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

fallow deer
see

farm
(legal) rent for land or property, deriving from Latin firma, a fixed money rent (R 166)

fascine
bundle of rods stouter than those in faggots, used for support in construction on marshy ground (E, 140)

fathom
a measure of capacity for rough sawn timber = 216 cu. ft, measured as 6ft x 6ft x 6ft (E, 178)

fauna
animal life of a particular region, from Latin Fauna, female counterpart of Faunus (giving English

fawn
male or female fallow deer (buck) of the first year (M, 43 (v)), the term itself derived via Old French and Late Latin from Latin foetus, 'offspring' [not to be confused with

fawning
giving birth to fawn, q.v.; see also

featy (fealty?)
obligation of fidelity on the part of feudal tenants to Lord (P 205)

fee
heriditable [sic] right to estate or office of profit, technically held on condition of feudal homages (P 205); possession of land for a fixed annual service or payment (R 166)

fee deer
right (as

fee farm
tenure by which land is held in fee simple subject to a perpetual fixed rent and no other services (P 205); specific holding for which payment was to the Crown (R 166)

fee tree
tree given to an official in recompense for duties (R 166)

fee-
(combined with

fence month
or

fern
plant of the division Polypodiophyta; any of a large number of flowerless, seedless vascular plants having roots, stems, and fronds and reproducing by spores; including the so-called

fewterer
man attendant on greyhounds (BG 212); person in charge of greyhounds (T 137)

ffridd
areas in Wales (pronounced 'frith' and also known as coedcae) with forest-like characteristics, diverse habitats between lowland and upland, a mixture of grass and heathland with bracken, scrub (often hawthorn and gorse) or rock exposures and may also include flushes, mires, streams and standing water, almost exclusively found on slopes and often grading gently into upland mosaics and lowland pasture and woodland (Brecon Beacons National Park biodiversity statement, http://www.breconbeacons.org/environment/bd-in-the-bbnp/the-uplands/ffridd, accessed January 26, 2010. Cf. 'frith'

fine
premium or lump sum paid to landowners on grant or renewal of lease whose fixed rent no longer represents the real annual value (P 205); amount paid on occupying a holding by a copyhold or leasehold tenant in accordance with local custom (R 166)

fir apples
pine cones (Ja, 300)

fire-bote
estover (q.v.) which was the common right to take firewood (R 166); right of tenants on a manor to take wood for fuel (L 237); see

flag
see

flake or fleak
sheep hurdle (Ja, 300)

flawing
see

fleake
cleft hurdle (L 237)

float or flott
raft (L 237)

fogg
poor quality grassland on which cattle could fend for themselves in the winter months (R 166)

footgeld
see

forest (legal)
hunting preserve of the king or lord-marcher, subject to forest law but not necessarily woodland (L 237); originally an area of land in which only the owner had the right to hunt deer and boar. Special laws were applied in this area which was outside the jurisdiction of common law (ED, R 166)

forest courts
see

forest eyre
highest forest court, established by Henry II, held by itinerant forest justices, under the authority of two Chief Justices of the Forest, one for north and one for south of the river Trent, after 1238. The court was called into being by the king

forestall
intercept and cut off (e.g. deer being driven into the forest) goods before reaching the public market (P 205)

forester
keeper; officer appointed by letters patent under oath to preserve vert and venison within a forest and walk his bailiwick daily, attach offenders and present them at courts of attachment, swanimote and eyre, and to lead regarders on their inspection of a forest (M, 138 (r), 200 (r) - 206 (r), 194 (v) and 248 (r)). See 'forester in fee',

forester in fee
hereditary forester who paid a fee to the king for the custody of a forest bailiwick (M, 200 (v), Stagg).

forestry
the practice and art of woodland management

fork
cruck; forked (y-shaped) piece of timber (L 237)

form
see 'seat'

fother
weight of lead which varied between areas but was equivalent to approximately one ton (R 166)

fox
animal hunted as vermin or beast of warren, especially from the late C18th (BG 212-14)

fox trees
trees granted to foresters as a reward for keeping down foxes and other vermin (W 147)

franchise
see

free miner
miner enjoying specific franchise, e.g. in the Forest of Dean, where anyone born in the forest, i.e. within the Hundred of St Briavels, and who has worked in a mine for a year and a day, may open up his own

free warren
right to hunt game on one

freeboard
stip of land outside the whole boundary of a deer park, stretching five to seven metres from the pale. Also known as

freebord
right to a narrow strip of land outside the fence around a park or forest (P 205)

freehay
disafforested land or wood similar to purlieus (P 205)

freehold
status of property and land not subject to the customs of the manor, as opposed to copyhold, q.v., heritable and disposable (R 166)

frith
enclosure, forest, wood, also in the sense of enclosed land, enclosure, park for hunting, forest, wood, cf. Old English fri

frow
decay or crumble (Ja, 300); wood which is crumbly with broken grain (George Sturt, The Wheelwright's Shop, 1923 - brought to our attention by John Massey, to whom we are very grateful for this reference and also for biscuity, an apparent synonym)

fumes
excrement of deer, used to discover the nature and size of animals in preparation for hunting (BG 209-10)

furlong
40 rods, i.e. the length of an acre (C, 36)

furnace
industrial structure in which raw material, particularly iron-ore, is smelted, often in forests because of the availability of wood fuel

furnished
equipped with side branches or foliage (E, 178)

fusta
(Med. Lat.) timber (Thomas, pers. comm.)

