Radnor Forest – a historic landscape
Radnor Forest was part of the property of the Earl of March, and on the succession of King Edward IV it became through Edmund, the last Earl, vested in the Crown.
It was a ‘bounden forest’ and if any subject passed through without a token from the forester or farmer, he could have a joint of one of his hands cut off and also to forfeit any money he had on his person. Any cattle straying into the Forest were forfeited. In 1536 under Henry 8th an Act was passed to annul these.
Therefore the Forest became ‘disafforested’.
The Crown then let it out to a farmer who then allowed people from adjoining parishes to put their cattle on the lands charging them a fee.
In the time of Queen Elizabeth I it is recorded that the Forest is 3000 acres, 2000 is waste heath and wild marshy ground, 8 acres of low shrubs and hazel bushes and thorn that has been destroyed by people living nearby, 200 acres is better grazing than the rest and cattle and sheep graze there. The rent then was £9 and it was paid to Stephen Vaughan, gentleman.
A jury sitting at an inquisition in 1564 said that a William Abbott had the Forest given to him by Henry VIII and that tenants from New and Old Radnor, Cascob, Bleddfa, Llanfihangel Rhydithon, Llandegley, Llanfihangel Nant Melan paid 2 pence for grazing every ox, cow, or other beast, 2 pence for every score of sheep or goats. They decided that the Forest was worth £9 and no more as the farmer has to go around the villages to get money. The jury also state that before the 1536 act ‘none dare go into the Forest’.
In 1573 a decree of the Court of Exchequer had a complaint from Hugh Davies in the name of the above Parishes over the charges being made, it was then ordered that for every ox or cow 6d be paid, bullock, heifer, yearling 2d, horse 6d, score of sheep 12d, all beasts marked by the ‘towns’. No turf cutting [turbury] be dug except where the farmer allows. The Lease went to Rees Lewis in 1575, and in 1589 by Letters Patent the Forest was granted to Sir Gelli Meyrick and his wife and Rowland Meyrick for a rent of £10 and one beast for a heriot on the death of any of them. He held it until 1634 when King Charles Ist conveyed it for £13545/15/10d to Sir William Russell, William Collins and Ed. Fenn of London ‘our Forest of Radnor’ which had been formerly given to Gelli Meyrick. Sir William Russell conveyed the Forest to John Powell, grocer of London in 1636, and two years later granted his interest to John Powell. His son, also John, sold the Radnor Forest in 1650 to Thomas Lewis of Harpton.
