Chapter 11

Forests, parks and waste

The names “Skiddaw Forest” and “Copeland Forest” appear prominently on the ordnance map of the Cockermouth area. It is obvious that these areas are not ‘forests’ in the sense in which the word is now used. They were so named in Norman times, when certainly a large proportion of the land was wooded, but when ‘forest’ denoted a tract of country over which strict controls were exercised.

The whole of north Cumberland, from Crossfell to the sea and from the Solway to the Derwent, was at one time the “Forest of Cumber land“. South of the Derwent, stretching from Borrowdale to the coast, lay “Copeland Forest“.

The original very extensive areas tended to be divided into smaller units, which could still be quite large. Near Cockermouth was the Forest of Derwent fells, sometimes known as Cockermouth Forest and part of Copeland. There is a record of it being granted c. 1170 by Alan the son of Waldeof. [1]

In the 13th century, forests were restricted by Henry 1II, considerable areas being disafforested, including the land from the Cocker to the coast. Derwent fells remained and was divided in 1247 between William de Fortibus UI and Alan de Multon.

Life in and around a forest was governed by forest laws, aimed at preserving the game, especially deer. Inglewood, for example, sent venison in the 13th century to such places as Windsor, York, Nottingham and Winchester. [2]

To foster game the cutting of timber was strictly controlled. In the free chase no one could hunt a deer, wolf, boar or any of the smaller animals – hare, fox, beaver, badger, otter, squirrel, pole cat, wild cat, pine marten, etc. – without permission of the holder of the franchise. The chase was not ‘free’ in the sense of being available to all .

The management of a forest was under a warden, an hereditary position which carried certain privileges, such as permission to take timber. There were fines for breaking the forest laws -injuring or felling trees, poaching, assarting. Such laws applied not only to the wooded areas within a forest but to ‘waste’.

Fig 1130 The forests south of Cockermouth

The “committing of waste” (eg.: building a house) was a very serious offence. Forest laws of this kind obviously hindered the development of land and the growth of settlements at a time, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the population was increasing. The only concession might be permission to pasture animals in the restricted areas or to drive in pigs each day to feed upon the acorns.

Timber for building or burning or additional land for cultivation could only be obtained under licence. However, some encroachment on forests was authorised at quite an early date, as shown by a charter granted in 1202 by Richard de Lucy to Adam de Mosser. ‘Mosser’ meant ‘the shieling on the moss’, a moss of which there are still remains between the present hamlet of Mosser and the villages of Pardshaw and Pardshaw Hall. The charter enabled scattered farms to develop along its edge, stating that

• “the aforesaid Adam and his heirs shall till, build and assart the wood” [3]

This marginal development may have been exceptional at so early a date, but gradually landowners came to realise that there was profit to be had in clearing and cultivating land and that at the same time they could still reserve considerable areas for hunting and hawking.

Trouble could come not only from poaching peasants but from a neighbouring landowner. The division of Derwent fells Forest, mentioned above, was soon in dispute. In the year of the division, William de Fortibus complained that Alan de Multon and his wife Alice.

• “were causing waste, sale, and damage in the forests of Alredal, Cokermue and Kaldebek (Allerdale, Cockermouth and Caldbeck), which should be common to both parties.”

The boundary was finally settled in .i aodell Fig 31. The three parks near the town based on the John the King’s Court at Bedford as running Speed map of1610 from the mill of the Prior of Carlisle in Lorton by Wychebeck (Whit Beck) to the top of Lauerdsate (Lord’s Seat) and by Bethwythop (Beck Wythop) to the summit of Skydehowe (Skiddaw) and down into the Caldew. Nine years later de Multon complained that de Fortibus was depriving his men of “reasonable estovers in Derwentfells“.[4]

Rather later, in 1285, Thomas de Lucy granted to Sir Thomas de Ireby 85 acres of land and meadow outside the coverts which the latter already had at Embleton (the tun or farmstead of a Norseman Emer or Amer), Shatton and Stanger in the waste and free chace of Derwent fells. In return for a rent of 4d. per acre per year Sir Thomas and his “free men and tenants dwelling in the same improvements” were to enjoy common pasture, housebote and haybote, green wood for building and dead wood for burning, in the waste and free chace everywhere in Derwent fells, except in the new improvements made by Thomas de Lucy.[5]

