Copy of `Forests and Chases - Forestry terms`

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Forests and Chases - Forestry terms Category: Animals and Nature > Forests in England and Wales Date & country: 27/09/2013, UK Words: 664

acre
(1) unit of areal measurement, originally 40 rods long by 4 rods wide (C, 36), equivalent to 4,840 sq. yds. or 10 sq. chains (E, 177); 640 acres = 1 sq. mile (E, 177); see also

afforest
(1) (legal) place an area under forest law and administration; the creation of a forest by stipulated procedures (M, 26 (v)

after-pannage
money paid for the agistment of pigs after the end of the normal pannage season (T 147)

agist
admit cattle to forest for a given period or to take in cattle to graze at a certain rate, hence

agisting
taking in of commoners

agistment
herbage of a forest or the right to it; grazing dues or income from agisting (L, 236); grazing of unenclosed woods and waste within a forest; common of herbage and the money received for it (M, 79(v) - 86 (v)). The Charter of the Forest allowed every free man to agist his own woods and hedges in a forest with his own beasts at any time, under view of the verderers, unless they abutted the king

airies
brushwood windshield to protect charcoal-making hearths (Reeves)

alaunt
large, powerful, mastiff-like dog (BG, 202)

alder
durable wood when grown in wet conditions, used for clog soles by itinerant clog makers (Je, 23; 235)

aller
alder, q.v. (Ja, 296)

amercement
financial penalty for an offence imposed by a court (R, 165). It was owed by an offender said to be

antler
attire or head of a stag, which was rated by doubling the number of tines borne by the antler with most. The extreme number was supposed to be 32 (BG, 203-4)

arabilis
maple tree (T, 133)

arable
[land] fit for tillage (OED)

arbeel
Abele or white poplar (Ja, 296)

arboreal
of, living in, connected with, trees (OED)

arboriculture
cultivation of trees and shrubs (OED)

armitage
see

arrent
let out at rent; permit enclosure of forest land or woodland on payment of an annual rent (Ja, 296); allow the enclosure of forest lands

arrentation
the process of arrenting (Ja, 296)

ash
tough wood used especially for tool handles, cart shafts; wheel felloes &c (Je, 72-73)

asp
aspen poplar (Ja, 296)

assart
(n) area of clearance in woodland or waste; cultivated forest land from which trees have been grubbed up; (v) the act of clearing (R, 165); grub up trees and underwood of forest land to convert to arable or pasture (P, 205), though strictly speaking, for planting with grain crops,

attach
arrest or place under control of court (P, 205); from French attacher,

axebearer
forest officer

badger
(1) animal known before the 16th century as

bail
financial surety pledged for the future reappearance of a lawful prisoner released pending trial, on recognizance of the verderers (M, 215 (v) - 216 (v)). See

bailiff
agent of lord of manor, landholder

bailiwick
administrative subdivision of a forest; district (of a forest) under a separate jurisdiction, (P 205) [Pettit adds

band
to keep wood

bank
see

bark
(n) outer layer of trees, that of oak being used as a tanning agent after being ground into powder, harvested from April to July (E, 142; Je, 208); (v) peel off bark (L 239), see

barrel hoops
flexible cleft rods, usually from hazel coppice cut at eight years, for binding wooden barrels (Je, 31) see

basket willow
particular varieties of willow grown for basket making, such as Black Mawl and Champion Rod (Je, 43)

basketware
flexible sticks, usually of one year old willow withies, q.v., for weaving around stouter sticks, usually from willow pollards (E, 140; Je, 42-44 et al)

bavin
faggots, q.v., bound together by 2 weefs, q.v., used by bakers in bread ovens (Ja, 297), see

beadle


bed
the resting up of a roe (M, 45 (v))

beech
good fire and charcoal wood, and for furniture; not durable out of doors (E 1958, 94)

bell-pit
bell-shaped shaft dug by miners

bencher
member of local court drawn from the old men of a district, evidenced in Malvern Chase, at Hanley Castle (Worcestershire), in sixteenth century

bercary
sheep farm (R 165). See

bercelet
shooting dog (BG 204-5); a hound hunting by scent = specially trained brach for searching out deer? (T 134); see also limehound?

