|
Neolithic age
Long barrows and later Bronze age round barrows
show the area was settled from at least 3000 BC. 500BC to 40AD: This period saw an increase in social organisation and,
towards the end of the period, earthworks such as Knollbury Camp and Grim's Ditch were constructed. The latter is
a series of earthworks enclosing 22 sq. miles.
Roman
There was a strong Roman presence in the region, which was well placed on the road network
with Akeman Street (Verulamium/St Albans to Corinium/Cirencester) crossing it. C4th Roman villas have been found at North
Leigh and Stonesfield and would have been highly elaborate, with mosaic floors, bath suites and central heating. Other
villas date from earlier centuries.
Saxon
After the decline of Roman control much of the open land reverted to woodland.
Later Saxon settlements were restricted to the woodland edge or large clearings.
The
name Wychwood (Hwiccewudu) derives from the Saxon name for the Hwicce tribe that inhabited the region at this time.
The Wychwood Forest is thought to have supplied wood for the Droitwich salt industry. Hwicce princes had a monopoly
on salt production in the Droitwich area.
In the reign of Ethelred II (978-1016)
a royal hunting lodge was established at Woodstock.
1086
By the C10th
the Wychwood area had royal associations and in the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as Royal Forest. At this time
it stretched over 182 square miles, about 120,00 acres, from Taynton in the west to Woodstock in the east.
The term "forest"
was a legal one referring to a tract of land outside (from the Latin word foris) and did not mean that the whole area was
wooded.
The King had hunting rights over the whole are designated as Royal
Forest, even though much of the land was held by various Lords of the Manor. Only the woodland at Woodstock (later
Blenheim), Cornbury and a large area near Kingstanding Farm belonged directly to the King.
C12th
and C13th
The pressures of a growing population led to increasing demands
for land. Many of the forest villages date from these centuries. Finstock is first recorded in 1135; Ramsden (1146),
Fawler (1205), Leafield (1213), Crawley (1214) and Hailey (1240). These villages are often quite straggling in form,
reflecting their origins as assarted fields cleared from woodland. Many of them did not have village churches until
the C19th.
Henry I (1100-1135) created the park at Woodstock, building the
first park wall in about 1110. The park was used to house his collection of wild animals from many parts of the world.
The chronicler, William of Malmesbury refers to lions, leopards, lynxes, camels and even a porcupine.
1154 to 1189, the reign of Henry II
The size of the Forest was at its greatest.
1300
By this time it was divided into 3 portions, centred on the parks of Woodstock, Cornbury and a part
which included the Bishop of Winchester's Witney estate.
At the perambulation
of 1300 the forest ran from Woodstock in the east to beyond Burford in the west, and from Chadlington in the north to Witney
and beyond in the south. The Forest covered some 50,000 acres.
1535
From records we know that a sale of 11 hectares
of underwood realised £4 2s 3d, but even in those days coppicing was not always profitable for the cost to enclose the
same area was £9 9s 0d.
1704
Woodstock Park was given by the Crown to the Duke of Marlborough.
(Cornbury was already in private hands).
1778
The navy procured 500 trees from Wychwood yet by 1792 a scathing report by the Crown Commissioners
found only 173 oaks of ship building quality, with fences down, coppices full of deer, cattle and swine, and the locals helping
themselves to firewood. By 1809, a surveyor could not find "one fine tree of navy oak" in a ride of sixteen
or seventeen miles.
1792
Only
1501 hectares of the Forest remained.
1857
The 10 sq. miles of Wychwood remaining as Royal Forest was taken out of Forest Law by a Parliamentary
Act of Disafforestation. Ancient forest rights, granted to commoners, were ended and the the commoners compensated.
Within 2 years 2000 acres of woodland was converted to farmland and housing,
with the timber felled from this acreage sold for £34,000.
10
miles of new roads were built. Seven new farmsteads were built, including King's Standing Farm. The parish of Leafield
and it's church dates from this time.
1864
to the present day
The remaining woodland
was enclosed in 1867 and still exists: all that is left of the ancient Forest of Wychwood. At 870 hectares it is the
largest area of ancient woodland in Oxfordshire. The central part forms a National Nature Reserve containing over 360
species of flowering plants and ferns, and most of the rest is a site of Special Scientific Interest.
|
|
|
|
