Part 11

Among venison offenders it was not at all unusual to find the secular clergy. Thus, at the Eyre of 1334, the rector of Annesley and the vicar of Edwinstowe were among the culprits, and fully a score of other beneficed offenders were presented at different dates. Popular notions, encouraged by more or less scurrilous ballads, have long ago marked down the monks and canons of the religious orders as prime offenders in this respect; but the forest Rolls, which cannot lie, in Sherwood as elsewhere, prove the very small basis upon which such charges rest. “Throughout the length and breadth of England, in the extant forest documents extending over several centuries, only four or five charges of venison trespass against the religious have been found, and about a like number for the receipt of venison, or the harbouring of forest offenders. It is not to be understood that the examination has been quite thorough, save of a certain number of forests; but it is highly improbable that the charges against monks or canons regular, if the search was exhaustive, could not be counted on the fingers of both hands. And yet at the same time the charges against rectors, vicars, or parochial chaplains, and the heavy fines, sometimes exceeding a whole year’s income, are fairly common. No charges have been noticed against the monks of Rufford or the canons of Newstead, though they were in the very midst of Sherwood; and yet there was hardly a parish pertaining to that forest whose vicar or rector was not, at some time, convicted of deer-slaying with bow and arrows, or with greyhounds.”[48]

When the sixteenth century is reached, definite statistics can usually be found as to the number of deer in the various royal forests of England. Henry VIII. appointed a commission in 1531, to view and certify the number of the deer in the forest and parks of Sherwood. The red deer at that date numbered 4280, and the fallow deer 1131. The red deer ranged throughout the forest, with the exception of some 200 in Bestwood Park. The fallow deer were within the four parks of Bestwood, Clipstone, Nottingham, and Thorney. Another less detailed return of 1538 of all the deer in the King’s forests and parks north of the Trent, gives the number of red deer in Sherwood Forest as about 1000; in Bestwood Park, 700 fallow and 140 red; in Clipstone, 60 fallow and 20 red; in Gringley, 150 fallow.

Queen Elizabeth, in 1599, granted the keepership of the forest district of Thorneywood, to the north of Nottingham, to John Stanhope, with licence to hunt, chase, and kill the deer, provided he always found a hundred head for the use of the Queen.

A considerable amount of detailed information with regard to the rapidly lessening area of Sherwood Forest, from this date down to 1793, is to be found in the _Fourteenth Report of Woods and Forests_ which was issued at the latter date. In 1616, it was reported that there were 1263 red deer in Sherwood Forest, in addition to those in Thorneywood; another estimate of 1635 made the total 1367. A very large number of the royal deer not unnaturally disappeared during the Commonwealth days. In 1661, considerable expenses were incurred by the transporting of both red and fallow deer from Germany to restock the forests of Sherwood and Windsor.

Charles II., in 1662, did his best to revive the forest laws of Sherwood, and appointed his faithful friend William, Earl of Mansfield and Marquis of Newcastle (afterwards known as the loyal duke) to act as Lord Chief Justice in Eyre. The business before this revived Forest Court was so complicated, and required so much legal investigation, that, though opened at Mansfield in February 1662–63, the proceedings were not concluded until 1676; they provided a right royal harvest for the lawyers and attorneys. Claims to special privileges were put forward by a great variety of persons, including the Archbishop of York and divers others, such as Sir George Savile of Rufford and Lord Byron of Newstead, who had succeeded to properties wrenched from monastic hands. Hosts of minor claimants came from all parts of the forest and its surroundings, pleading privileges that pertained in old days to particular townships or parishes. Some of these humbler folk were unable to resist the attractions of the game as they traversed the old forest grounds; thus one Thomas Cotton, a blacksmith of Edwinstowe, was convicted of shooting a hart when actually journeying to attend this court. He was fined 40s., and had to obtain a bondsman for £40 for his good conduct during the twelve months.

