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Roche Abbey holdings: woodland (5/7)
Woodland not only afforded shelter and privacy, but provided a number of resources including fuel, pasturage for animals, and building materials such as timber and thatch. Following a case between William, son of Richard of Barnby and the abbot of Roche during Henry III’s reign (1216-72), William agreed that the abbot should receive from his woods six cartloads of fine oak for building, two cartloads of wood for burning and two for fencing, and that the abbot and his men might pare sods or dig turf there; he also acknowledged the abbot’s right that year to common pasture in his woods for all his animals except goats.(8) This exclusion of goats from forest pasturage was commonplace, since they ate the woody growth and young seedlings, thereby inhibiting regeneration.(9) |
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