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64-510: Verderers were originally part of the ancient judicial and administrative hierarchy of the vast areas of English forests and Royal Forests set aside by William the Conqueror for hunting. The title Verderer comes from the Norman word ‘vert’ meaning green and referring to woodland. These forests were divided into provinces each having a Chief Justice who travelled around on circuit dealing with

128-640: A kingswood ( Latin : silva regis ), is an area of land with different definitions in England , Wales , Scotland and Ireland . The term forest in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the original medieval sense was closer to the modern idea of a "preserve" – i.e. land legally set aside for specific purposes such as royal hunting – with less emphasis on its composition. There are also differing and contextual interpretations in Continental Europe derived from

192-587: A "deer forest" generally has no trees at all. Marshlands in Lincolnshire were afforested. Upland moors too were chosen, such as Dartmoor and Exmoor in the South West, and the Peak Forest of Derbyshire . The North Yorkshire moors , a sandstone plateau, had a number of royal forests. William the Conqueror , a great lover of hunting, established the system of forest law. This operated outside

256-476: A court of justice-seat (Forest Eyre) seems to have been in about 1635, in an attempt to raise money. By the Tudor period and after, forest law had largely become anachronistic, and served primarily to protect timber in the royal forests. James I and his ministers Robert Cecil and Lionel Cranfield pursued a policy of increasing revenues from the forests and starting the process of disafforestation. Cecil made

320-433: A deputy. He supervised the foresters and under-foresters, who personally went about preserving the forest and game and apprehending offenders against the law. The agisters supervised pannage and agistment and collected any fees thereto appertaining. The nomenclature of the officers can be somewhat confusing: the rank immediately below the constable was referred to as foresters-in-fee, or, later, woodwards , who held land in

384-454: A healthy deer, venison can be healthy meat for human consumption. Venison is higher in moisture and protein , more diverse in amino acids , and lower in calories , cholesterol , and fat than most cuts of grain-fed beef, pork , or lamb . However, since it is unknown whether chronic wasting disease (CWD)--a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy among deer (similar to mad cow disease among cattle)--can pass from deer to humans through

448-622: A number of West Country forests, including Gillingham, Braydon and Dean, known as the Western Rising. Riots also took place in Feckenham, Leicester and Malvern. The riots followed the physical enclosure of lands previously used as commons, and frequently led to the destruction of fencing and hedges. Some were said to have had a "warlike" character, with armed mobs numbering hundreds, for instance in Feckenham. The rioters in Dean fully destroyed

512-527: A range of offences within the forests; by the mid-17th century, enforcement of this law had died out, but many of England's woodlands still bore the title "Royal Forest". During the Middle Ages , the practice of reserving areas of land for the sole use of the aristocracy was common throughout Europe. Royal forests usually included large areas of heath , grassland and wetland  – anywhere that supported deer and other game . In addition, when an area

576-650: A relatively common meat. It is widely available in supermarkets. In England, hunting rights were restricted in an effort to preserve property rights . As a result, the possession and sale of venison was tightly regulated under English law, although it is readily available commercially. In the United States, venison is less common at retail due to the requirement that the animal first be inspected by USDA inspectors. There are very few abattoirs which process deer in North America, and most of this venison

640-514: A separate concept. Trespasses against the vert were extensive: they included purpresture , assarting , clearing forest land for agriculture, and felling trees or clearing shrubs, among others. These laws applied to any land within the boundary of the forest, even if it were freely owned; although the Charter of the Forest in 1217 established that all freemen owning land within the forest enjoyed

704-607: Is a remnant of an older, much larger, royal hunting forest, which derived its name from its status as the shire (or sher) wood of Nottinghamshire, which extended into several neighbouring counties (shires), bordered on the west along the River Erewash and the Forest of East Derbyshire . When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, the forest covered perhaps a quarter of Nottinghamshire in woodland and heath subject to

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768-520: Is destined for restaurants. Where deer are considered an invasive species, companies such as Molokai Wildlife Management and Maui Nui Venison that hunt axis deer in Hawaii , combine culling with USDA certification and retail sale. Most venison sold through retail in the United States are farmed from New Zealand and Tasmania . It is available through some high-end specialty grocers and some chains which focus on more "natural" meats. Non-retail venison

