Gifts of timber
Large timber for building work was often granted to the monastic
community from the royal forest. In 1227 Henry III gave Fountains
eight oaks from his forest of Knaresborough to help repair their
bridge.
[Bond, Monastic Landscapes, p. 94.]
Woodland, and all that it afforded, provided
many valuable resources including dead wood for building and repair
work, and also for charcoal, which was burnt in the forges. In 1194,
the Fountains community was granted the right to take dead wood
(estover) to drive their forge at Bradley, near Huddersfield.(3)
In 1195 it was agreed that for an annual payment of 10 shillings
and sixty horeshoes, the master smith of Fountains might collect
from Knaresborough Forest as much dead wood as he wished, whether
it be lying or standing, to make charcoal. (4)
Forests were also important grazing sites for pasturing livestock,
particularly pigs, who could graze on acorns and beech nuts here.
Thatch and ferns could be gathered from the woods for roofing, honey
might be taken and minerals extracted. Roger
de Mowbray conceded Fountains the right to take any copper,
lead, iron or other metals and stones that they found in the forest
of Nidderdale.(5) This grant was in
part to compensate the community for their loss of corn that was
seized by his men; it was also to raise ready cash to finance Roger's
pilgrimage to the Holy Land.(6)
Keepers of the forest In 1181 Roger de Mowbray made the Fountains community custodians
of the forest of Nidderdale, with its birds and beasts.
[Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, p.
109.]
Fountains acquired considerable lands and rights
in the forest of Nidderdale (Upper Nidderdale). An early grant by
Roger de Mowbray and his wife, Alice de Gant, gave land in the wood
of Littley and adjoining this, as well as a spring to water the
monks' cattle.(7) In the 1170s the community
expanded its holdings in Nidderdale, by purchasing lands and rights
here from Roger, who was in need of cash to finance his pilgrimage
to the Holy Land. By the end of the twelfth century Fountains's
rights extended over the whole forest of Nidderdale and even included
rights of chase. In c. 1181 it was agreed that Roger's hunters would
each year take six stags from the forest of Nidderdale, and send
the flesh and hides to Fountains' infirmary, for the monks who resided
there. Interestingly, the charter states that the dogs might eat
whatever they were accustomed to take, but the flesh and hides should
otherwise pass to the abbey.(8)
