A brief history of Barnet and Oakley woods, Domesday to 1953
These mutually adjacent woods are associated with the ancient forest of Deerfoldwhich occupied that upland area circumscribed (clockwise) approximately by Wigmore, Upper Lye, Lingen, Pedwardine, Letton and Adforton. At the time of the Norman conquest this was a wild and uncultivated tract of land and noted for its hunting potential. Domesday1086 tells us that William fitzOsbern erected Wigmore castle “on the waste land which is called Merestun”, while on the “waste lands” of Lye “have grown up woods in which this Osbern [fitzRichard] hunts”. Letton and Pedwardine “were waste” and Lingen had “half a league of wood and three hedged enclosures for capturing roe” but was formerly also waste. The mentions of ‘waste manors’ and woods ‘having grown up’[1] implies an element of land abandonment perhaps associated with the rebellion of EdricSylvaticus who fiercely resisted the Norman take over of the Herefordshire/Shropshire border lands.
Survey of Roger Mortimers estates in 1325 at the time of the barons revolt against Edward II. Includes the passage “…there is in our demesne a certain wood called Derefold containing therein 200 acres of great trees from which pasture with common rights all year and underwood is valued at 6s 8d and pannage from said wood 5s”.TNA SC6/8/18.
Following the accession of Edward Mortimer to the throne as Edward IV in 1462, all his Marcher estates including the Honour of Wigmore became crown estate, including Deerfold forest, and Bringewood Chase.
By the Tudor period the boundaries of Deerfold forest had become defined,documentation implying the exclusion of Barnet Wood but including Oakley, although it is not clear whether the forest boundary was the present road between them or either of the wood banks parallel to the road, one within Barnet and one within Oakley. An inquiry of 1598 shows that Barnet Wood was managed in common exclusively by the burgesses of Wigmore village “Further, the bailiff burgesses are freeholders[2] of their demesne as in right of the corporation of and in one copy or vallett of wood called the Barnet by estimation 100 acres..”.
Oakley Wood, on the other hand, was part of Deerfold Forest and the inhabitants of the surrounding manors had common rights therein including the people of Wigmore.
“The Borough [of Wigmore]has common of pasture within Dervold & its members and every inhabitant has always had wood for their necessary fuel without fines out of the woods and forest of Dervold, Okeley, Woodwood and Knockle in this manner: windfall wood and other wood lying upon the ground and the crops of trees fallen by warrant called warrant trees. For Christmas every inhabitant has an old shell or bough containing two or three cartloads[3] and a block paying yearly to the keeper 6p and a hen for every team holder[4] and all others, 2d and a hen. For all other green wood which they shall chance to fell they will be fined (unless it be for axle wood taken of a sapling or bough meet for that purpose). They can have their hogs in the forest and its members for 2d a swine in time of pannage and a sow and boar for store, free. They say that they and all others of the Borough have always had timber out of Dervold and its members towards the repair of their houses and edifices (being presented ruinous) by the discretion of the steward there for the time being and by his warrant to the keeper to be delivered.” HARC LC5446
A survey of the “Forest of Dorvall” 1604gives the areas the woods within the forest “The deposition of Roger Wolfe being a perfect surveyor and measure of grounds who upon his oath says that the said forest contains at the rate of 16 ½ feet to the pole: 1696 acres.
Woodwood 132 acres, Ockeley 147 acres, Knuckle 100 acres, Pewen 20 acres members of the forest [total woodland 399 acres or 24% of the forest at this time]”.TNA E178/3874
During the Stuart period the crown was leasing parts of Deerfold to various entrepreneurs whose impact on the resources of the forest gave rise to a number of court cases against crown tenants. An inquiry of 1617 found that
“There was a kiln erected within the precincts of the forest almost years ago by me and my father in law Richard Jones for making earthen pots, cups and vessels. The works are maintained by wood not with straw and we have wood for performing the works in the forest. Since we erected the kiln me and my father in law for a certain time afterwards paid the defendant’s son Hugh Turner 16p for such woods which he said were to be his fee wood as served for the burning of every one kiln. After a while one Mr. Harley of Wigmore, to whom I and my father in law had bemoaned their hard bargain of paying 16d for the wood for each kiln, entreated Hugh Turner to reduce the same to 12d which he accordingly yielded unto. About 3 years ago I and my father in law dug at a place called Okeley within the precincts of the forest so much of the earth or soil there as made 4,000 bricks for Sir Thomas Cornewall knight which bricks were burned with roots and redd [sic] wood from the forest which wood he had from the Hugh Turner who affirmed that was his fee wood.”
