"Woodmen" of the Forest (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, July 31, 2013, 14:34 (4135 days ago) @ pojames

Hi POJ,
I'm sure Slowhands will know for sure, but just to say that in my more limited FH experience the term Woodman seems quite prevalent in the Victorian Census returns, I think more so than say Keeper. To me this suggests that Woodman was an official occupation funded by the Crown, I also GUESS that many of these woodmen perhaps reported up to the Keeper, if you like they were perhaps the "ag-labs" of the Forest where as the Keeper was the "Farmer" ?, still highly skilled at their tasks of course just less senior. Each Keeper was responsible for his own area, or Walk, as per my linked thread earlier which you've probably read by now.

While searching tinternet today I was delighted to find what looked like a most promising website, however they don't have a definition for Woodman !, grr.
However for Forester it suggests

"Forests and Chases in England and Wales, c. 1000 to c. 1850
A Glossary of Terms and Definitions

"forester
keeper; officer appointed by letters patent under oath to preserve vert and venison within a forest and walk his bailiwick daily, attach offenders and present them at courts of attachment, swanimote and eyre, and to lead regarders on their inspection of a forest (M, 138 (r), 200 (r) - 206 (r), 194 (v) and 248 (r)). See 'forester in fee', ‘gatherings’, ‘keeper’, ‘regard’, ‘scot-ale’, ‘underkeeper’, ‘walker’ "

"keeper or custos
generic term for supervisory forest officer, both superior (e.g. the warden of a forest) and local (usually the officer responsible for guarding vert and venison and presenting offenders, attached to a particular bailiwick) (Le 34); ‘forester’ (Le 67); ‘Chief Keepers of the Forests’ (one for England south of the Trent, one for the north), i.e. the chief justices in eyre for the forests, were among the principal ministers of the Crown whose appointment Edward II agreed, in his Ordinances of 1311, to make before Parliament. See 'forester'

http://info.sjc.ox.ac.uk/forests/glossary.htm#F

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I was pleasantly surprised to find that Surrey public Librairies, so maybe yours too, carry the superb book "Forest of Dean : new history 1550-1818" by the aptly names Dr Cyril Hart, a renowned historian & practicing expert on all things wrt the Dean Forest, his books are an absolute authority on all aspects of managing the Crown Woodlands thro the centuries.
http://www.deanverderers.org.uk/election.html
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=18711

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Re the deer, when I was a kid in the 70s we were led to believe there were two herds each with their own patch, but I knew not whereabouts. Spending almost all our summer holidays in the woods above my Cinderford home at the eastern edge of the Forest around Latimer Lodge or maybe west thro Cannop & Speech House towards Coleford, we often tried to "stalk" them. Of course we NEVER saw ONE, probably making so much noise they were watching us from their hides, a dense shaded forest with bright sunlit tracks & clearings being perfect cover for their camouflage. In later years I gathered the best places to see them were either crossing roads at night, or grazing the open grass areas at dawn before retreating under wooded cover for the day, all these in the West of the Forest near Coleford & Monmouth. When my now-wife visited the Forest for the first time Christmas 1990, I jokingly told her the "beware the deer" roadsigns were to encourage tourists and "you never see them"....the next day while walking a Forest track 100yards off the main road at Speech House we nearly fell over a deer that was lying still & silent in the ferns, it sprangup and was off in an instant, they instinctively lie still rely on their natural camouflage in this way.

This is an excellent video wrt seeing and understanding the history of the deer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1MoMHYahvM
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=deer+dean+forest&oq=deer+dean+forest&am...

As you can see on that videosite, all the talk and probably tourist interest is in the vurriner wild boar, a very emotive subject I'll avoid, except to say that I think that most locals think them a very destructive & expensive "pest" & less attractive too, and who am I to disagree...