futtock
one of the middle timbers in the frame of a ship (L 237)

fyants
the excrement of a fox and other vermin, reported on by foresters (M, 46 (r))

gad
faggot wood (L 237), see also

game
animal or bird hunted

garble
to thin a wood (Ja, 300)

gathering
act of collecting natural products of field or forest, such as building timber, wood fuel, nuts, herbs, bracken, mushrooms, and honey, q.v.; prescriptive right of commoners and/or customary tenants of a manor; taking of hay, oats or other corn, lambs or pigs from forest inhabitants by foresters not sanctioned by tenure, grant, or prescription (M, 203 (r) and (v)). See

gipsy
see

girth, girt
circumference of a tree or log (E, 178)

gista
(Med. Lat.) joists (Thomas, pers. com.)

glade
open place in a wood (BG 212)

goshawk
bird of prey, traditionally associated with the yeoman and expected to keep the larder stocked with common small-game (International Association for Falconry)

grace
see

grace time
see

grasanese
obligation of bondmen to feed their swine in the lord

grease
fat of a boar, hare, or deer, though a fat deer was said to be

grease time
period when deer were fittest to hunt for food, not including the whole hunting season (BG 215-16); season when deer were in grease and deer at that time were known as

great hare
a hare in its third or later year (M, 43 (r))

great stag
male red deer of the fifth year before becoming a hart (q.v.) in its sixth (H), but see

great tree
see standard (Ja, 300)

greyhound
running dog that chased by sight (BG 216-18). Large dogs other than mastiffs, such as greyhounds and spaniels were forbidden from forests except by licence from forest justices (M, 107 (v) - 119 (v)). See also

grissell
fresh-cut grass for fodder (Galtres Forest) (VCH Yorks 1, p. 504)

groundsel
large timber, usually for the foundation of a timber building (Penn 161, 4)

grove
collection of timber trees only (Ja, 301)

grub
remove tree roots after felling (Ja, 301)

gypsy
traditional term applied to romany nomads or travellers (see also 'romany'), whose traditional livelihoods included the making and selling of low-value forest products such as simple furniture and brooms, and the trading of horses, frequently reared in forests and sold at fairs on forest peripheries [where they might also perform entertainments]; from the Middle English spelling of

gyrle
roe deer in its second year (M, 44 (r))

hadder
see

hag(g)
parcel of wood marked off for cutting (P 205); managed area of woodland (R 167); area of land felled by a hagman for bark stripping, varying from 10 to 100 acres, the total fall of which was known as a flag (Ja, 297) see bark-stripping

halmote
see

hamble
see

hand-set
young plant from nursery (L 237)

harbour
(v) discover the lair of a deer preparatory to hunting; (n) resting up of a hart (M 45 (v))

hare
valued quarry for greyhounds due to nimbleness and palatability; perhaps hunted by women; sometimes classified as a beast of venery or chase [q.v.], and sometimes as a beast of warren [q.v.] (BG 219-22); least of the noble beasts of venery, but

harrier
(1) small running hound, used especially to hunt hares (BG 222-24), (2) term in falconry, see

hart
adult male red deer, technically of five years old [but see H and M following], with antlers rated at ten or more; the most highly esteemed hunting quarry (BG 224-7); adult male red deer of the sixth year (H), male red deer of any age, but particularly in its sixth and later years (M 39 (r) and 42 (r)). See

hart royal
a hart which escaped the king

hassil
hazel (Ja, 301)

haut boys
see

hawk
(n) bird of prey which hunts in woodland; (v) see

hawking
the art [and practice] of training and flying of hawks, for the purpose of catching other birds, very frequently called falconry [though falcons, q.v., hunt in a different way] (St 21)

hay
enclosure (used loosely in the Middle Ages for any form of enclosure) (R 167); enclosure in the forest (L 237); hedge, from haw[thorn] (S), hence hedged enclosure and OE haga, enclosure generally

haybote
right of tenants on a manor to take wood for making and repairing fences and hedges (L 237); according to the Charter of the Forest (1217), haybote must be collected under the view of the verderers (M 9 (v)); every man may take heybote from his own woods in the forest, by view of the foresters (Co 299). See also

head
n. crown or mass of branches above the bole of a tree; v. to remove the crown (Ja, 301)

heath
(1) wild open country (S 266); (2) plant, see

heather
small, evergreen shrub, usually associated with

hedge
see

hedgebote
see