“Bestwood Park - A Thousand Years of History”

Researched and Written
by
Richard Rutherford-Moore
 

Maps by the Author

Original artwork and ‘characterisations’ by Ian Storer

Richard Rutherford-Moore ©  2001

Richard Rutherford-Moore has had a strong affection for history since boyhood. His skill in handling and shooting antique weapons and a great interest in the military, social and economic aspects of the 18^th and 19^th Centuries led to him serving on- and off-screen as the Military & Technical Adviser / Armourer on the successful television dramas Sharpe and Hornblower. He regularly guides parties on historic battlefield tours to Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium and the Crimea. Following an association in 1995 with the Notts Tourist Unit at Rufford Abbey, the first of his popular guided tours into ‘Robin Hood’s Country’ for visitors and outlaw-fans took place in 1997 with his first guided ‘historic walk’ in Bestwood Park taking place in April 1998. Authentically dressed as a medieval forester on these trips, Richard also guides visitor and school parties into “Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest” based from The Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre. The author also conducted the highly-successful historical presentations of “Robin Hood’s Nottingham Castle” and has featured in many television programmes about Robin Hood. Several of his popular articles about ‘Robin Hood’ can be seen on the BBC Nottingham website.
 

Books in print by the author are :

 The Legend of Robin Hood 

On The Robin Hood Trail in Nottingham and Sherwood Forest

On the Robin Hood Trail Again in North Notts, Derbyshire and Yorkshire

(Published by Capall Bann Publishing UK)

The World of William Spry, Esquire ; An 18^th Century Man

The Pirate Round

(Published by Heritage Books USA)

START OF ABBREVIATED  VERSION
 

The Norman Conquest

King William I coming north in 1068 after his coronation saw the importance as the Romans did of both the heights at Nottingham and Lincoln for building future strongholds. England’s woodlands still covered around a quarter of the realm in the year 1000, and belonged to the ruling monarch as laid down rather lethargically under late Anglo-Saxon kings as asserted but not very firmly enforced either by the Danish kings of England - notably Cnut, the founder of the first ‘royal forest law’ - or by Edward the Confessor, who owned lands in Sherwood Forest but never came here. The poor soil under Sherwood Forest was not suitable for agriculture, but created large areas of moorland, open heath, dense woodland and ‘waste’ hence an ideal spot for the new Norman conqueror to re-affirm the monarch’s sole ownership and declare the area ‘aforested’ as a Royal Forest for chasing or shooting deer, hunting birds with hawks or hares with hounds, with winter-time hunts chasing wild boar and any predatory wolves. The word ‘forest’ comes from the Norman-French word forêt denoting an area defined for all forms of the chase and hunting, not only woodlands ; and it became the descriptive and legal term for administrative purposes to denote areas retained for royal hunting. The great Forest of Sherwood north of Nottingham, ten to twelve miles wide by about twenty-five deep, initially forming an administrative area known as ‘Yon Side Trent’ but was later split into three smaller and more manageable districts named ‘Keepings’ with smaller sections within them permitting more detailed control and administration. The area of Bestwood was referred to as ‘Bescwode Hay’ between the years 1068 and 1080 but was probably known as such well before those dates. A hay or hagh comes from the old English word haugh, said to mean an ‘enclosed’ area - fenced, hedged, ditched or perhaps simply patrolled - becoming known through the Norman interpretation as a ‘Park’ after circa 1130. ‘Bescwode Hay’ as a settlement is not shown in the Domesday Book of 1086 - ‘Bestwood’ is linked with nearby Arnold in terms of an area of woodland adjacent to it - and nearby ‘Lindeby-hay’ (Linby) and ‘Welley-hay’ (Bulwell) are both listed. By that date, Bestwood Park was also the largest and deepest area of woodland you’d encounter when riding north along the main road following the course of the river Leen. The two villages of Linby and Papplewick were both already before 1154 encompassed in the southern ‘Keeping’ or Division of Sherwood Forest, lying above Hucknall and the River Leen valley in the west, the Depe Brook (modern Day Brook) and Brinsdale in the south * and the village of Oxton and the Dover Beck rivulet in the east.  Two other ancient ‘bailiwicks’ of Sherwood Forest were ‘Rumwood’, extending north of Bestwood to Blidworth ; and the ‘High Forest’ extending north from Blidworth past Edwinstowe up to and along the banks of the River Meden.

* Named  also as ‘Bryunsdale’ or ‘Bruinsdale’ - present-day Valley Road and Basford districts - but could it also have been ‘Barnsdale’, one of the main haunts and possible locations for the camp of Robin Hood as proposed by a Nottingham ‘Robin Hood’ historian, Jim Lees ? Robberies by outlaws perpetrated on The Kings Great Way (the medieval main road passing to the west of Bestwood Park) in the late 12^th and early 13^th Century saw forces of the High Sheriff using Bestwood as a base for operations on both sides of the Leen Valley. The present-day ‘Robin Hood’s Cave’ near Papplewick was just outside the northern boundary of Bestwood Park ; remains of The Kings’ Great Way and St James Church there are traditionally held to be the setting for the ballad “Robin Hood and Allen a’ Dale”. Two more landmarks in the area share the name ‘Robin Hood’.

Bestwood Park would have made an ideal spot for highway robbery and outlawry on a permanent basis, but no recorded firm evidence exists to support a hypothesis. One of the carved plaques by Thomas Earp, a famous London sculptor, placed on the outside doorway of the new Bestwood Lodge in 1863 depict ‘Robin Hood, Maid Marian and The Merry Men’. A large stone in the grounds of the Lodge has lines from an old poem on a theme of Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood carved upon it ‘Here shall you see no enemy but Winter and Rough Weather’. Interestingly, Lenton Priory is linked with the Bishop of Hereford who in an old ballad was ‘entertained’ by Robin Hood and Friar Tuck and relieved of his purse whilst somewhat over-confidently passing through Sherwood Forest. One of the Saxon nobles who opposed William I - and was subsequently executed for rebellion - was Waltheof, having the title of ‘Earl of Huntingdon’. Did he leave a son to carry on where he left off and by his efforts found the traditional Robin Hood legend? The ‘Robin Hood’ look-alike spotted in Bestwood Park at The Earth Lodge on the night of the last full moon of the preceding Millenium will appear in the day-time giving tours of the area based on this publication for entertainment and fund-raising purposes.

The northern boundary of Bestwood itself was defined by a rough forest track running along a dale between two areas of rising ground (south of the course of the present-day road from Hucknall through Papplewick towards Ravenshead, now a public footpath), before turning south towards modern Redhill upon meeting the course of a packhorse track used by both drovers herding beasts to market, and mules carrying trade goods and taking raw fleeces from sheep-shearing east and south to the spinners and cloth weavers in Nottingham, Lincoln and Stamford (roughly the course of the present-day A60 Mansfield Road). The southern boundary of Bestwood Park roughly ran through the dale south of Sunrise Hill and Glade Hill (along the course of present-day Oxclose Lane) paralleling the course of the old Depe Brook (The Day Brook) a quarter mile further south flowing roughly west towards it’s junction with the River Leen, but the boundary of the Park turned north again before reaching Bulwell *, possibly encompassing in the early days a wood and heath on the west bank of the River Leen (Bulwell Forest, then lying roughly west, north and south of the site of the public golf course on Hucknall Road). It is through these established paths and river and stream courses that possibly gave the hint to Bestwood beginning to be referred to as a ‘haugh’ - an identifiable area with a known and affirmed boundary even before being fenced or hedged.

