commoners. He could not grow underwood because local bye-laws forbade him
to fence in the regrowth. Few timber trees grew in the Forests, either because
grazing had prevented the growth of saplings or because the commoners made
them into pollards. As cases in Grovely and Neroche (Somerset) illustrate (41),
Henry III scrupulously respected manorial laws, which prevailed over the Forest
Law or the Crown's interests. But he could exploit the Forests indirectly through
the courts. The deerstealing cases tried in Sherwood in 1287 produced £418 in
fines (3), and in Essex the fines of up to £13 imposed for venison trespasses (24)
and the many smaller sums charged for vert must also have added up to a useful
income. Another benefit to the king was the ability to make gifts of deer or of
jobs in the Forest bureaucracy, both of which were an important part of his
prestige.
The economy of Hainault Forest, and by implication of Epping, was
dominated by the commoners' grazing and woodcutting. Landowners had only
modest rights, and the Forestal rights sat lightly on the whole. Such a system
could hardly have grown up under the Forest Law; it must derive from the use of
the woods by the whole community in Anglo-Saxon times.
LAND-USES, 1350 - 1610
Surveys
In the later middle ages the Crown's interest apparently declined and the
authority of the Forest courts waned.
In the sixteenth century the Crown acquired more land in the Forests,
chiefly through the dissolution of the monasteries. Several surveys in this period
provide our earliest ecological descriptions.
1. A survey in 1544 by George Maxey and William Mildmay of the Crown and
former Barking Abbey lands in Hainault Forest and of four private woods
nearby (27). These are extracts:
Furste, in a certen Comen . . . one hill called Greate Hoghill parte Horn-
beatne Woode well sett with Oke for Husbandrye, very moche verte of
blake Thorne, part lately lopped cont. 63 Acr one roode at 13s 4d the
Acre
Ravensokehill cont. 671/2 Acres valued at 40s the Acre well sett with
husbandez of Oke and hardbeame (i.e. hornbeam). . .
Beche hill sett with straglynge Trees of Oke and homebeame cont. by
estimacion 821/2 acres at 18s the Acre. . .
17 pieces of the Forest are listed, 15 being wooded and two being plains; the
wooded areas total 1046 acres, probably measured with a 21-ft perch and thus
36