William Billington (General)

by slowhands , Wednesday, March 30, 2005, 07:55 (7171 days ago) @ Sam Hale

William Billington resided in Parkend from 1810 - 1818 approx. He was appointed by Lord Glenbervie to superintend the replanting of the Dean following the passing of the Dean Forest Timber Act of 1808. Much of the following information comes from two books by Dr Cyril Hart, "Royal Forest; a history of Deans's woods" Clarendon Press, and "Forest of Dean; New History 1550 - 1818" ISBN 0-7509-0957-9 (?) published by Alan Sutton.

In Part 5 of the latter book can be found Billington's account of his 8 years work in the Forest of Dean, the difficulties encountered and surmounted, the failures and successes he experienced and the lessons learned. He wrote a book entitled 'A Series of Facts, Hints, Observations and Experiments on the Different Modes of raising young plantations of Oak for future Navies from the Acorn, Seedling and larger plants, showing the Difficulties and Objections that have occurred in the Practical Part' etc.

He moved from the Dean in 1818 and in the autumn of 1819 he started work for the Commissioners of Woods and Forests at Chopwell Woods in County Durham, and it was here that he wrote his treatise on his work in the Forest of Dean.

In 1829 his appointment had ended and he subsequently resided in Shrewsbury and County Mayo in Ireland where he was still living in 1854. It is not known when and where he died but it appears that he was a somewhat embittered man, having had a series of disagreements with Alexander Milne and others about his work and methods carried out in the Forest of Dean and Chopwell Wood.