The same Sir Thomas was granted the liberty of enclosing a park around his manor of Embleton in the grantor’s forest of Derwent Fells, as recorded in a deed for Cockermouth Castle witnessed in c. 1285 by John de Lamplugh and contained in St. Bees Register. For this the lords of Ireby had to do homage at Cockermouth Castle and the Lucies retained the right to slay two beasts a year – a stag between the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (15 August) and the Feast of St. Michael (29 September) and a doe between the Feast of St. Andrew (30 November) and the Feast of St. Hilary (13 January). Eighty years after the agreement an order was made

• “to release from suite of court, indent: Thomas de Lucy, lord of Cockermouth, to Robert de Tilliell. lord of Ireby: Whereas Robert owes suit every three weeks at Cockermouth for manor of Ireby. Thomas releases him for life, except that he is bound to do suit himself or by attorney at the three chief courts.” [6]

All the map makers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries show parks in this area. Speed in 1610 has them at Cockermouth, Wythop and Isel, depicted as surrounded by fences. ‘Park’ comes from the French for an enclosure for arable farming or for pasture, but here means an enclosure for keeping deer near at hand. Thus a supply of fresh meat was assured and one or two animals could be released from the park for hunting over a wider area when desired.

The Lucy Cartulary has a copy of a charter granted in 1323 by Anthony de Lucy giving free warren in his demesnes lands of Cockermouth and elsewhere. The holder of a warren had the right to take hares, foxes and other small animals. The Normans were very religious and liked to endow religious houses and in this way much of Cumberland passed into the possession of the monasteries, which extended their lands by purchase as their wealth increased. Alice de Rumelli sold upper Borrowdale to Fumess Abbey for £1 56-13s-4d. in 1209 and the land between Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite to Fountains. [7] St.Bees had land in Loweswater, Carlisle Priory in Wythop and Holm Cultram in Blindcrake, Isel and Setmurthy.

Sheep (and to some extent minerals) were big business with the monasteries. They organised their lands efficiently (Fountains Abbey had 41 farms and a grange in Borrowdale); [8J built boundary dykes to their holdings which may still be traced in places on the hills; and sent their representatives to the wool markets. A tenth of their income went to Rome.

When William de Fortibus III died in 1259/60 an inventory of his possessions included 60 acres of demesne land and the Park, two leagues in circumference, “which may be closed to sustain the bucks and hindes therein contained, of which there are by estimation 100”. This lay NE of the town. In 1530 the sixth Earl of Northumberland granted the park to Thomas Wharton, comptroller of his household, and when it came back into the estate in the 18th century the timber had been felled for the tanneries in the town and the land ploughed. The Percy Survey of 1577/8 described the park, 340 acres enclosed by a wall, a hedge and ditch, and the River Derwent. 200 acres were pasture, the remainder wooded.

• “There is…. a great number of small oke trees worth now presentlie to be soulde at one with another 6d. the tree as followeth: Horse Close Wood 1340; Middleton Spring 5220; St. Anthonie’s Wood 5080; …etc.”

There is no mention of deer in the survey, indicating a possible change of emphasis from preserving timber in order to have animals available to selling it for its financial value.

The same survey states

“there is also about the said Castle certain Domain Lands as followeth:

The Garden and Orchard adjoining the Castle Green worth 3s-4d.

The Dear Orchard adjoining to the said gard.contg. 2 acres 10s-0d.

The land between the Horse Close and the waters of Darwent containing by est. 4 acres 26s-8d.

The Horse Close lying betwixt the said land and the park containing by est. 16 acres. 40s-0d.

The Wheat Close adjoining to the Park cent. 20 acres. 40s-0d.

Sum total of the said domains £6-10s-0d.”

Eventually almost all the former forests and hunting preserves became huge areas of common land. There was a large area of waste to the north of Cockermouth and two commons bordered it to the south. Cockermouth Moor to the east of the Cocker and Gallowbarrow Moor to the west. Both these commons had gates to prevent stock from wandering and there were penalties for not using them properly, as witness a Court Leet ruling of 1679 that

• “It is put in pain that ye inhabitants within this boro’ shall not cast off ye hinges or prop open ye public gates subpoena 6s-8d.” [9]

Two years later it was decided

• “We find it convenient to have four yeates (gates) to be hung two above bridge (Cockermouth Moor, etc.) and two below (Gallowbarrow, etc.) at the charge to the Borough for securing the goods upon the Common.” [10]

The bridge was Cocker Bridge. In 1694 there is a record of four entrance gates into the town, including the Moorgate somewhere south of Christ Church [11]