832-684: Is often obtained through hunting and self-processing or contracting to small meat processing facilities to do the processing for the hunter, but sale of the finished meat is usually illegal. The American sandwich chain Arby's gained attention in October 2016 when word leaked through social media that they were about to test a venison sandwich. Arby's later confirmed that they had selected 17 stores in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin (all major deer hunting states) to offer

896-439: Is widely available in butcher shops in fresh state, distributed by wholesalers, as well as in big retail chains such as Tesco, at prices similar to beef or pork, around 200 CZK or 8 EUR per kilogram. Despite the popularity and low prices, in recent years the production of venison has surpassed demand, and is therefore often used in production of animal food. New Zealand has large populations of wild and farmed deer, making venison

960-641: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is little more than propaganda. William Rufus , also a keen hunter, increased the severity of the penalties for various offences to include death and mutilation. The laws were in part codified under the Assize of the Forest (1184) of Henry II . Magna Carta , the charter forced upon King John of England by the English barons in 1215, contained five clauses relating to royal forests. They aimed to limit, and even reduce,

1024-578: The Carolingian and Merovingian legal systems. In Anglo-Saxon England , though the kings were great huntsmen, they never set aside areas declared to be "outside" (Latin foris ) the law of the land. Historians find no evidence of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs (c. 500 to 1066) creating forests. However, under the Norman kings (after 1066), by royal prerogative forest law was widely applied. The law

1088-454: The English language through Norman French venaison in the 11th century, following the Norman conquest of England and the establishment of Royal Forests . Venison originally described meat of any game animal killed by hunting and was applied to any animal from the families Cervidae ( true deer ), Leporidae ( rabbits and hares ), Suidae ( wild boar ) and certain species of

1152-640: The New Forest in 1877. Since the conquest of England, the forest, chase and warren lands had been exempted from the common law and subject only to the authority of the king, but these customs had faded into obscurity by the time of The Restoration . William I , original enactor of the Forest Law in England, did not harshly penalise offenders. The accusation that he "laid a law upon it, that whoever slew hart or hind should be blinded ," according to

1216-901: The New Forest , three others in Hampshire , Windsor Forest in Berkshire , the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, Waltham or Epping Forest in Essex, three forests in Northamptonshire , and Wychwood in Oxfordshire. Some of these no longer had swainmote courts thus no official supervision. They divided the remaining forests into two classes, those with and without the Crown as major landowner. In certain Hampshire forests and

1280-788: The South West of England, forests extended across the Upper Jurassic Clay Vale. In the Midlands , the clay plain surrounding the River Severn was heavily wooded. Clay soils in Oxfordshire , Buckinghamshire, Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire formed another belt of woodlands. In Hampshire , Berkshire and Surrey , woodlands were established on sandy, gravelly, acid soils. In the Scots Highlands,

1344-622: The Speech House , close to the centre of the Forest. Verderers in the former Royal Forest of Epping (formerly Waltham Forest ) have been appointed since the early 13th century, although early records are incomplete. The office was preserved by the Epping Forest Act 1878 , which named the foundation verderers of the new regime: Sir Fowell Buxton, 3rd Baronet , Sir Antonio Brady , Thomas Charles Baring , and Andrew Johnston . They are nowadays elected at septennial elections among

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1408-518: The common law , and served to protect game animals and their forest habitat from destruction. In the year of his death, 1087, a poem, " The Rime of King William ", inserted in the Peterborough Chronicle , expresses English indignation at the forest laws. Offences in forest law were divided into two categories: trespass against the vert (the vegetation of the forest) and trespass against the venison (the game). The five animals of

1472-537: The genus Capra ( goats and ibex ). In Southern Africa , the word venison refers to the meat of antelope , a Bovidae taxon , as there are no native Cervidae in sub-Saharan Africa . Venison may be eaten as steaks , tenderloin , roasts , sausages , jerky , and minced meat . It has a flavor reminiscent of beef . Cuts of venison tend to have a finer texture and be leaner than comparable cuts of beef. However, like beef, leaner cuts can be tougher as well. Venison burgers are typically so lean as to require