berewick
dependent settlement or outlying hamlet contributing to the sustenance of a manor (R 165)

berner
man in charge of hounds (BG 205-6; T 133)

berry
(n) fruit with seed enclosed in pulp [e.g. holly], (v) come into berry, collect berries (OED)

bersa
an enclosed piece of forest ground or the enclosing fence; =

besom
see

bevy
a gathering of roe deer (M, 45 (v))

bevy grease
the fat of a roe deer (M, 46 (r))

billet wood
pieces of wood usually obtained from the larger branches of trees, measure set out in Assize of Fuel (1553) still in force in 1740 (Ja, 297)

billhook
axe-like long-handled tool, used for cleaving sticks for wattle (E, 140)

binder
also known as ether, ethering, headering, hether and roder. Long pliant rod of hazel or willow interwoven along the top of a cut-and-laid hedge (Ja, 297)

birk
birch (Ja, 297)

biscuity
see 'frow'

bisshunter
hunter of rabbits for fur (BG 206)

black coal
charcoal (L 236)

blackthorn
thorny shrub bearing white flowers before leaves and small plums or sloes; cudgel or walking-stick of this (OED)

blat(t)erne
sapling, young tree

blaze
mark made on a tree trunk by slicing off bark

blettro
sapling (of oak or beech), too small to be saleable (T 135-6)

boar
wild boar (q.v.) in its fourth year (M, 43 (r))

bodger
maker of small pieces of furniture, e.g. stools

bole
main stem of a tree below where branching begins (Ja, 298)

boll
removal of branches from a tree, or side branches from hedgerow trees (Ja, 298), see 'brash', 'shroud'

bolling
the trunk of a pollard tree, as opposed to the regret (R. Thomas, pers. comm.)

boscage
money paid for windfall wood (M, 88 (r))

bote
e.g. housebote, haybote/hedgebote, and plowbote, the right to wood and timber from Crown

bottle
or spray; bundle of brushwood twigs esp. of birch for besoms (Ja, 298) see

bough
tree-branch (if on tree, one of the chief branches) (OED); right of forest officer to take fallen branches

bound
(n) limit of territory or estate or other prescribed area; (v) set bounds to, limit (OED). See

bounder
boundary marker (Ja, 298)

bounds
limits of a prescribed area, e.g. a forest. Under the Charter of the Forest (1217), the boundary markers of a forest belonged to the king (M, 10 (r)). See

bowbearer
forest official, originally an office held by serjeanty (R 165)

brach(et)
hound hunting by scent = bercelet?(T 136) (Stagg,

bracken
fern abundant on heaths (OED); dry ferns, scythed in autumn, for animal bedding (E, 142)

braid
breadth, brede or bredth. Unit of area (in Oxon) of coppice, 1 pole (5.5 yds) x 22 yds, at 40 per acre (Ja, 298) see rod, acre

brash
remove side branches from a tree, or material so removed (E, 177); small branches removed from boles of young trees of c 10 years old (Ja, 298)

breast height
standard height for measuring the girth of a standing tree, usually 4ft 3ins above ground level (E, 177)

broche
twigs and debris of trees (L 236)

brocket
male red deer in its second year (M 41 (v)), in another place third year (BG 226); in medieval times, a buck (T 137)

broom
yellow-flowered shrub growing on sandy banks, etc.; sweeping instrument, usually on long handle [often manufactured in forest woodland] (OED)

broom squire
itinerant maker of besoms or brooms, made from heather or birch twigs bound by withies, canes or wire to rods of hazel, ash or lime (Je, 84)

buck
male of fallow [or roe] deer, especially in its sixth or later year (M, 43 (v)), hare, rabbit, goat, etc. (OED)

buck
see

buckhound
small variety of staghound (OED)

buckstall
toil, q.v., or net to take deer

bullock
male red deer in its second year (BG 226)

bush
tail of a fox (M, 45 (v))

bustard
bird traditionally reserved for the use of earls (B); however, not being a bird of prey, the 'bustard' may have been a buzzard or harrier (from French busard) (HCT)

butt
larger or basal end of a tree trunk or log; a felled bole (Ja, 298)

buzzard
see

calf
male or female red deer in its first year (M 41 (v) and 43 (r)) (BG 226)

cane
hazel rod of 6 feet, cleft for making barrel hoops, fish traps, brooms, hurdles &c (Ja, 298; Je, 84)

cant
unit to subdivied coppices into working units (Ja, 298); an area of variable extent on which coppice is cut, or grows at an even age

carr
land which is badly drained and prone to flooding, often colonised by alder (R 165)

cartbote
tenants

cartouche
decorative panel on early modern map enclosing information about the location, contents, patron, surveyor, and date

cess
a set yearly payment to the Exchequer, like a farm, from the person responsible for collecting fines (other than for assarts) for one or more forests: anciently 'sess' as in 'assessment' (OED)

chace
see