* It was not unknown for whole villages to be uprooted and moved by the Normans in the creation of either a hunting preserve or where founding a castle, monastery or abbey (the creation of the New Forest saw whole villages uprooted and moved and several hundred houses were pulled down to permit the building of two castles in Newark and Lincoln). There appears never to have been any settlements within the ‘natural boundaries’ of Bestwood Park. No settlements are indicated in the Domesday Book as Bestwood is listed only as ‘3711 acres, 3 roods and 2 perches’ of mixed woodland, with peripheral settlements of Arnold, Linby, Hucknall, Bulwell and Papplewick. The oldest map showing Bestwood is probably the one dated from the 14^th Century map now in Belvoir Castle. This map by our modern standards is obviously quite poor with many of the names on it now forgotten or untraceable and the names Hucknall, Papplewick, Newstead Priory and others are oddly omitted from it. The large-scale map derived from the Sherwood Forest survey of 1609 shows the site of the Lodge and the Bestwood Park boundary quite well in relation to Hucknall, Bulwell and Arnold, then still small villages - the boundary shown on this map is the one probably palisaded and ditched by Henry II and re-confirmed by the order of Edward III in 1352. Other maps show the Park in 1576, 1610, 1650 and 1775 ; maps of 1830 - 1860 show the estate farms, with a slightly later map after 1875 showing the extent and layout of new railways. There’s a wide choice of maps to suit historical research.

The Monarch owned the 100,000 acres of forest covering most of the centre of Nottinghamshire, known from before 1150 as ‘The Royal Forest of Sherwood’. Bestwood in 1100 covered about three thousand six hundred acres of pasture, meadow, open heath, moor and marsh (the latter three sometimes referred to as waste) and of course oak and birch woodland, with a further three hundred and fifty acres of heath and woodland readily available in the forest Keeping across the River Leen in Bulwell Forest. Bestwood was possibly chosen and created initially within a natural boundary of a separate hill and its dales, with the River Leen to the west and running water in two smaller streams on the east and south sides, circled by established roads and tracks encompassing many different environments and habitats encouraging the keeping and breeding of deer, boar, hares, coneys (rabbits) and gamebirds such as pigeon, pheasant, grouse, duck and geese within a specified area. Fallow deer - a great favourite of William I - were brought from Normandy to stock or augment the existing game in the woodland preserves of the royal forests. It was also isolated enough from easy access and trespass from any major town, and defined by two existing ‘roads’ running north and south to both west and east.

Access to Bestwood Park by a royal hunting party coming from the administrative and political centre at Nottingham Castle would be relatively easy ; as we’ve already seen, an extremely convenient large and extensive area of woodland first encountered by going just over four miles north up the main road, following the main road along the course of the River Leen - an easy journey on horseback, but in an age without any form of public transport or good road surfaces taking on foot a seasonal and physical average of two to three hours to reach from Nottingham. Nottingham Park - adjacent to the Castle - was too small and too close to the town to give good hunting, although it was used for such for many years - and a visit on horse-back to the future Lodge at Clipstone Park required almost a full days’ journey north of the town.

A message would precede any royal hunting party to enable foresters and wardens to ready labour, animals and personnel and confirm where the game was at the time. Sometimes a herd of deer would be driven past the huntsmen, dismounted and waiting in a simple raised earth ‘stand’ to shoot at with their bows or crossbows (there is some evidence to suggest at least one ‘hunting stand’ existed in Bestwood Park, and arrows from bows and bolts from crossbows could also be shot at moving targets from horseback as demonstrated today by exponents of experimental archaeology). Boar hunts - although the evidence is that poor beast had been hunted down almost to extinction in Sherwood Forest by the year 1100 - took place in wintertime on foot ; an eight-foot long spear fitted with a cross-piece and a razor-sharp steel blade was used, the hunters following hounds such as lymers, brachets and alaunts drawing the thickest coverts of the wood to ‘rouse’ and then hold the enraged boar until huntsmen could reach it. Huntsmen were often dispersed, fell behind or got lost in a spirited boar-chase ; ‘hunting-music’ from horns blown by the foresters communicated over a wide area the whereabouts of both the hunted and the hunters. A successful hunt of satisfaction to the visitors at all times was of prime importance to the permanent staff as their jobs depended on it. A successful hunt would also see a financial reward going to the foresters from the huntsmen – a purse of money, or possibly in kind ; after the beasts were flayed and quartered, the innards of some beasts of the chase (hearts, liver, kidneys and intestines, then known as ‘numbles’) went to the foresters, who used them as pie-fillings, giving us the term ‘to eat humble pie’. They later became the reward for foxhounds after the kill). The meat from the hunt could grace the royal table at the hunting feast, but was sometimes used as a royal gift to reward a favourite nobleman or seek favour with a powerful Bishop.

Thus the location of ‘Bestwood Hay’ in the southern keeping of Sherwood Forest laid the foundation for English monarchs from 1066 through to 1685 staying at the important Midlands powerbase of Nottingham Castle to find a little peace and recreation amidst their always demanding and often quite turbulent reigns  by hunting and residing there away from the demands and responsibilities of Court.

‘Forest Law’ and the Creation of Bestwood Park

Henry I (1100-1135) may have been the first monarch to build a substantial hunting lodge in Bestwood Park - reputedly built to house one of his many ‘mistresses’ - and order the first pale or ‘pele’ (a wooden fence) to wholly enclose the entire boundary of the designated area and give it ‘Park-status’ proper, although this may never have been fully completed (see later). Henry I may also have given orders at the same time for another hunting lodge to be built at Clipstone, on or near the site of an existing chapel there, the work on the building there being completed around 1138, after the death of Henry I. Craftsmen and labourers seem to have been ordered by the King through the local landlords, wardens or Agisters to do the work (as ‘boon work’ , on penalty of imprisonment or a fine for refusal) with materials for the work found locally. Subsequent repairs to hunting lodges at Bestwood Park seems to have been conducted in the same fashion, through the Agister.

After the death of Henry I, the confusion during Stephen and Matida’s ‘civil war’ over who should finally succeed him gave individual barons the chance to create their own powerful strongholds by building illegal castles and raising private armies, and they greedily encroached severely on any weaker neighbours and lands in royal forests throughout the conflict in a series of major battles and small skirmishes between the two rival factions. Henry II upon his accession to the throne in 1155 had to deal quite firmly with some of his barons in order to re-establish both ‘common and forest law’ and ordering the demolition of any castle built by any baron without ‘royal’ permission.

