The Forest of Dean: An Historical and Descriptive Account. H. G. Nicholls

Disappointment expressed by others and felt by myself that a History of the Forest of Dean should never have appeared in print, and an impression that a considerable amount of interesting information relative to it might be brought together, combined I may add with the fact that there seemed no probability of such a work being otherwise undertaken until old usages and traditions had passed away, have induced me to attempt its compilation. I here venture to publish the fruit of my labours, in the hope that the reader may derive some portion of that pleasure which the prosecution of the work has afforded me, and trusting that the same indulgent consideration which led the officers of the Government, the gentlemen of the neighbourhood, and many of the intelligent Foresters to aid in the execution, will by them and the public be extended to the work itself.

I have endeavoured to make it as complete as possible by supplying every known circumstance, mostly in the words of the original narrator, and yet trying so to harmonize the whole as to engage the attention of the general reader, but more particularly of the residents in the district, by acquainting them with the past and present state of one of the most interesting and remarkable localities in the kingdom.

H. G. N.

July, 1858.

CHAPTER I.
a.d. 1307–1612.

Table of Contents

Origin of the name “Dean”?—The “Buck Stone,” and other Druidical remains—“The Scowles,” &c., and other ancient iron-mines, worked in the time of the Romans—Symmond’s Yat, and other military earthworks—Domesday Book, and investment of this Forest in the Crown—William I., and probable date of Free Miners’ Franchise—Castle of St. Briavel’s first built; Giraldus—Flaxley Abbey founded—King John at Flaxley and St. Briavel’s—The constables of St. Briavel’s and wardens of the Forest—Date of the ruins of St. Briavel’s Castle—Iron forges licensed by Henry III.—Perambulation of 1282, and first “Justice seat”—Seventy-two “itinerant forges” in the Forest—Date of Miners’ laws and privileges—Perambulation of 1302—Edward I., grants in the Forest—Newland Church founded—Free miners summoned to the sieges of Berwick, &c.—Edward II., grants in the Forest—Edward III., ditto—Richard II., ditto—Henry IV., ditto—Henry V., ditto—Henry VI., ditto—Severn barges stopped by Foresters—Edward IV., and retreat hither of the Earl Rivers and Sir J. Woodville—Edward VI. farmed the Forest to Sir A. Kingston—Design of the Spaniards to destroy the Forest—Papers from Sir J. Cæsar’s collection, viz. Sir J. Winter’s negotiations relative to the iron-works, &c.—Blast furnaces erected.

The district known as “the Forest of Dean” is situated within that part of Gloucestershire which is bounded by the rivers Severn and Wye. Its name is of doubtful origin. Was it so called from its proximity to the town of Mitcheldean, or Dean Magna, mentioned in Domesday Book, and which, agreeably to its name, is situated in a wooded valley, the word “Dean,” or “Dene,” being Saxon, and signifying a dale or den?—or do we accept the statement of Giraldus, and some other writers, that the Forest of Dean obtained its name from the Danes sheltering themselves in it, secured by its shades and thickets from the retaliation of the neighbouring people, whose country they had devastated?—Or, again, do we “fancy,” with Camden, that “by cutting off a syllable it is derived from Arden, which word the Gauls and Britons heretofore

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