FORESTRY of Maidstone. The coppice wood in general was either oak, hazel, birch, or beech, inter- mixed with ash, willow, and chestnut, of the last of which there were large tracts at Milton, near Sittingbourne, and at Newington. The timber in the woods was chiefly oak and beech, but in the hedgerows generally elm. The oaks were specially large round Maidstone, and felled from time to time for the navy. Hasted further reported that the only remains of a forest in Kent was near Tonbridge, in the parts called South and North Frith, most of which was then woodland.^ ' The soil of the Weald,' wrote Hasted in 1778, ' is particularly adapted to the growth of the oak, which in these parts increase to an amazing size ; one of which was felled a few years ago at Penshurst in the park there which had twenty-one tons of timber in it, or 840 ft. Every inclosure in the Weald is surrounded with these trees, and every coppice and wood is full of them ; and though they yearly afford a supply for the royal navy of Great Britain, yet in all probability there will be sufficient remaining for the use of it for ages yet to come.' ^ In 1794 John Boys, farmer of Betteshanger, drew up a report for the Board of Agriculture, termed A General Fiezv of the Agriculture of the County of Kent.^ The tenth chapter deals with the woods and plantations. The woodlands of the eastern part of Kent are described as chiefly dispersed between the great road from Rochester to Dover, and the chalk hills that run from Folkestone, by Charing, to Detling. These woods furnished the county with fuel, with tillers for husbandry use, with timber for shipbuilding, and more especially with poles for the hop grounds. The best first-class poles were chestnut, ash, willow, and maple ; their usual length 18 ft. ; the price varied from 30J. to 39J., per hundred, chestnut being the dearest. Mr. Boys supplies an elaborate table of the chief woods of the county, which were treated on a commercial basis, giving their acreage, o^Tier, surface and subsoil, natural produce, extra produce from improvement, and articles for sale. The largest of them was the King's Wood, on the Sussex border ; it was of 3,000 acres and chiefly in the parishes of Goudhurst, Cranbrook and Ticehurst ; it was mainly oak and used for little more than fence poles and fuel. There was another great wood of 1,500 acres, also called King's Wood, in the parishes of Langley, Leeds and Sutton ; it grew large quantities of oak, with some hazel and birch, and was used for tillers, small timber, and poles. A third large wood, of 1,000 acres, termed Bridge Wood, was in St. Margaret's parish ; it was chiefly oak, but had been improved by chestnut and ash, and produced poles, cordwood, etc. One of the most flourishing was a 300-acre chestnut wood of the Earl of Aylesford, in Newington and Milton. On Burham Downs there was about 1,000 acres of scrubby oak and hazel, which was on the waste, and free from November to March. The total woodland acreage of this table amounts to 13,290 acres. A considerable portion of the two volumes of Marshall's Rural Economy of the Southern Counties, published in 1798, is devoted to the district round Maidstone. He found that the old woodlands of this part of Kent were increasing, chiefly owing to an increased demand for hop poles. The n'oodlands were chiefly coppice, with a few timber trees scattered among them. The species of woods in the old or natural coppices were chiefly oak, ash, hornbeam, sallow, and maple. The provincial name for the hornbeam was horse-beech, in contradis- tinction to the buck-beech or true beech. The sallow was locally known as the ' plumb- leaved willow.' The age of felling the old coppice woods was from twelve to eighteen years' growth. The chestnut was being largely planted, as it was found to run up rapidly and straight, and produce poles of good value. Next to the chestnut, the ash was the favourite in the new plantations. The new coppices were cut about every ten years.* In his reflection on the 50 square miles of the Isle of Thanet, Mr. Marshall comments on ' the extreme nakedness of this plot of country,' and urged that the steep hangs of the hillocks towards the coast, and the worst of the flinty heights might with advantage be planted for the growth of coppice wood.* The existing deer parks of the county number fifteen, of which Greenwich has been already described ; they are the parks of Knole, Eastvvell, Lullingstone, Cobham, Chilham, Godmersham, Waldershare, Mereworth, Surrenden Derring, Boughton, Mote, Mersham Hatch, East Sutton, Hall Place, and Greenwich. Knole Park, adjoining Sevenoaks, the seat of Lord Sackville, is one of the most interesting 1 Hasted, op. cit. i. 123. 2 ibjd jj^^ ' It was reprinted in 1796, and a third edition issued in 1813.
- Marshall, Rural Econ. in the Southern Counties, i. 39-50. * Ibdi. ii. 40-I.
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