A centre for Sherwood Forest administration was situated at Papplewick, just over a mile north of Bestwood Park. St James’ Church, when partly rebuilt in the 18^th Century, incorporated from the older 11^th Century church four graveslabs carved with bows, arrows, hunting horns and other tools used by Royal Foresters. The main road coming north from Nottingham passed close by Papplewick, making it an ideal base and a centre for communications. Another forest administrative centre was based at Laxton, in the north of the forest. The borders of all areas were regularly re-established by appointed knights named ‘Regulators’ who reported to the Chief Agister. Both the Forest Court - appointed officials of the Justice of the Forest named ‘verderers’ riding a fixed circuit of forest villages, held every forty-two days for minor offences - and the more important General or Assize of Eyre Court, initially held three times per year then once every three years by more senior Judges and sometimes the High Sheriff to hear cases concerning more serious offences, were held in forest villages such as Papplewick, and also in nearby Linby, Hucknall and Calverton but could also be called to Nottingham. The ‘Consistory Courts’ held by senior ecclesiastics to hear any case involving churchmen or concerning morality or anyone who could read or write hence claiming ‘benefit of clergy’.  Although the High Sheriff of Nottingham as the Kings’ personal representative had overall jurisdiction in the pursuit and punishment of felons, collection of or pursuing non-payment of taxes, the manor courts, forest courts, Consistory ecclesiastical courts, local secular courts in addition to the General Eyre could and did levy penalties. Jurisdiction in any case could and probably did overlap with other courts, being privately settled. Serious offences concerning persons who held property would be invariably tried by a more senior court - both consistory or secular - as if they were found guilty they could receive a heavy fine or perhaps see their possessions and lands forfeited to the Crown. It was the overall duty of the High Sheriff in each county or shire to ensure any confiscation of property was properly recorded and any revenue as a result went into the Crown Treasury *

* Control depended on two things - Land and Loyalty - and tenants to the owner of land starting with the King in a social system in an era where everyone knew his place in it. The ‘feudal’ system, the Forest Law and legal systems of the early to middle Medieval England is a complicated study, as it changed through different interpretations of it by succeeding monarchs and their establishments. Difficulties ensue in language, where few outside the clergy could read and write ; peasants spoke Middle English, nobles spoke Norman French, and the church in the early days often spoke and always committed everything to paper in Latin, but few records were kept. The first traits of a ‘common law’ to cover the minor courts’ widespread interpretations were established by Henry 1, but it was still being re-interpreted two hundred years later even after ‘forest law’ was included as ‘Minor Carta’ or The Charter of the Forests as part of ‘Magna Carta’. Major courts such as the Eyre with the High Sheriff in attendance would deal with more serious crimes or in any connection to nobility. Both racist, superstitious and religious beliefs still held sway in all courts  up to 1250 ; for example in the terms ‘Presentment of Englishry’, ‘Abjuration’, ‘Sanctuary’ and trials being settled by personal ‘ordeal’ of an individual or by ‘combat’ (the accuser and defendant or their armed champions fighting sometimes to the death ‘before God’ in order to prove guilt or innocence). Even the use of torture to extract confessions was legal, and whole villages could be fined for a single offence by an individual in their vicinity through a ‘murdrum fine’ or ‘amercement’ if the actual culprit couldn’t be found or named.  See ‘On the Outlaw Trail’ in Nottingham and Sherwood Forest’ by the author for a more detailed explanation.

In March 1194, following the return of King Richard I to England and the failure of Prince John’s Rebellion, the High Sheriff of Nottingham was suspended along with Sheriffs of other counties’ during a major investigation into corruption and embezzlement by senior administrative officials. One result in late 1194 was the re-introduction of the Saxon office of ‘Coroner’ to investigate felonies or murders, hold inquests, levy and record fines - and ensure any revenue from them actually went to the Crown rather than into a private pocket. Any man summoned but failing to appear at a forest-court to hear a case against him would eventually be ‘outlawed’. There are cases of men absent at a trial being ‘placed outside the protection of law’ who were not even aware of pleas or accusations against them being made ; in one case the accused wasn’t even in the country at the time, being absent abroad serving on Holy Crusade. ‘Outlaws’ were not necessarily bad or evil men, or someone who had actually been convicted of committing a crime. These men could see their property confiscated by the Sheriff and taken over by the Crown and perhaps then granted to someone else. They were - unknowingly in some instances as seen - in the dangerous situation of being able to be taken ‘dead or alive’ by anyone for a reward of five shillings, the same reward as fixed for a person bringing a predatory wolf’s head to a forest court *

* The last predatory wolf in England was hunted down and slain about 45 miles north of Bestwood Park around the year 1400, although they were still known in Scotland and Wales in the 16^th century. Wolfshead - the Saxon nickname for an outlaw - was still in use for the two hundred years following the Norman Conquest, reflecting that it was always a hazardous task to hunt down and take these natural predators in the same way as their human counterparts, often armed and desperate men living rough in good cover. The dark and extensive forests of the time were  a natural shelter for any person on the run ; main ‘roads’ as such were cleared of any cover on both sides for a distance known as a ‘bow-shot’ (somewhere between fifty and seventy-five metres, though there is no record this was done in royal Sherwood) to prevent any predatory robbers sneaking up unseen on travellers and no buildings of any size were permitted within this area. Henry II offered a ten-penny reward for outlaws when brought to justice - King John after 1205 was offering a far larger reward of five shillings, but despite this substantial sum raids by outlaws on villages and property were still occurring in Sherwood Forest in the mid-14^th Century. Wild boar numbers through hunting shrank steadily in numbers from the year 800 onwards even in controlled royal forests and the wilder areas of the British Isles and became quite rare after 1150, the last survivors finally succumbing around 1200. 

For more detail on the duties and responsibilities of agisters, verderers and foresters, see On the Outlaw Trail in Nottingham and Sherwood Forest by the author.

Most ‘nobles and gentlemen’ who fell by accident or design into this category were, however, probably well able to take care of themselves from any opportunist bounty-hunter. Like other forests all over England, Sherwood contained and sheltered a degree of ‘outlaws’, rebels, thieves and runaways. To escape from servitude, a man could run from the manor in which he was held and if after one year and a day in any borough could then pronounce himself a ‘free’ man. However, he would have to support himself during that period which was difficult if not a craftsman of some kind in an overall social structure which did not readily accept ‘outsiders’ or strangers in it and suspiciously questioned every traveller and vagrant as they could be held jointly responsible by the local authorities for any misdemeanours or crimes a vagrant committed whilst on their ‘patch’. If caught, a runaway would be forcibly dragged back to the manor from whence he ran - a reward was often paid for his return – to suffer corporal punishment or be fined by the Manor court.

Sherwood Forest was known as Scyriwude (the ‘Shire Wood’) in Anglo-Saxon times but the first ‘documentary’ mentions of Sherwood Forest are in 1130 and 1154, from a Consistory Court case presided over by the Bishop of Durham of ‘forest trespass’, where William Peverel is named as Chief Agister. In 1178, a forest court sat to hear an accusation and pass sentence on another man ‘for trespass in Bestwood Park’ (for possibly carrying arms, perhaps under suspicion of actually poaching or handling stolen game) ; local foresters would keep a close watch on the villagers of Bulwell, Linby and Hucknall in this respect. Offences in the enclosed royal parks of Sherwood such as Bestwood would come under ‘common law’ rather than the forest law ; but law here seems to over-lap in some cases, as Bestwood Park was situated within the larger area of Sherwood Forest. Stewards, Keepers or Wardens of the Park appointed by the King could and did appoint deputies to actually undertake their duties and any legal business – these in turn would engage, supervise and maintain the workforce carrying out the daily workload of the Park through a bailiff and their Reeves (overseers or foremen). Policing duties were carried out on an everyday basis, during work or on patrols, and no doubt making good use through favours or bribes of any local intelligence. Foresters are mentioned enigmatically in connection with Sherwood Forest and Bestwood Park administration - trials for forest law offences in Bestwood from the 12^th and 13^th Century seem to have taken place both in the forest courts and in the larger and senior Courts, possibly depending on who it was that brought the charge against the alleged perpetrator in the first place, and the degree of importance of their status in society.

