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

several
close or inclosed field (P 205)

shaw
a small wood or spinney, especially one growing along the edge of a field (Ja, 303)

sherewood
narrow strip of woodland (Ja, 303)

sheriff
literally

shrammell
twigs removed from browsewood before loading into carts (Penn 161, 4)

sike
pertaining to a small manor in Brigstock, Northamptonshire (Rockingham Forest) (P 205)

single
tail of a fallow or roe deer (M 45 (v))

slang
strip of land (used as a measure of coppice) (L 238)

slivery
ash coppice grown to a large size, then cut into short lengths and cleft into barrel hoop material (Ja, 303)

slop
spale basket (Je, 53)

slot
footprint of a hart (M 46 (r))

smokesilver
payment for the right of gathering firewood (L 238)

snare
contrivance, usually of wire or twine, used to entrap an animal; disdained by huntsmen, but much used by poachers. (BG 257)

soar
male fallow deer (buck) of the fourth year (T 148, after M 43 (v)); see

sore
male fallow deer (buck) in its fourth year (M 43 (v)); see

sorel
male fallow deer (buck) of the third year (T 148, after M 43 (v))

soreth
footprint of a hare in plain field (M 46 (r)); see also

south boys
see

spale
thin strips of wood cut from 25

spaniel
small scenting dog, used particularly to send up birds to be shot (BG 255-56); see also 'law'

spar
timber cut for a beam, bar, or rafter; general term for yards, gaffs, etc.; the original sense seems to have been

spay
male red deer of the third year (H); see 'spayad'

spayad
male red deer in its third year (M 41 (v)), see

spear oak
(in Epping Forest), an oak tree allowed to grow to full size, without being pollarded (Ja, 303)

speck
boiled strips of oak woven into baskets around hazel rim and handles (E, 1958, 210), see also

spinney
small copse (Ja, 303)

spire
young timber tree reaching a considerable height before having branches (P 205)

sprag
short pit-prop (L 238)

spray
see

spray
small material stripped off the branches of coppice and made into coal wood or bavins (Ja, 303)

spurn
spur root, main root (L 238)

stack wood
similar to cordwood, but in a heap 3ft or 3ft 6in high by 3ft 6in wide and 12ft long (Ja 304), firewood stacked ready for the cart (Penn 162, 4)

stag
adult male red deer, technically one in its fourth year, before becoming a hart (BG 226; T 149, after M), but see 'staggon', 'great stag', and 'hart';

stag-headed
tree with dead wood in its crown (Ja, 302)

staggard
(1) (fauna) male red deer, hart in its fourth year (M 41 (v)), but see 'stag'; (2) (sylviculture) wilding transported into a hedge (L 238)

staggon
staggon or stag: adult male red deer in its fourth year (H)

stalking horse
originally, horse trained for the purpose and covered with trappings, so as to conceal the sportsman from the game he intended to shoot at [especially in fowling]; later a canvas figure to be stuffed, and painted like a horse grazing, but sufficiently light that it might be moved at pleasure with one hand; also

standard
tree which stands alone or above the underwood (P 205); a large tree grown in a coppice crop (E, 180); tree selected to remain standing after the rest of the stand has been felled (L 238); selected tree allowed to grow to full size in a coppice (Ja, 304)

stannary
court of tin miners in the Forest of Dartmoor; see also

start
disturb a hare from its seat (M 45 (v))

starveling
ailing tree (Ja 304)

stern
tail of a wolf (M 45 (v))

steward
lawyer who directed officers on court procedures (M 216 (r))

stint
limit the number of cattle etc. allowed to be kept on commonable land (P 205)

stob
a fence stake (E, 180)

stock
clear ground of stumps (L 239

stock up
to grub up (Ja, 304)

stole
young coppice shoot (Ja, 304)

stool
base of a tree felled to produce coppice shoots (no provenance); the base or stump of a coppice tree (E, 180)

stoop
stone post used as a boundary stone, gatepost, or stile stone; also, in Duffield Frith, Derbyshire, a wooden post used in the construction of a pale fence (R 169)