In 1708 a strongly worded petition was drawn up at Rufford by representative gentlemen of the north of the county, addressed to the Crown, complaining of the grievous and almost intolerable burden under which the landowners laboured by reason of the increase during late years of the red deer in the Forest of Sherwood. They complained that so many of the woods had been granted or given away by the Queen’s predecessors, that but little harbour remained for the deer in the forest, and that the deer in consequence were scattered about in the county eating up corn and grass; that their tenants in severe weather had often to watch all night to keep the deer off; that their servants were terrified by new keepers, who threaten them if they so much as set a little dog at the deer. At the same time another general petition to the like effect obtained 400 influential signatures. It was therein stated that the red deer had recently increased from 300 to 900, and that their chief depredations were carried on “in the district called Hatfield and the whole district of the Clay,” which were parts of the county outside the forest limits. These petitions met with no favour at the hands of the Crown; it was argued that to attempt to stint the number of deer through Parliament would be detracting from the Queen’s liberties and rights.

The forest, however, was far from being a source of profit during Anne’s reign. There were four well-paid “forest keepers” and four “deputy forest rangers”; the winter hay for the deer averaged £100 a year; whilst £1000 a year was granted to maintain the deer and the new park at Clumber, and to hunt with two horsemen, forty couple of hounds, eleven horses, and four grooms.

Reports presented to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in 1793 showed that there were then no deer in the forest save in Thorney Woods, of which Lord Chesterfield was keeper. But evidence was given to the effect that there were a great many deer in Birkland and Bilhagh until about 1770, when they were killed off, with the assistance of the inhabitants, by the Dukes of Newcastle and Kingston, and in a short time the value of the forest farms had materially increased, and the wheat fields no longer needed to be guarded by horns in the daytime and by fires at night.

Though the glories of Sherwood as a vast open forest district have long since passed away, several noble parks occupy some of its choicest portions. Five of these parks are stocked with deer--namely, Thoresby (Earl Manvers), Welbeck (Duke of Portland), Rufford (Lord Savile), Wollaton (Lord Middleton), and Annesley (J. P. Chaworth Musters, Esq.). The first two of these have herds of red as well as of fallow deer. It is quite possible that some of these may fairly claim to be the descendants of those which used to roam at will through the woods and glades of old Sherwood Forest in medieval days.

ROODS, SCREENS, AND LOFTS IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

BY AYMER VALLANCE

ARNOLD.--William Stretton, writing about 1820, noted:--“The Gothic screen of oak is still remaining. The corbels and holes for the timbers to support the rood-loft still remain, with the stone staircase in the south-east angle.” The screen disappeared at the “restoration” in 1877. The rood-stairs survive, concealed behind the pulpit.

ATTENBOROUGH.--The rood-stair, of which only a part remains, was contained in the south pier of the chancel arch. The door intended for issue onto the rood-loft is now blocked, but the entrance at the bottom, with a cambered head, is situated in the north-east corner of the south aisle.

AVERHAM (October 1911).--A somewhat plain example of a late-fourteenth or early-fifteenth century screen, rectangular in construction, stands in the chancel opening. Its total length is 16 ft. 9 in. by 9 ft. high. It comprises thirteen compartments of average centring of 1 ft. 2½ in., _i.e._ five compartments on either hand of the doorway. The latter has a clear opening of 3 ft. 5½] in., and comprises three compartments, their two muntins being cut off by the horizontal door-head. The wainscot is 4 ft. 1 in. high, with head-tracery to the depth of 9 inches, consisting of one continuous run supported by four vertical mouldings, making five panels on each side of the doorway. The south section of this tracery appears to be genuine, but the north section is all modern except 14 inches’ length immediately north of the doorway. All the flat panelling of the wainscot is modern. From the middle rail to the cord-line measures 44 in., the tracery in the head of the fenestration being 9 in. deep. This tracery is flat on the eastward face. The ornament attached to the west front of the lintel is modern.

BALDERTON.--“A most beautiful, richly moulded Perpendicular oak screen (_circa_ 1475), having a figure of a monk with his arms crossed, and a globe below his foot, on the western face; and another of the Virgin and Child on the eastern face.” The screen is rectangular in construction, and comprises eight compartments, the two middle ones of which go to form the doorway.