12^th Century local Industry, Crafts and Religion

Ponds formed by small natural springs (some possibly lined or puddled with clay) may have been used by foresters in Bestwood Park for the tanning of skins from boar and deer and the hides from oxen and cattle in order to gain raw material for making shoes, boots, belts and other gear used in their work. Quantities of acorns, oak bark or galls would be thrown in to the water along with the weighted skins and left for a long period of time for the ‘green’ hides to soak up the tannic acid in the water before being taken out for finishing ; some evidence suggests that the sites of two of these ponds may still exist in the Park today. Despite a taint of the toxin from many years of dead leaves and fallen branches, you do see some frog, toad and newt spawn in these ponds in early Spring. The soft water of the River Leen and local springs here were also said to aid the tanning process, and produce leather of a fine quality ; the later Guild of Tanners and Leatherworkers in Nottingham made very good use of this but on a much larger scale.

There were also larger spring-fed ponds in the Park to serve the Lodge, stocked with freshwater fish such as carp and pike carried over from the River Trent in water-barrels fitted to carts. The nearby River Leen could supply fresh trout and crayfish. A spring-fed fishpond in Goosedale was augmented and enlarged in the 16^th Century by damming a stream rising in Redhill and flowing in a long curve north-westwards towards the River Leen ; originally - but smaller in size – the spot where the present-day fishing lakes are today, seen on older Ordnance Survey maps as ‘The Duck Ponds’, now owned and maintained by the Nottingham Anglers Association. Another pond lay in ‘Wet Syck’, formed by a small stream running down the dale just south of the Lodge ; in a later period a pond higher up the hill formed by the same stream was popular for ice-skating when frozen in winter. A pond formed by a natural spring lay just within the boundary of the Park to the west ; ancient legend has it that it was originally created by a wild ox that angrily charged a man in the forest one day - the man leapt aside just in time and the ox’s horns struck a large rock, from where water then miraculously spouted - the spot was thereafter known as “The Bull’s Well”, giving the name to the nearby settlement of Bulwell. A church and its ancient cemetery is thought to have existed in Bulwell around the year 800, rebuilt using a fresh endowment in 1134, extended in 1850. This church today has a fine tower, well-known for the eight famous bells it contains. The nearby primary school has a carved plaque marking the legend of Bulwell spring above its front door. At the turn of the 19^th Century the spring and pond was still a popular bathing area and picnic spot, but the spring was ‘capped’ in the 1930’s and the water piped to a nearby dyeing works before going back into the streambed to flow back into the River Leen. The waters of the Leen also powered flour mills ; in the 19^th Century the power was developed to drive cotton mills. Bleaching and dyeing was a local feature here for a long time ; King John gave special protection to Nottingham dyers in 1199, as the waters of the Leen were said to be so pure as to suit the industry, and should be preserved from any pollution. A brave attempt at creating the Moorbridge Conservation Area marks the actual site of this spring, but the area was restricted in access recently due to illegal fly-tipping and vandalism. Access was controlled for preservation reasons, and the explanatory signboard behind the railings at the nearby road junction shows a telephone number to call if seeking permission to explore the spot.

The pure, clear waters of the Leen and the surrounding springs also gave rise – as everywhere else in the country at the time - to a prodigious amount of brewing. Ale made from local barley (the old Anglo-Saxon bere-legh) was prodigously consumed in oceanic quantities at any opportunity as the finished brew didn’t keep for long when ready to drink until the introduction of preservative hop plants much later in the 15^th Century. Religious houses, and each and every settlement brewed their own ale, in which there was much local rivalry as to whose was the best brew. Charcoal burning is also recorded as being carried out in the vicinity of the Park. This sort of semi-nomadic work leaves little evidence where this work was carried out ; although the woodpiles and fires required tending on a twenty-four hour basis, the charcoal burners themselves would erect only temporary shelters whilst in occupation. Ferny Hole, an old name for a small dale in the Park - is said to have been named for charcoal burners’ going there regularly to cut bracken for both their bedding and to cover the stacks of smouldering wood. The work of charcoal burning itself would very likely have taken place outside the boundary of the Park, and no doubt this hot and dusty work saw the ‘coalies’ indulging in a welcome daily quart or two of any available ale.

Any clay deposits in the area would have been worked to supply the raw material to journeyman or itinerant potters. Evidence exists for clay deposits in the Park supplying potters and tilers working in Bulwell and Nottingham. A modern large-scale manufactory of ceramics once carried on the tradition in nearby Bulwell. Bulwell, in addition to Mansfield further north, also produced a fine quality building stone (used in building The Houses of Parliament), and quarrying for it took place both in Mansfield and any outcrop further south. The building of Rufford Abbey by Cistercian monks in 1148 and Newstead Priory by Augustinian monks from 1170 - just beyond the northern boundary of the Park - saw an upsurge in local prosperity. Over a thousand masons and their labourers, carpenters, tilers and thatchers worked on the building of Newark Castle from 1123 until 1133, and were required to build religious houses too - the monks and lay-brothers supplied most of the hard labour but the services of specialists could not be dispensed with. The initial prosperity spread slowly outwards from both sites ; labour and foodstuffs were brought from a wide area, with building materials like stone coming in from the north and west, mainly from Mansfield and Nottingham. Timber could be felled and trimmed on-site, with Crown permission.

At this time, England’s prosperity was founded on the production and export of wool ; sheep and the production of high-grade wool fleeces by religious houses saw growing prosperity in Sherwood Forest. Both Newstead Priory and Rufford Abbey later tried to profit from it, raising large flocks of sheep and sending their wool collected from the outlying ‘granges’ (twenty or so small farms dotted around the estate, many at some distance from the monastery itself) from June through to August south to Nottingham and after around 1148 east to Lincoln via Newark by the robust stone bridge built over the River Trent at Newark as part of the castle built there by Alexander, a powerful Bishop of Lincoln.

Sherwood Forest’s woodlands were steadily reducing in area from the year 1100 by the granting for agricultural purposes parcels of land which were cleared into assarts for ploughing or more often pasture as grazing for sheep. In this instance, the forest rendered a short-term revenue to the Agisters through licences for new pasture, arable land and the sale of the cleared timber, and a long-term revenue through an increased rent paid to the Verderers for the use of this land. Any encroachment into woodland, heath or moor in Sherwood Forest through these assarts were carefully watched and reported by patrolling Foresters or Rangers for over four hundred years.

