proved, in addition to their having been born in the Forest, and worked in the mines a year and a day." According to such rule, the original number of 1,036 would be reduced to 798. On the 24th of December this year (1834) another memorial, coming from free miners in the occupation of stone-quarries within the Forest, was laid before the Commissioners, pleading in few words for similar rights and customs in respect of stone-quarries as were claimed in regard of mines. The names of thirteen quarrymen were attached thereto.

Upon the 9th and three following days of June in the ensuing year (1835) the Dean Forest Commissioners, at meetings held in London, received letters from the Bishop of the diocese, from the clergymen of the Forest, and of the Lea and Flaxley parishes, recommending the parochializing the Forest for ecclesiastical purposes, either by means of curates with small chapels, or by dividing the whole into a certain number of distinct districts severally provided with a church and an inc.u.mbent. The Commissioners reported unanimously in favour of making the Forest parochial; and for all spiritual purposes they recommended an a.s.signment of districts to each of the churches already built, as also the erection of a church and parsonage at Cinderford, with a stipend of 150 pounds annexed, to which amount the salaries of the three existing ministers should also be raised. They further recommended the enlargement of the Lydbrook school-room into a chapel, with 80 pounds stipend to the clergyman serving it; and they likewise advised forming Viney Hill, having a population of nearly 800, into a district, or annexing it to Blakeney, the church there, and minister's salary, being enlarged accordingly. They also suggested that the 150 persons residing on Pope's Hill should be united to Flaxley, with 20 pounds added to the clergyman's stipend; and that the Lea Bailey, with its 100 inhabitants, should be annexed in the same manner, and under the same conditions, to the Lea parish.

In the second place, as to the relief of the poor inhabitants of the Forest, the Commissioners were of opinion that it would be impossible to raise a fund for this purpose by means of rates on property, as so much was in the actual occupation of the Crown, or connected with mining, or the holders being too poor to bear the burthen. They advised, therefore, that about 1,600 acres of the Forest land should be enclosed and let out for the purpose of furnis.h.i.+ng such a provision, to be dispensed at the discretion of a Board composed of the constable of St. Briavel's Castle, the verderers, clergymen, and deputy-surveyor, and the magistrates acting for the Forest division, and six inhabitants as coadjutors. {122}

On the 25th of August the Dean Forest Commissioners presented their fourth and fifth Reports. In the former, which gives a minute summary of the rights and privileges claimed by the free miners (derived chiefly from the evidence taken in 1832), the origin of them is stated to be involved in obscurity, although no doubt iron was manufactured in the neighbourhood as early as the time of the Romans, and coal was obtained in the reign of Edward III. Probably before, and certainly soon after, the Norman Conquest, the soil was vested in the Crown, and all the rights of a royal forest were in force. The persons by whom the mines were then worked could not have been, in the first instance, free tenants of the Crown. It is more likely that they were in a state of servitude, and subject, in that character, to perform the labour required of them. The name of "Free Miners," by which they are and have been for centuries known, seems to refer to some right or privilege distinct from their original condition; and it does not appear unreasonable to suppose that certain persons at some distant period, either by having worked for a year and a day, or by reason of some now unknown circ.u.mstance connected with the origin of the privilege, were considered as emanc.i.p.ated, and thereupon became ent.i.tled or were allowed to work the mines upon their own adventure, concurrently with or subject to the right of the Crown to a certain portion of the product.

Noticing in succession many of the historical incidents attaching to the free miners of the Forest, the Report states that the franchise of the mine was unquestionably perpetuated by birth from a free father in the hundred of St. Briavel's, and afterwards working a year and a day in one of the mines and abiding within the hundred. Doubt is, however, thrown upon the necessity of birth from a free miner, the more so as the son of a foreigner could obtain his freedom after working out an apprentices.h.i.+p of seven years with a free miner; and it would be difficult, if not impossible, at the present time, to confine the t.i.tle to anything beyond birth and service, to which particular cla.s.s of individuals the Court of Mine Law confined all mining operations.

Entering in the next place into a consideration of the actual claims of the free miners, the Commissioners declare their opinion as to how their claims are to be settled, suggesting at once the question "whether they can be now maintained with advantage to the miners themselves, or to the community," connected as they are with a most defective system of working, productive of incessant disputes and expensive litigation, and occasioning constant disputes and never-ending jealousy; and they thus conclude--"Taking all the circ.u.mstances of the case into consideration, we are of opinion that the monopoly and customary workings are practically at an end, and that, if individual claims were bought up, the whole coal-field might then be let by the Crown as between landlord and tenant, defining the limits and regulating the working."