Past Talks
Wychwood Forest & Cornbury Park from the Middle Ages
Date: 19th July 2021
Speaker: Dr Simon Townley
Introduction
Wychwood Forest is a relatively small area of woodland adjoining Cornbury Park, close to Charlbury. Up until the 1850s, it was substantially larger, being an area of woodland, coppice and wood-pasture stretching from Cornbury Park almost as far as Burford. Even in its reduced state, it is the largest area of broadleaf woodland surviving in the county.
A forest is defined as an area subject to forest law. This law came into being shortly after the Norman conquest, initially to protect the Crown’s hunting grounds.
Physical Development
The changing extent of the forest is shown on this map. Around 1219, following pressure from powerful barons to free their land from the restrictions of forest law, the forest was reduced to the pale pink area shown. Further reductions took place in 1298/1300, which resulted in the three dark pink blocks shown. The most southerly block is the private woodland, north of Witney, owned by the Bishop of Winchester. To the east is the royal estate of Woodstock Park (now Blenheim Park) and to the west is the core of the forest, being Crown property up to the 1850s clearances and beyond. This last area is the focus of Simon’s talk.
This area would have been an open landscape in the Iron Age and Roman periods, with forest regeneration in the early- to mid-Anglo Saxon era.
Meaning
The name of Wychwood was first recorded in c.840-2 as ‘the place which the country dwellers call Huiccewudu’ = wood of the Huicce (a dominate tribal group based in east Gloucestershire).
Use and Exploitation by the Crown
Since it was Crown property, the forest is well-mapped, particularly from the 18th century and this colour-coded map from 1813, held in the Bodleian Library, shows us how the forest worked. The pink area named Blandford Park is Cornbury Park. The green/yellow areas were counted as part of the forest, but had, in fact, been granted away by the Crown by the 13th century. The Crown retained limited rights, such as livestock grazing, and these areas were known as forest purlieus. When a stone wall was built around the forest in the 1630s, it encompassed these privately-owned areas. The blue areas are fenced coppice-wood and the remainder (brown) is open stands of trees for timber and areas for grazing.
There was a large number of trackways and roads going through the forest, either making internal links or as part of longer routes.
A number of hermitages and chapels existed within the forest in the mediaeval period. Also, forest lodges which were associated with the administration of the forest by the Crown. There were four or five in existence at any one time by the 16th century. Several survived as farmhouses for the new farms created after the clearances of the 1850s.
Large numbers of deer were kept in the forest from the 13th century, although there is no clear evidence of royal hunting until the end of the mediaeval period when King Henry VII developed a hunting lodge and deer park at Great Langley on the edge of the forest.
The forest was managed for timber and coppice-wood, but was never exploited to its full economic potential, particularly in the latAges. Athat many coppices had not been properly fenced and, consequently, there was much damage to the trees by grazing animals with loss of income as a result. Although improvements were made, another period of neglect was highlighted in a Parliamentary Report of 1792.
King Henry I’s presence at Cornbury Park in c.1100 is evidenced by the large number of charters issued from there at that time, when mixing business and hunting was commonplace. Nothing is known of the building at that date.
Cornbury Park was an integral part of the forest from the beginning, but it was imparked in 1244, separated from the rest of the forest with a park pale, ditch and hedge, and walled by the 1330s. It was managed by Crown agents for deer and timber and coppice-wood, and had a horse stud, fishponds and a cornmill. It became privately owned in the 1660s.
Importance to Surrounding Villages
By the 17th/18th centuries there were sixteen surrounding settlements, all of which had woods or heaths in the forest purlieus and, as a result, had grazing rights in the forest. However, grazing was not well-regulated. The implications of this, in addition to tree damage, were overgrazing and mounting livestock disease.
Whilst local villagers had traditional customary rights to gather deadwood and snapwood, complaints persisted from the 13th century to the 19th century of abuse of rights to firewood and wood for fencing, wattling and repairs. Poaching was a long-standing problem.
The forest was seen by locals as a ‘commoner environment’ and this manifest itself in activities such as traditional hunts like those at Burford and Witney, and the Wychwood Forest Fair (1796). Morris dancing was also popular.
Legitimate woodland employment included charcoal burning and pottery making.
Disafforestation & Enclosure
Attempts to improve the administration of the woodland met with limited success. Changes in agrarian priorities, that is, a switch to intensive arable farming, meant that ancient forests were seen as a waste of resources. Prejudice against forest communities, who were perceived to be perpetrators of innumerable crimes within the forest, was building in the 1850s. Under an Act of Parliament, the forest was enclosed and cleared between 1856 & 1858.
The situation after the forest clearance is pictured around Leafield and includes, to the north, the vast rectilinear fields created for the new farms.
Whilst the clearance meant the loss of commons and woodland employment, more regular work was available on the new farms. However, the clearance remained a contentious issue. The residual of the forest remained in Crown ownership and was, subsequently, transferred to the owners of Cornbury Park who manage it commercially, resulting in limited access.
Sally James