Henry I in 1105 first granted the monks from Lenton Priory to take free of charge ‘two carts of (fire) wood and heath (heather or bracken) per day, as much as they should need’ from Bestwood Park, and this grant was renewed by Henry II in 1160. King John in 1199 upon his accession to the throne re-affirmed the privilege and permitted them to take an increase of three cartloads of wood per day ‘with free entry and without hindrance from the foresters’ ; John had earlier granted Lenton Priory free use of the heathland surrounding the park woodlands, from which the monks gathered bracken and heather for bedding and firewood. King John’s statement gives us an indication that Bestwood Park was not just wholly enclosed by 1199, but any entry at the gates was firmly controlled and the Park regularly patrolled by foresters. A ‘warming-room’ with an open fire kept burning in it was a regular facility at religious houses, for scriptorium monks busy with manuscripts at their desks in unheated rooms or any choir monks undertaking outdoor tasks to visit in order to thaw out ; the privilege of wood and bedding collection may have been badly needed at the time by the Lenton monks - any kind of tinder, firewood and bedding materials around Nottingham had been extremely scarce for years and between 1140-5 and 1188-9 the winters in Nottinghamshire were so cold the River Trent froze for long periods. Even worse weather than this - and additional problems - were to follow in the 13^th Century.

12^th - 13^th Century Revolt, Rebellion and Assassination

Henry II may have been the first monarch to successfully complete the fencing of the boundary of Bestwood Park, sometime between 1170 and 1189, giving it for the first time full ‘Park’ status - in the stated meaning of the word - in the southern Keeping of Sherwood Forest. The surviving sons of Henry II, Richard I (from 1189) and his younger brother John (from 1199) hunted deer, any surviving boar and ‘hawked’ in and around Bestwood Park, probably using the original lodge built by Henry I or more possibly travelling two miles further north to the adjacent, larger and more comfortable hospitality of nearby St Mary’s Priory at Newstead for accommodation and refreshment.

Henry II had founded the Priory at Newstead as part of his ‘expiation’ following his involvement in the murder of Thomas a Becket ; he also endowed the priory with Papplewick (the village, mill and church) and some of the meadowland on the west bank of the River Leen running for about a mile south of Papplewick between Hucknall and Bestwood to the monks as part of the original endowment in 1170. Newstead Priory was in financial difficulties before 1205 ; King John in 1206 granted the Priory more land from the meadows along the River Leen and also added Hucknall Church. Once again, in 1295, the Priory was forced to ask the aged Edward I for permission to suspend their traditional hospitality to travellers (a source of great expense to the monks) and grant them a Crown agent to manage their holdings. In 1310 after a prolonged famine, the Priory was once again forced to request the protection of Edward II, as again they were in financial constraint. It is possible that Newstead Priory never fully recovered after the population of Nottinghamshire was reduced drastically by famine and circa 1346-74 by the arrival of the plague in the form of the ‘Black Death’ (see later). In September 1363 Edward III was hunting in Bestwood Park ; whilst in residence at Bestwood Lodge he forgave the monks of Newstead Priory for not paying to him the large sum of money they then owed to the Crown. When finally ‘dissolved’ in 1536 under Henry VIII, both Rufford Abbey and Newstead Priory were deeply in debt.

Henry II on his visit to Nottingham granted the town its first Charter in 1155, allowing them extra markets and to elect some civic officials ; he also approved the expansion of Nottingham Castle through its growing dominance in the Midlands and left sums of money for building stone and gave permission to the Castle Constable to fell trees in Bestwood Park to supply raw material for this work, and for scaffolding for the building of the new Trent Bridge. Nottingham had been badly damaged by a fire that had raged through the town when attacked by his uncle Robert, the Earl of Gloucester the year before during the last stage of the civil war between the two factions of the rival claimants to the throne, King Stephen - the nephew of Henry I - and Matilda, his daughter ; Matilda’s son by her husband the Count of Anjou succeeded Stephen in 1155 and became Henry II, the first Plantagenet king of England. Possibly sums of money did change hands via Agisters and Verderers and some of the Bestwood timber was diverted and went to repairing and rebuilding damaged Nottingham town houses and especially, churches.

The new large wooden Gatehouse at Nottingham Castle ordered by Henry II was possibly built using trees from Bestwood Park - this formidable-looking Gatehouse was destroyed in March 1194 by Richard I returning to England after captivity in Austria and Germany following his return from the Third Crusade. Finding his younger brother John had manned most of the castles in England with his own supporters, Richard was forced to besiege both Tickhill and Nottingham Castles. Richard I in a foul temper smashed his way into the Castle Gatehouse and burnt it to the ground, hanging the occupants that were still alive in full view of the rest of the castle garrison ; Richard sent for his siege engines then had the local Bishop threaten the occupants of the Castle with excommunication. Prince John’s two Castle Constable’s, Ralph Murdoc and William de Wendervay then wisely surrendered to Richard’s ‘kingly authority’ before the siege engines arrived. Three days later he banished Prince John from England in the Great Hall there - also probably built using Bestwood oaks - sited on the Middle Bailey. Richard I possibly visited Bestwood Park shortly after this, as he hunted out in Sherwood Forest before leaving England once again, this time never to return. The Castle Gatehouse was completely rebuilt by King John as part of major developments there dating from 1202 but in view of what happened five years earlier, this time using stone instead of wood. Reginald Marc - the brother of the High Sheriff of Nottingham and Derbyshire, Philip Marc - built a ‘motte and bailey’ castle just after this time at Annesley, overlooking the Leen Valley and Newstead Priory. The work was reputedly built to control robberies on the High Road passing through the Leen Valley. The work was said to be so strong in appearance – made largely of wood, but perched high on the dominating heights, garrisoned with foreign mercenaries – that it intimidated the locals of Hucknall and Annesley, who petitioned for it to be pulled down as art of their objection to the boundary of the forest ‘keeping’ being extended west at that place by King John. The site of this castle can be seen clearly from Bestwood Park by looking north-west beyond Hucknall, and the ‘motte’ can still be seen.

King John hunted in Sherwood often throughout his turbulent reign, using hunting lodges such as Bestwood and Clipstone within Sherwood Forest and a semi-fortified site to the north-east at Kingshaugh, which he had created as a strongpoint during his attempted coup of 1193-4. He died at Newark Castle on 19th October 1216 during a great storm, sweeping east over the flood plain after first damaging trees in Bestwood Park ; a chronicler later wrote “…at midnight, a whirlwind swept over Newark with such violence that the townsfolk thought that all their houses would fall - and in that hour of elemental disturbance and human terror the King passed away.”  King John had over-indulged himself that night in a great feast ; tradition has it he actually ate himself to death due to his misery or swallowed a poison hidden in his food by a monk. John was certainly not a well man at the time, being outraged at his Barons’ revolt following his repudiation of Magna Carta and broken-hearted by losing the wagons containing both his crown and his treasury due to the fast tide whilst his convoy was crossing The Wash.

Henry III - like his father King John, in order to gain more revenue - tried to encompass in 1227 into the royal forest of Sherwood extra land in the shape of a vast area known as Thorneywood Chase, then extending from the eastern and south-eastern boundaries of Sherwood Forest right over to the banks of the River Trent as far north as Newark. In 1230 the new aforestation border had been partly withdrawn but Oxton was still shown as being just inside Sherwood Forest with the new border now extending from near there south-east to the banks of the Trent. At this time ‘The Charter of the Forests’ as part of Magna Carta had been accepted and there were now only two Justices of the Forests - one for all the royal forests north of the Trent and another for those royal forests south of it.