stooping
method by which falcon takes its prey, dropping at speed from a great height

store
(v) leave young trees uncut in a coppice crop; (n) young trees so left (E, 180)

strip
see

stub
tree stump (Ja, 304)

stub(b)
portion of trunk remaining after a timber tree was felled; stump from which underwood is grown; trunk of a pollard tree in medieval times (T 147 and 149)

sucker
young tree arising from the roots of an older one (E, 180)

suet
fat of red and fallow deer (M 46 (r)); see also

suit
(houses, wood) houses held or wood taken by right or suit of court (P 205)

summer
large beam (L 239)

surcharge
1. oppression of inhabitants by forest officer, punishable under the Charter and Ordinance of the Forest (1217, 1306) (M 12 (r) and 203 (v)); see

swainmote
see

swan
water-bird, a beast under royal protection; the marking, of

swanimote
also

swill
spale basket (Je, 53)

swine
pigs, grazed annually in the woods on (oak acorn, beech, or sweetchestnut) mast

swinemote
court of the pannage (L 239); see also

sycamore
hard light coloured wood used in turnery, and for clog soles by non-itinerant makers (Je, 59, 235) and for rollers (E, 1958, 47-8)

sylviculture
the practice and art of cultivating and managing trees and woodland

tack
grazing agreement (R 170)

tal(l)wood
logs cut in 4ft lengths (Penn 162, 4)

taleshide
faggot of round, half round or cleft branches as defined in Assize of Fuel (1553, 1601) (Ja, 304)

tally-ho
hunting cry, said to be derived from Old French equivalent of il est haut,

tan fluing
see 'bark-stripping' (Ja, 304)

taw
make hides into leather (BG 261)

teller
see

tenant at will
tenant established as a reward with a revocable tenure (R 170)

tenant in chief
person who held land directly from the King, often the owner of a large number of manors, in which case he might choose to sub-let, enfeof, to under tenants (R 170)

tercel
the male of any kind of hawk, q.v. (S 636)

thatch spar
forked length of thin cleft hazel or whole willow used to hold down thatch on houses, ricks and corn stacks. Sold in bundle of 50-100 (E, 140; Je, 39-40)

thickstuff
planking more than four inches thick (L 239)

thin
remove selected young trees to benefit the remainder of a crop (E, 180)

thistletake
fee (one halfpenny per beast in sixteenth-century Galtres Forest) levied on cattle and sheep passing through a forest (W 161, VCH Yorks 1, p. 504). Compare

thriven
see

throw
fell (Ja, 304)

tiller
stool shoot, coppice shoot, sucker (L 239)

tinker
itinerant metal worker; mender of kettles and pans, so-called because of the tinking sound, from Middle English tinken,

tithe
legal obligation (by the eighth century) to give one-tenth of all the produce of land to the work of God, the great tithes of corn and hay and the small tithes of livestock, wool and non-cereal crops generally going to support the parish priest but sometimes to [an absentee rector or religious house with rectorial rights

tithing
grouping of ten or twelve households mutually responsible for communal behaviour (R 170)

toft
small enclosure close to a cottage (croft) (R 170)

toil
net or snare (S); pl.,

township
area of local administration based on a discrete settlement or collection of homesteads, usually coterminous with, or a constituent of, the parish, q.v.; see also

tract
see

transhumance
seasonal movement of livestock to summer pastures, often upland which could also be forest (e.g. Dartmoor, Devon, and Clee Forest, Shropshire)

traverse
court plea denying an allegation in the indictment of an offence, so that the issue must be postponeed in allow further inquiry (Ba 77, Sw 832-22)

treading
footprint of a boar (M 46 (r))

trug
spale basket (Je, 55), see also 'spale', 'speck'

turbary
common right to dig peat for fuel from manorial waste (R 170)

turn
convert timber by spinning it on a lathe against cutting tools (E, 180)

turnery
the working of wood on a lathe (Je, 59)

tush
draw timber across the ground without a carriage (E, 180)