BEAUVALE (Carthusian Priory).--From the foundation of the monastery in 1343, the church kept its original plan, an aisleless parallelogram, unchanged. The width of the nave, 27 ft., was, therefore, the length of the transverse screens, which disappeared at, or after, the surrender on 18th July 1539. “No trace of the pulpitum,” write Rev. A. Du Boulay Hill and Mr. Harry Gill, “can be seen in the standing walls,” nor did the excavations in 1908 disclose any pulpitum foundations.

BECKINGHAM.--The will of Robert Hall, dated 28th May 1529, contains the clause: “_do et lego fabrice crucifixorii de_ Bekyngham,” 15s.; and William Hall, by will dated 10th October 1538, bequeathed his “bodie to bee buried in the churche of Bekyngham afore the rood-lofte.” Rev. Dr. Cox writes (1911) to say that in the tower archway stands the middle portion of the chancel screen, consisting of the doorway and two more bays, or compartments, with very fine tracery, of late-fifteenth century workmanship. The doorway (now blocked) which led from the rood-stair onto the top of the rood-loft, is visible in the east wall of the nave, to south of the chancel-arch.

BILSTHORPE.--The upper and lower doorways, square-headed, of the rood-stairs, now walled up, are clearly perceptible in the north side of the nave. Externally nothing of the old staircase remains.

BLYTH (October 1911).--The church of the Benedictine Priory (dissolved in February 1535–36) and the parochial church were under the same roof; but the screening arrangements are by no means clear. That the wall which cuts off the first bay of the nave below the crossing was built previously to the Reformation is evident from the fact that the westward surface of the filling was painted, late in the fifteenth, or in the early part of the sixteenth, century with the subject of the Doom, many traces of which remain to this day. It may be that this was the site of the pulpitum, in which case the walling simply meant heightening the front of the pulpitum until the space was filled to the roof. In the foot of the wall is a doorway (now blocked) 5 ft. 5 in. wide by 6 ft. 6 in. high, with a cambered head. Presumably this door was the former entrance of the pulpitum-passage into the quire.