Bestwood Park in 1250 was recorded as ‘a hay or park of Our Lord the King wherein no man commons’. King John’s son and successor, Henry III, in 1261 granted twenty oaks from Bestwood to the building of the Chapter House and Dormitory of the new Franciscan monastery at Greyfriars in Nottingham (present-day Broadmarsh) and also continued repairs  and extensions to the fencing and ditches at Bestwood. This was followed by further grants to the monastery of Bestwood trees, possibly to build a bridge over the Leen there. Trees were also felled at Bestwood in 1286 to repair the fences, weir, mills, towers and buildings at Nottingham Castle. In 1290, twenty more Bestwood oaks were felled and sent specifically for use in building work at Nottingham Castle. Where all these trees came from exactly isn’t known, but they would not have been felled without much thought and planning in relation to creating areas of sunlight encouraging the growth of vert (food for wild animals, the ‘venery’ or ‘venison’) and to make hunting more efficient. Felling, cutting, trimming and moving such weighty trees must have taken many man-hours using the technology of the time and timber was probably selected from suitable trees standing close to the existing highways to facilitate transportation south - perhaps even using the River Leen to float timber down towards the castle, cutting and trimming it into beams and planks on-site … ?

14^th-15^th Century ;  Plague and Pestilence

Edward I found some time whilst ruling a powerful kingdom amidst his Welsh and Scots Wars to hunt in Bestwood Park. In 1286 he ordered the High Sheriff of Nottingham to pay an additional sum of ten marks to the Keeper of Bestwood ‘to complete a lodge which he had lately begun by the Kings order’ ; another ten pounds followed shortly afterwards for a chamber within the lodge to be ‘made fit for the King to dwell in’. An area in or near this Lodge named ‘The Queens Bower’ could originate from a garden walk, a separate building or rooms in the Lodge named for Edward I’s beloved wife, Eleanor ; the ‘Chere Reine’ from where ‘Charing Cross’ in London gained its name (and a ‘painted bower’ in the language of the time could mean a lady’s private chamber).

The strong and powerful kingdom created by Edward I during these border wars with Wales and Scotland declined in 1307 upon the accession of his son. Edward II was not a firm ruler like his father ; he favoured foreigners at Court, handing out undeserved favours and titles which offended the English barons who eventually in a fit of pique had these foreigners assassinated. In 1314, Edward marched north to attack the newly-crowned Robert The Bruce in Scotland but was defeated by Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn ; this defeat weakened Edward II and gave his ambitious nephew Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the chance to seize power and make a serious challenge for the throne. During the persistent heavy rain, causing the worst floods and ensuing famine that England had ever known, Lancaster rebelled and raised an army. Edward II was ready for him and defeated him at Borobridge, just 40 miles north of Bestwood Park. Lancaster was caught and was executed, as was many of his followers who weren’t quick enough to flee and take refuge in the woods. Edward somewhat complacently fell back into his old ways, including taking Queen Isabella’s jewellery from her to give to one of his ‘foreign’ favourites. A new threat to Edward II in the form of Roger Mortimer, an adventurous Earl, now arose. Mortimer secretly arranged with the furious Queen Isabella to raise an army to depose her husband Edward II in favour of her son, then only fourteen years old. It worked ; Edward II was first forced to abdicate, then kidnapped and flung into a cell in Berkeley Castle. Half-starved, Edward II was cruelly murdered there one night by Mortimer - a red hot poker was inserted into his body via the rectum so the body showed no wounds after death and it could be claimed he had died of ‘natural causes’ (a local folk tale from Berkeley Castle claims that the scream of Edward II was heard over a mile away). The young Edward III was pushed aside and Roger Mortimer - now openly declared Queen Isabella’s consort - ruled England.

Three years later, in 1330, the seventeen year-old Edward III was a wiser man, but Roger Mortimer and his supporters still virtually ruled England. The young king was hunting in Bestwood Park as his mother - Queen Isabella - loved to visit Nottingham Castle. A plan was made by candlelight in Bestwood Lodge after a supper hosted by Edward that ended with a small party of men led by William de Eland gaining access at dead of night into Nottingham Castle using a secret passage leading from the flour mills in the Cave Yard up through the castle crag and coming out right at the top within the upper castle walls. The plan worked perfectly ; any guards encountered were overpowered or simply over-awed, Roger Mortimer was taken by surprise, dragged from his bed back down the tunnel and carried off, later hanged for treason at Tyburn in London. The unhappy Queen Isabella was locked up in Castle Rising in Norfolk for the rest of her life. Edward III - by the bold plan hatched in Bestwood Park - had gained both his revenge and his kingdom. For his help, William de Eland was confirmed as Constable of Nottingham Castle.

The ancient tunnel coming up from the present-day Brewhouse Yard Museum below Nottingham Castle was expanded during later periods but was henceforth popularly referred to as ‘Mortimers Hole’ - it is said to echo at times with the Queen Isabella’s screams of “Spare poor Mortimer!”  to this day (and especially during guided tours there by the author).

See the article by the author for full details of The Abduction of Roger Mortimer from Nottingham Castle

Edward III spent a lot of time studying and dreaming about the famous ‘Round Table’ of the legendary King Arthur. He founded the ‘Knights of the Order of the Garter’ based on them and a vast panoply of tournament, jousting by individual contestants and associated chivalry developed. Edward III also declared Saint George to be the national saint of England. Within his reign of half a century, England’s structure changed from the old days of a ‘feudal’ society under baron and earl holding vast tracts of land – trade and industry and the growth of towns and trade guilds were beginning their rise to power ; successful merchants living in towns and not possessing a single acre of land were now as rich and prosperous as ancient landowners. Political power also began to devolve onto elected individuals - Parliament now sat regularly in two houses. More and more people learned to read and write. The land also underwent great changes, through the changes in this outlook on life. But the climate also changed ; it became both wetter and colder.

Under Edward III circa 1339, Bestwood Park was no exception from these national social and economic trends and saw many changes and improvements. the Park was completely fenced again using the profit from trees felled near Linby in 1340, the poorest timber and branches going to nearby charcoal-burning. Bestwood Park, after being completely encircled by this seven-mile long palisade, saw a deep and wide trench excavated - referred to as the ‘buck-leap’ - to keep the deer in, fifteen feet inside the banked fence. Parts of the buck-leap ditch still remain  (although regularly flooded and not as deep as it was) along the west side of Moor Road passing from Bestwood Village to Papplewick along the old Park boundary : a better example of what a buck-leap in use would have looked like can be seen at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham. This new work all began in 1350, a year which also saw Edward III re-affirming Bestwood Park’s status as a royal park and deer preserve. By 1352 this work was finished ; prior to a visit by Edward III in 1363 an order went to Robert Maule of Linby, Custodian of Bestwood to make sure all the fences and ditches were in good order, and in 1366 one William Parker of Clipstone was ordered by Edward III to make certain repairs to both the hunting lodges at Clipstone and Bestwood Park. An example of what a buck-leap looked like can be seen at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, and a visit there is also a good opportunity to see deer in natural surroundings.

