Charles was executed as a result of the English Civil Wars. King James I loved to hunt in Sherwood, but his son, the ill-fated Charles I was the last king to use it as a hunting forest. But for some time, within the depths of the forest, life for the peasant classes continued as it always had. Markets also appeared, as at Mansfield and Market Warsop.Īfter Henry VIII closed all the English abbeys in 1536 (The Dissolution), former monastic land was granted or sold into private ownership, and much of this land was gradually converted into country house estates.
Established forest communities grew larger, and new ones were created, some often marked by the name ‘woodhouse’, such as Mansfield Woodhouse. Among the abbeys founded during this period were Rufford, Thurgarton and Newstead. In the 12th and 13th centuries, various Christian monastic orders had established large estates within Sherwood Forest, on land granted to them by the Crown. Cattle, sheep and deer grazed 'wood pasture'. The autumn crop of acorns produced in oak woodland was used to feed pigs. 'Underwood' (twigs, brushwood etc) was collected and sold for domestic fuel, and the woodland supported several industries, such as charcoal burning and the stripping of oak bark to use in tanning leather. Landowners got the most value from their woodland by using techniques such as 'coppicing' and 'pollarding' to produce poles and laths for building. It was a productive resource that was carefully managed. Sherwood also contained three Royal deer parks, near Nottingham Castle, Bestwood and Pittance (Clipstone) Park.
It comprised birch and oak woodland, interspersed with large areas of open sandy heath and rough grassland. Medieval Sherwood was not - as many imagine - a continuous swathe of dense virgin forest. The main London to York road, the Great North Way, ran straight through Sherwood, and travellers were often at the mercy of robbers living outside of the law. In the 1200s, popularly thought to be the time of Robin Hood, Sherwood covered about 100,000 acres, which was a fifth of the entire county of Nottinghamshire. These laws were strictly and severely imposed by agisters, foresters, verderers (wardens) and rangers, who were all were employed by the Crown.
'Forest' was a legal term, and meant an area subject to special Royal laws designed to protect the valuable resources of timber and game (Vert and Venison) within its boundaries. The ruins of King John’s hunting lodge can still be seen near the Nottinghamshire village of Kings Clipstone. It became a Royal hunting forest after the Norman invasion of 1066, and was popular with many Norman kings, particularly King John and Edward I. The name 'Sherwood' was first recorded in 958AD when it was called Sciryuda, meaning 'the woodland belonging to the shire'. Names ending in ‘by’ like Thoresby, are Scandinavian in origin, ‘thorpe’ as in Gleadthorpe are Danish, and ‘feld’ (field) as in Mansfield, are Roman. Most of these communities still exist today. By the 9th century, farming communities were making a greater impact on the Sherwood landscape. During the late Iron Age and Roman periods, human habitation and farming was more common. Early historyĮvidence of flint tools shows some use of the Sherwood area by prehistoric hunter-gatherers. The park is within an area which originally bore a Viking name “birch lund”, now known as Birklands. Sherwood Country Park lies just north of Edwinstowe, two miles from Ollerton and 17 miles north of Nottingham on the A614 Nottingham-Doncaster road. History of Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood and Major Oak