The rood-screen and loft over appear to have stood between the second pair of piers below the western crossing. Rev. John Raine, in his _History and Antiquities of Blyth_ (1860), described this screen as having fared very ill, for “with the exception of a fragment at the corner of the private gallery of Blyth Hall[49] and the lower panels, it has been destroyed; and ... these panels, all perfect though they are, are daubed over with paint, so as completely to obliterate the figures, except at the very base.” The screen, cleaned and “restored,” is of oak and rectangular in construction. It measures 21 ft. 6 in. long by 8 ft. 9 in. (exclusive of a modern lintel), with compartments centring at 1 ft. 2½ in. and having Perpendicular tracery to the depth of 12 in. in the head of the fenestration. The traceries are flat at the back, and only three at the northern extremity are genuine. They had been incorporated at one time in the Blyth Hall gallery. The doorway, contrary to what one would expect, is in the middle, and it has a clear opening of 3 ft. ½ in. The existing lintel rests in a hole of about 13 in. square in the second pier of the south arcade. The wainscot is 4 ft. 2 in. high and without tracery in the heads of the panels. The screen has at one time been richly coloured; only eleven, however, of the wainscot panels have paintings of saints, so much worn and mutilated as to be barely recognisable. The backgrounds are alternately green and deep purplish red. The subjects are as follow from north to south:--1. St. George. 2. Female saint in red robe, hands raised. 3. Archbishop in pontificals, chasuble red. 4. Female saint in red robe under green cloak, hands raised. 5. Abbot, or Abbess, in brown habit, crosier in hand. 6. Female saint in brown habit, kneeling to left, and contemplating a vision of our Lord rising out of the tomb or from clouds. Here is the doorway, having a clear opening of 3 ft. ½ in. South of the doorway:--7. Female saint, hands raised. 8. Saint in armour, with what looks like a hawk on his right hand. ? St. Bavon. 9. Figure in red, with close-fitting hood of red on the head, no nimbus, right hand holding what appears to be a boot; in which case it would represent Master John Schorne. 10. Figure in red, kneeling to right, and contemplating a vision. 11. Abbot, or Abbess, in brown habit, crosier in hand. Some of these figures have been identified respectively with Saints Boniface, Wilfrid, Edward, and Bridget. The last named, at any rate, is likely enough to be correct, seeing that among the lights of this church were one of St. Bridget, as also one of St. Sitha (Zita), which proves both these saints to have been objects of devotion in the place. Various chases in the piers show that the two arches to west of the above-described screen were both occupied by wooden parcloses. Across the south or parochial aisle, about in line with the above-described screen across the nave, stands another Perpendicular oak screen, authentic in the main, though patched, repaired, and even, according to a note by C. Clement Hodges in the _John of Gaunt Sketch Book_ (1880) having some details restored in composition. This screen measures 23 ft. 7 in. long by 12 ft. 10 in. high (cresting included). It comprises five bays centring at 4 ft. 5 in. to 4 ft. 6 in., of three lights each. The cord-line, as also the springing level of the vaulting, is 4 ft. 6½ in. above the middle rail. The tracery is 21 in. deep in the heads of the fenestration, which takes the form of depressed two-centred arches. The bases (9½ in. high) and the caps (8½ in. high) of the boutel-shafts are polygonal. The vaulting is complete on both sides of the screen, and the width across the top of the platform from front to back is 5 ft. 6 in. The breast-summer is deep, moulded, and has a hollow with square pateras. The wainscot is 4 ft. 2½ in. high, with tracery in the head of the panels to the depth of 9½ in. The panels, painted with figures, were “brought to light in 1842 from the boards and matting of pews, behind which they were concealed.” They may now, writes Raine in 1860, “be seen with sufficient distinctness, though with a few marks of Puritanical violence; with the exception of that of St. Ursula, which was found in such a state of decay as to justify its removal to a place of safe preservation. Other figures on the panels of the parish rood-screen have been cut away to make a road to the reading-desk and pulpit.” Six painted panels survive, as follow, from left to right:--To north of the doorway are: 1. St. Stephen in a red dalmatic; 2.? St. Agatha stripped to the middle, her breasts transversely pierced by a sword. 3. St. Edmund, crowned and holding a sceptre and arrows. To south of the doorway (which has a clear opening of 4 ft. 6½ in.) are: 4. St. Helen; 5. St. Barbara; and 6. St. Ursula. Five of these paintings are figured in outline by J. G. Weightman in Rev. John Raine’s work.

In the south arcade wall a passage from one loft to the other was tunnelled through the spandrel over the pier. This passage is walled up toward the north, but remains visible, with a hollow opening on the south side of the arcade, over the top of the south aisle screen.

At right angles to the north end of the south aisle screen, and enclosing the north side of the parochial chancel, is another oak screen of Perpendicular date and rectangular construction. It measures 14 ft. long by 9 ft. 5 in. high. It comprises a doorway at the east end and eight lights, only two compartments, centring at 3 ft. 10 in. and consisting of three lights apiece, being complete. It originally comprised at least four compartments, including the doorway. The wainscot is 4 ft. 3 in. high, and the tracery in the fenestration heads is 9½ in. deep. In the west part of the north aisle of the nave are two runs of panelling, both of similar character but not quite identical in design, one of them bearing distinct traces of ancient painting; panelling which must have belonged to the parapets of the rood-loft. There is no tracery, but the stiles are handsomely moulded. One run, 7 ft. 1½ in. long by 4 ft. high, comprises six panels centring at 1 ft. 1½ in., the hand-rail being 6¼ in. high. The other run, 9 ft. 3½ in. long by 2 ft. 11½ in. high, comprises eight panels centring at about 14 in., the hand-rail being 5¾ in. high. Both hand-rails are elaborately embattled, like alternate billet mouldings. Under the western tower are three more fragments of similar hand-rail, respectively 2 ft. 3½ in., 2 ft. 4 in., and 2 ft. 5 in. long.