The names of three of the access gates in the perimeter fence around Bestwood Park are known from this time ; ‘Cold Dale Gate’ and ‘Walton Gate’ in the south, and ‘Calverton Gate’ in the east on ‘Red Hill’. Two ancient districts in the Park known as ‘Kings Well Clough’ and ‘Kings Oak Hill’ were possibly named for Edward III. The period of Edward III was probably the most spectacular, colourful and romantic in Bestwood’s long history ; splendidly attired hunting parties on horseback, ending with aromatic and artistic evening feasts of roast venison or wild boar in the Lodge, the guests entertained by music, song and recitals in a resurrected tradition of ‘Merrie Olde England’ and The Court of King Arthur at Camelot. Matters of State affected both Sherwood Forest and Bestwood Park. In 1338, before all the above work in the Park had been ordered, Edward III began pursuing hereditary claims in Normandy due to the King of France suddenly dying without leaving an heir. England was plunged into the ‘Hundred Years War’ with France (which actually went on until 1453). In 1346, the first of two major victories, first at Crecy and later at Poitiers in 1356, saw Edward gain almost a quarter of France. But, in 1347, the terrible ‘Black Death’ of the bubonic plague arrived in Europe, carried by rats from Asia ; for almost thirty years and enduring terrible famines, over 40% of the population of England died from this disease or starvation. Some folk rose from their bed in the morning to be stone dead by night-time; by 1374 some villages had disappeared, craftsmen were scarce, a succession of poor harvests had rotted in the fields for lack of men to reap them, laws were passed to keep down the rising cost of wages and food, and even royal taxes were lowered to permit people to be able to simply pay them in a growing atmosphere of poverty and dismay. Philippa, the beautiful daughter of Edward III was one of the first to die from this terrible plague. The Black Death coined the traditional nursery rhyme of ‘Ring a ring of Roses’, a description of the symptoms of catching this dreadful disease. The ‘ring of roses’ was the circular rash which first appeared followed by the dreadful buboes, ‘a pocketful of posies ‘ described their sickly-sweet smell, and perhaps though to be a cure ; ‘Atishoo, Atishoo’ describing the associated sneezing symptom - with the final line ‘All Fall Down’ needing no explanation.

It gives some idea of the importance of Bestwood Park to the Crown that work of improvement and maintenance there was carried out right through this terrible period of disease and terror, which saw Edward III’s army slowly disintegrating in France even though successful, and in 1381, after the accession of the fourteen-year-old Richard II, the first of two major ‘Peasants Revolts’. Bestwood Park and Nottingham castle were part of the dower of Queen Joan, wife of Henry IV. After Agincourt in 1415 and the conquest of over half of France, the year 1420 saw Joan of Arc resurrecting the beaten French armies but after a series of victories she was betrayed to English allies, the Burgundians, and tried by them under English Law, being found guilty of witchcraft and burned at Rouen in 1421. In 1450 the second ‘Peasants Revolt’ in England began, in Kent led by Jack Cade. Henry VI weathered the storm ; he rode out of London to meet Cade’s followers and hopefully prevent a riot and potential devastation of the capital. Jack Cade, as Wat Tyler before him, was killed as he arrived, and at the sight of this - as with Tyler’s death - the now leaderless mob dispersed and returned to their homes. Freedom of the ‘royal forests’ for commoners for hunting purposes figured greatly in the demands of both Wat Tyler and Jack Cade.

Edward IV was a keen outdoor sportsman and hunted in Bestwood Park in October 1469 whilst resident in Nottingham Castle, an important base for his military operations which he and his younger brother Richard began to greatly enhanced and modernise. The younger brother became Richard III * and was resident at the Castle from June 1485 and whilst hunting deer in Bestwood Park, two tired messengers on breathless horses arrived from York on August 11^th with news of the landing at Milford Haven of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, and 2000 soldiers making a challenge for Richard’s throne. Richard issued an order for all his supporters to “come at once to Nottingham, with all the retainers they could command, horsed and armed” upon pain of the confiscation of all their possessions if they didn’t turn up, as “all manner of excuses (must be) set apart”. Richard III left Nottingham Castle, crossing old Trent Bridge on 17^th August 1485 never to return as he was defeated and killed in the battle three days later on 22^nd August at Ambion Hill near Market Bosworth in Leicestershire, and Henry Tudor became King Henry VII. The long dispute named ‘The Wars of the Roses’ over who should occupy the throne finally ended two years later with another revolt and local battle, this time at East Stoke, on 16^th June 1487, with six thousand men lying dead after the massacre in the bloody ‘Red Gutter’.  With the death of Richard III in 1485, Nottingham Castle began its slow decline into dereliction and Bestwood Lodge never again served as a ‘royal residence’.

* Richard III was once traditionally held to have murdered his way onto the throne by bumping off Henry VI and his sons, his own brother The Duke of Clarence, his nephews (‘The Princes in the Tower’) twelve year old Edward V and his ten year old brother, Richard Duke of York  (supposed to have been smothered in bed whilst asleep, their two bodies discovered in a hidden chest under a flight of stone steps during renovations in The Tower of London in 1674, reinterred in the Chapel by Charles II but dug up again in 1933 for a detailed forensic examination by specialists) and Richard’s child-bride, the eight year old Anne Mowbray (whose remains weren’t found until December 1964, in a casket excavated at a Stepney building site). Modern historians have over the last fifteen years re-interpreted Richard III’s life history and his accession to the throne - as a result he no longer has the infamous ‘crouchback’ in the well-known portrait of him and has also lost his black reputation as Henry VII is now cast as the bad guy by many historians. The author had the honour of holding the horse of King Richard III for a few moments at the ‘Re-enactment of The Battle of Bosworth’ in 1985 whilst the King went off to relieve himself before the fighting began. During this event, Richard’s monument at the little stream where he fell and was literally cut to pieces was almost covered in white Yorkist roses left by visitors to the spot and it has to be said that at the time of this event, the author doesn’t recall seeing many red Lancastrian roses anywhere. The popular Richard III Society can provide much more information on their particular hero.

The Beginning of the End for the ‘Royal Forest of Sherwood’

In 1531 a Royal Commission under Lord Thomas Manners, appointed by Henry VIII to be Warden and Chief Justice of Sherwood, reported to Henry VIII that Bestwood Park held ‘691 fallow deer (151 bucks) and 114 red deer 60 stags)’ and a large number of rabbits ; in Sherwood Forest, the hunting parks and the extensive tract of land known as Thorneywood Chase in total there was reported to be 4494 red deer and 1131 fallow deer. Both Newstead Priory and Rufford Abbey further north were ‘dissolved’ by Henry VIII circa 1536 as a consequence of his disagreements with the Pope in Rome. Sir John Byron, a court favourite of Henry VIII, was subsequently granted the former Newstead Priory lands including the meadows along the Leen, and the Keepership of Bestwood Park. In 1607, the Park still reportedly held ‘300 fallow deer and 24 red deer’ but the palisades and fences around the Park were reported at the time by one commissioner as ‘being so rotten and in ill-repair the deer escape from it at will.’ Eight other areas within the shrinking Keepings of Sherwood Forest at this time were now designated as ‘hunting parks’, with Bestwood still continuing as the largest.

Henry VIII died in 1553, and ‘Bloody Mary’ came to the throne, and the beginning of several generations of religious turmoil. Mary I was succeeded by Elizabeth I in 1558. A Commission reported in 1573 described how some of the Park’s eastern palings and fences had been torn down and used as firewood by a party of Elizabethan soldiers passing along the Park boundary on their way north to guard England’s turbulent border with Scotland. These soldiers possibly came to a sticky end in Scotland before anyone was able to punish them for this piece of vandalism ; timber was subsequently brought south from Clipstone Park to repair the Bestwood Park fences burnt by the soldiers.