Another witness told the same court that
“About a year ago going into the forest of Dervall I saw, in a place called Okeley being his majesty’s woods and a member of the forest of Dervall, one Roger Weale (being a wood cutter) at work in cutting of wood there to be made into cords for his majesty’s iron works[this is Bringewood Forge in Downton Gorge]. Much wood there was made up into cords which seemed much larger than they ought to be by the due and accustomed size of Dervall. When I asked Weale why he had so made them he confessed saying that it was not his fault for it was to the loss and hindrance of the workers thereof, but it was the pleasure of the defendant to allow thereof, whereupon Roger Weale took up a rod or stick and with it measured divers of the said cords in my view. Where the cords ought to have been 4 feet in height, 8 feet broad and 4 foot length of the cut wood or billet, the same cords were a full 5 feet high, in cord length[5] [sic] some 9 feet and some 9 and ½ feet and in length of the cut wood or billet 5 foot[6].”
By 1640 Deerfold Forest was in the leasehold of Earl of Lyndsey and crown was considering selling parts of the forest to be enclosed as private land. In 1663 Oakley (by that time reduced 74 acres) was part of the forest that was enclosed as private land although it remained as woodland.
The earliest known (so far) maps depicting Oakley and Barnet are the Ordnance Surveyors Drawings of 1814 and they show both as wooded, however the 1840 tithe survey has the southern part of Oakley “Wood and pasture” and some of the wooded parts as “common wood”.
The c1885 25 inch to the mile OS map showing both as broadleaved woodland.
The Forestry Commission acquired Oakley and the southern part of Barnet Wood sometime in the 1930’s although in 1953 the north western compartment of Oakley was still in private hands.The 1953 census of woods gives some detail of the nature of the stands at that time which although mostly plantation aged 21-30 years clear had a fair amount of broadleaved component from the original stands remaining.
See map sequences below:
Maps form the 1953 census of woods:
See table of the census results over:
Extract from the 1953 census of woods of HerefordshirestandID / acres / type / age / V/acre / sp1 / sp2 / Canopy % by species / Owner / Remarks
6NEFC5 / 13 / CHF / PY 1934 / 500 / EL / El 90; oak birch 10. / FC / The oak and birch in the low canopy. Also a low birch brush growth. Brashed, unthinned
6SE16 / 11 / BHF / 11-20 years / birch / oak / birch 60; oak 40; +ash; / Mr Edwards / No systematic management but it appears that this is an attempt to convert Oak/Hazelcoppice into high forest. Birch is not regen and has been left after recent cutting. Area of coppice not cut on western edge where there is also about 0.7ac braken.
6SEFC59 / 6 / MHF / 21-30 years / 1200 / EL / oak / EL 75; oak 15; birch 10. / FC / Badly requires thinning/cleaning. The oak mainly of coppice origin on an exposed face, poor height growth of EL. Larch canker.
6SEFC60 / 4 / CHF / 21-30 years / 2000 / DF / DF 100; oak birch. / FC / The occasional oak and birch scattered sparely throughout.
6SEFC61 / 13 / MHF / 21-30 years / 1100 / EL / oak / EL 80; oak 20; birch. / FC / The oak mainly of coppice origin. Has recently been thinned but the thinning should have been heavier.
6SEFC62 / 8 / MHF / 21-30 years / 700 / EL / EL 60; oak 25; birch 15. / FC / Has recently been thinned/cleaned removing mainly poor Larch stems and heavy coppice growth. The oak of coppice origin. On an exposed face. Includes a patch of pure hardwood mainly birch in the NW corner.
6SEFC63 / 5 / CHF / 21-30 years / 2000 / DF / DF 100; oak birch. / FC / The occasional hardwood scattered evenly throughout
6SEFC64 / 32 / CHF / 11-20 years / 500 / EL / El 90; oak birch 10. / FC / Brashed, unthinned. The oak and birch in the low canopy also a low birch brush growth.
6SEFC65 / 12 / CHF / 21-30 years / 1100 / EL / oak / EL 85; oak 15; birch / FC / The oak mainly of coppice origin.
6SEFC68 / 6 / MHF / 21-30 years / 1100 / EL / oak / EL 80; oak 15; birch. / FC / The oak mainly of coppice origin. Partly exposed, some butt curvature. Requires a thinning/cleaning.
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[1]Domesday text: “In his wastisterrisexcreveruntsilve…”
[2] Original: ‘seized of, as of fee’.
[3] ‘carre loads’
[4] I think this means that each plough team pays 6d , a ‘block’ being wood for the yoke, usually birch wood. The same rules and terms are found in documents about the Forest of Hay (south of Hereford) at this time.
[5] Presumably a scribal error for ‘breadth’
[6] These oversize cords occupy 231 cubic feet compared to 128 of the standard 4x4x8 foot cord, an 80% volume increase.