BRIDGFORD, WEST (October 1911).--Across the present south aisle, and on the site of what was originally the east wall of the chancel previously to the enlarging of the church, stands an oak screen (_circa_ 1380), of rectangular construction. The character of the framework is that of a stone screen carried out in wood, with mason joints. It comprises four compartments, centring on an average at 1 ft. 5½ in., on either hand of the central doorway, the divisions of the wainscot corresponding with those of the fenestration. The doorway has a trefoil-cusped and feathered head, springing 6 ft. 6½ in. from the ground; it centres at 4 ft. 2½ in. and has a clear opening of 3 ft. 9½ in. The wainscot, 3 ft. 7½ in. high, has tracery in the head of the panels to the depth of 8½ in., but only the northernmost tracery ornament is authentic. The middle rail, embattled along the front edge, is flat upon the top, a familiar feature in early screenwork. The cord-line is 4 ft. 1½ in. above the middle rail and in the head of the fenestration the tracery is 16 in. deep. This tracery is in two orders on the west face of the screen, but the first order, with crocketed ogee ornament imposed, does not occur on the east face. The treatment of the crockets is peculiar, they being like rosettes at the points of cusping that radiates, instead of leaves that run in an upward direction in the usual manner. Moreover, the front surface of the tracery takes the form of a bead instead of the more usual fillet. The total height of the screen is 9 ft. 10 in. The lintel, 17 ft. 7 in. long, and embattled along the top, has a cavetto in which at intervals are pateras, all of floral ornament except the northernmost one (which represents a dog, or cat, with a rat in its mouth) and the pair surmounting the door-jambs. These two are masks, the northern one of which is muzzled. The jambs and the end-uprights are 5 in. wide, with mouldings in the lower part and pinnacles in the upper part, all cut out of the solid. A chase, 2 in. wide, in the abacus of the easternmost respond of the south aisle arcade shows that a wooden screen stood in the eastern arch of the arcade opening into the south aisle.

BUNNY (October 1911).--A much-mutilated oak screen, of rectangular construction and fourteenth century date, stands across the chancel-arch, which, however, on account of the abnormally uneven spacing of the screen, can scarcely be its original position. There are three compartments on the north side of the entrance and two on the south, their centrings varying from 2 ft. 2 in. to 2 ft. 6 in. The five openings of the fenestration have ogee tracery to the depth of from 10 to 10½ in. in the head. The entrance has a clear opening of 3 ft. 10 in. wide by 8 ft. 6 in. high to the apex of its two-centred arch. The latter is formed by a pair of solid spandrels, springing at a depth of 2 ft. 8 in. below the lintel, and sculptured with conventional foliage, in low relief, of lithic character. In fact, the whole screen except its fenestration tracery, is mason’s work in wood. The jambs of the doorway have remains of buttressing; and the muntins have conspicuous stops at their junction with the middle rail. The latter has been cruelly hacked about and retains only scanty remains of the original battlementing along the front. The wainscot stands 4 ft. 3 in. high, but is now a mere framework, having been robbed of its stiles and panels. The tracery is flat at the back. Some remnants of the former colouring may be discerned. The north portion of the screen is 7 ft. 1 in. long and the south portion 6 ft. 1 in. The total length is 17 ft., the height 8 ft. 11 in., or 9 ft. 10 in. including the lintel, which is 19 ft. 4 in. long, and an incongruous addition, of eighteenth century character. In the upper part of the chancel-arch was a boarded tympanum, removed shortly before 1902. The stone of the east sweep of the easternmost arch of the north arcade has been cut into, probably for fitting the rood-loft into position.

CALVERTON.--By will dated 10th October 1499, Thomas Belfin left 13s. 4d. “_facture unius_ roode-lofte _in ecclesia de_ Calverton.” The middle part of the abacus and astragal of the capital of the north reveal of the chancel-arch has been cut through vertically for the insertion of wooden screenwork.