Elizabeth I sent messages to ready Nottingham Castle and the Bestwood Lodge in 1562 and 1574, but both royal visits were cancelled. On the second occasion, one Edward Stanhope was called upon to defend himself from allegations that he had misappropriated timber sent for the repair of the Lodge ; he reported that he had not done so, and went on to say he had put the Lodge into ‘a thorough state of repair as cattle were stalled in the lower chambers, and corn threshed and hay stored in the upper chambers’. In 1593 an order arrived again in Nottingham to ready the Castle for a visit by Elizabeth I, who loved to hunt ; an order then also went to ‘Thomas Markham of Ollerton, Keeper of Bestwood’  - one of the Queens popular courtiers with the title ‘Standard Bearer of the Gentlemen Pensioners’ - permitting trees to be felled to repair the Lodge ; despite the recent repairs of 1574, eighty-six oak trees were recorded as felled by Markham in order to carry out the work, a huge number which may have meant additional repairs to the Park fencing and Nottingham Castle were carried out at the same time.

The trees of Bestwood Park and Sherwood Forest were also inspected around 1588 by the Navy, for possible use in shipbuilding. In 1616, Francis, 7^th Earl of Rutland and the owner of Nottingham Castle had assumed the Keepership of Bestwood Park by urging King James I after his visit to Nottingham in 1603 to consider repair of the fences of Bestwood Park which were then in so bad a condition that only 28 deer remained, the fences not being sturdy enough to keep the deer inside of them or the poachers outside of them, adding ‘…the conies should be destroyed to make the ground safe for hunting. Their burrows are numerous ; the grounds will remain dangerous unless it may be ploughed up and sown with grain for five years from Michaelmas next leading to the benefit of the deer’. James I - a keen sportsman - immediately ordered the recommended work carried out and also tried to introduce a new breed of fallow deer from Germany. In 1627 the Lodge was again under repair, showing a continuation of its use and well-being under the reign of Charles I, although not then classed as a royal residence. Bestwood Park was leased out by the Crown to private ownership, who were allowed to keep the revenue from the Park but required the leaseholders to maintain both the Park and Lodge, thus saving the King finding the money to do so. Because of the growing importance of the wool trade, from the 15th Century the enclosing of common land to graze sheep had grown in popularity. In 1601, Sir John Byron petitioned for permission to enclose nearby Bulwell Moor, but the Crown acknowledged the complaint of Bulwell residents that if the commons land was enclosed there would be nowhere left for the poorer folk to graze their animals, and Sir John Byron’s request was refused, with the adjoiner to the complainers that they could “…henceforth peaceably enjoy their right of common in the pasture ground called Bulwell Moor ; until he (Sir John Byron) can show better title to the same”.  Around the same time in Nottingham, the Common Council declared “For that the multitude of sheep encreaseth here in this town, and some men do keep two or three hundred each in the fields, which eat out poor men’s commons : and besides which the sheep being in the fields now, when corn springs up do great detriment to the owners of the corn lands, and doth discourage men from sowing winter corn here in the fields.”

The Common Council, landlords and freeholders were becoming increasingly aware of the problems of the old open-field system in introducing new farming innovations and preventing the straying of grazing animals into root and arable crops. After the ‘Commonwealth’ period and the Restoration of Charles II, large scale enclosures in this part of Nottinghamshire to create grassland for grazing sheep were permitted later in the 18^th Century.

Appendix Two

TREE-LORE

Exploring in the Park and in Sherwood Forest can be a source of relief in addition to recreation by using trees to find or restore your ‘one-ness’ with nature. Tree-lore is an extensive subject - take a small handbook with you to perhaps begin by identifying the trees listed below, and ponder on some of their attributes :

Silver Birch : sunlight reflected from these slender trees raises your spirits and puts a spring in your step. Birch sap was tapped, distilled and drunk as a spirit, particularly in Russia, where they make it into a form of vodka ; you can also make beer from the bark. Strips of outer bark make an excellent firelighter - ancient people made it into roofing material, canoes, cups, spoons and even used it to write on. Birch twigs can rejuvenate - Scandinavian saunas provide small brooms made of birch twigs with which to refresh your body by bringing cleansed blood to the skin surface. Birch whips - using somewhat harder strokes than in saunas - were also used in recent memory to punish young offenders.

Elder : ‘The Lady Tree’, thought to be used by witches in ‘shape-shifting’ but more often known as ‘the medicine chest’ by country folk, with the bark, berries and flowers having many theraputic properties. Both berries and flowers make excellent wines, and the berries being high in Vitamin C are still added to orchard fruits as tasty pie-fillings by country dwellers.

Goat or ‘Pussy’ Willow :  the leaves and bark were used internally in infusions to prevent flatulence and vomiting, and externally when cold as a ‘shampoo’ to prevent dandruff. The ash from burnt leaves was added to spirit or malt vinegar to make a soothing salve for corns and warts. Willows contain salicylic acid and chewing willow bark can relive headaches and in 1899 Aspirin was marketed, which was originally derived from white willow bark. Aspirin is now recommended to prevent ‘heart-attacks’.

Hawthorn : the young shoots and leaves were said in older times to taste like ‘bread and cheese’ - more often said by modern ‘hunter-gatherers’ to have a nutty flavour (and you can eat these in bread-sandwiches). The berries or ‘haws’ make a tasty jelly (widely used in wartime 1940-5 during times of ‘rationing’ to prevent scurvy) and they can be used to make wine. Hawthorn flowers are linked with ancient folklore, medicinally used to treat high blood pressure or heart disease by improving blood circulation. Hawthorns are commonly used in local hedgerows.

Rowan : a tree that is traditionally supposed to ward off the unwelcome attentions of witches but the berries contain a lot of Vitamin C - but require particular attention when cooking, making jam or marmalade. The dried flowers can be infused to make a pleasant tisane, helping with constipation, rheumatics - and also help to cleanse the kidneys.

Yew : traditionally understood to be a wholly ‘poisonous’ tree, but the berry pulp can be consumed once separated from the poisonous seed inside it. A very powerful pre-Christian symbol for ‘death and rebirth’, the yew yields an excellent wood for carving and is much-prized by craftsmen. One of the oldest bows ever found in Britain was made from yew, dating from the Neolithic Period. Recently, research at Nottingham University has shown the leaves of yew contain a chemical named Taxotere, used successfully to treat cancer cells in the human body. One British yew tree has been dated as being over 2000 years old. Four spots in Sherwood claim to have yew trees from which Robin Hood cut a stave to make a bow.

Oak : the tree with which British folklore is most associated, being likened to the ash as the ‘World Tree’ with three roots ; one reaching to heaven, one to earth and the other to the Underworld. The wood from an oak makes everything from barrels to furniture, cathedrals to sailing ships. Ancient folk likened the acorn to the glans penis, which led to the tree having many patriarchal and royal associations. Oak chips are recommended for smoking and preserving fish and meat, with the Yule Log traditionally being from an oak tree. Along with the Yew, English and Durmast oaks are our longest living native trees ; the famous Major Oak in Sherwood Forest weighs many tons and has a girth of forty feet.

© Richard Rutherford-Moore,

Millenium Midwinter 2000-2001
 

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