1818 Pasture To Let and Prosecution for Trespass
Were the Vellacotts at Hoar Oak affected?
The sale of the Royal Forest of Exmoor in 1818 caused some anxiety to those who had century’s old Commoners Rights to take their cattle and sheep up on to the Exmoor Hills for summer pasturage. In Roger Burton’s file of research notes* – kindly gifted to the Friends for safe keeping – are two interesting references to newspaper articles at the time. The first is from the 27th August 1818 and is a notice posted in the Taunton Courier by John Knight – the new owner of Exmoor – offering pasturage for a fee on Exmoor. The notice reads: ‘Exmoor Forest Notice is hereby given, that the Royal Allotment on the above Forest will be CONTINUED as a PUBLIC SHEEP PASTURE. The Price of the Summer Keep of Sheep and Lambs will soon be inserted in this paper. JOHN KNIGHT. Simons Bath. August 6, 1818.’
Clearly the new owner Knight intended to keep earning income from farmers using their old right to use the Forest for public sheep pasture. However, by October of the same year it looks like relations between Knight and the farmers have soured – or maybe this is just a warning shot from Knight across the locals’ bows. In the October 29th, 1818 edition of the Taunton Courier the tone has changed slightly. This notice reads: ‘Exmoor Forest. Qualified persons are hereby requested not to destroy the GAME and FISH on the above forest. Poachers will be punished as the law directs. Those who cut turf, heath or commit any other trespass will be prosecuted without any further notice. JOHN KNIGHT. Simons Bath Sept 30, 1818.’
Elsewhere on these newspaper pages can be seen several types of warnings to ‘qualified’ people to not do what they weren’t ‘qualified’ to do. In this case ‘qualified’ would probably be more accurately read as ‘allowed’ to do……in other words those farmers allowed to take their beasts up onto the moor for summer pasture were not allowed to fish, shoot game, cut turf or heath or do anything else Knight deemed as trespass.
These two little newspaper clippings cast an interesting insight into the shaky period of changeover from Exmoor Forest being a Royal Forest to becoming a private estate.
Images: Thank you to the British Newspaper Archive. All Rights Reserved.
* The Exmoor Historian, Roger A Burton published ‘The Heritage of Exmoor’ and ‘Simonsbath The Inside Story of An Exmoor Village’. He will also be remembered for his incredible work on researching the history and archaeology of Exmoor mines and mineral lines. Some years ago Roger gave The Friends his file of researches which touched on Hoar Oak Cottage. It comprises a large folder of hundreds of pages of records from the days when research in a public archive meant hand copying the info you were interested in. Roger’s amazing diligence to transcribe documents is breath taking and we will be featuring some of the interesting snippets it reveals here on our blog and in our social media – Facebook and Insta. We have just begun the work to scan and archive every page in his research folder. The pages are now becoming frail and a little bit faded and need some love and digital preservation. The photos below are from left to right:
Friend’s trustees Bette Baldwin and Will Bowden meeting with Roger Burton.
Roger A Burton’s folder of archive researches covering Hoar Oak Cottage.
Friend’s trustees Nicky Rowberry and Bette Baldwin starting work on the folder and Roger at his home in Barnstaple.