1536-407: The hare , coney , pheasant , and partridge . In addition, inhabitants of the forest were forbidden to bear hunting weapons, and dogs were banned from the forest; mastiffs were permitted as watchdogs, but they had to have their front claws removed to prevent them from hunting game. The rights of chase and of warren (i.e. to hunt such beasts) were often granted to local nobility for a fee, but were

1600-547: The meat of a game animal but now refers primarily to the meat of deer (or antelope in South Africa ). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edible, including the internal organs . Venison, much like beef or pork , is categorized into specific cuts , including roast , sirloin , and ribs . The word derives from the Latin venari , meaning "to hunt or pursue". This term entered

1664-526: The vegetation and habitat) of the Forest. The Verderers are elected by the freeholders of Gloucestershire at the Gloucester Court (an ancient procedure in its own right) and serve for life. Over the years, the deer in the Forest of Dean have fluctuated in numbers and species (they were totally absent for about 90 years from 1855) but today a herd of about 400 fallow deer inhabits the Forest. The Verderers now meet quarterly in their courtroom in

1728-412: The 11th century, and at the height of this practice in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, fully one-third of the land area of Southern England was designated as royal forest. At one stage in the 12th century, all of Essex was afforested. On accession Henry II declared all of Huntingdonshire to be a royal forest. Afforestation , in particular the creation of the New Forest , figured large in

1792-615: The 1630s. Each disafforestation would start with a commission from the Exchequer, which would survey the forest, determine the lands belonging to the crown, and negotiate compensation for landowners and tenants whose now-traditional rights to use of the land as commons would be revoked. A legal action by the Attorney General would then proceed in the Court of Exchequer against the forest residents for intrusion, which would confirm

1856-518: The Court of Verderers (or Court of Swainmote). Established sometime prior to the 12th century, the verderers initially represented the interest of the Crown, until the 19th century when they were reconstituted to represent the interests of the Commoners. The Court has the same status as a Magistrates Court , and acting under its authority the Verderers are responsible for regulating commoning within

1920-569: The Court of Verderers. A further Act was passed in 1964. This forest is also managed by Forestry England . A forest since the end of the Ice Age (as attested by pollen sampling cores ), Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve today encompasses 423.2 hectares, (1,045 acres) surrounding the village of Edwinstowe , the site of Thoresby Hall . The core of the forest is the Special Area of Conservation named Birklands and Bilhaugh . It

1984-576: The Delimitation of Forests Act 1640 ( 16 Cha. 1 . c. 16, also known as Selden 's Act) to revert the forest boundaries to the positions they had held at the end of the reign of James I. The Forest of Dean was legally re-established in 1668 by the Dean Forest Act 1667 . A Forest Eyre was held for the New Forest in 1670, and a few for other forests in the 1660s and 1670s, but these were the last. From 1715, both surveyors' posts were held by

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2048-621: The Forest lands described in Domesday Book as within the forest. Successive kings tried to recover the "purlieus" excluded from a forest by the Great Perambulation of 1300. Forest officers periodically fined the inhabitants of the purlieus for failing to attend Forest Court or for forest offences. This led to complaints in Parliament. The king promised to remedy the grievances, but usually did nothing. Several forests were alienated by Richard II and his successors, but generally

2112-573: The Forest of Dean, most of the soil belonged to the Crown and these should be reserved to grow timber, to meet the need for oak for shipbuilding . The others would be inclosed, the Crown receiving an "allotment" (compensation) in lieu of its rights. In 1810, responsibility for woods was moved from Surveyors-General (who accounted to the Auditors of Land Revenue) to a new Commission of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues . From 1832 to 1851 "Works and Buildings" were added to their responsibilities. In 1851,

2176-410: The Forest, for dealing with unlawful inclosures , and for a wide range of other matters relating to development control and conservation such as proposals for new roads, car parks, camping sites, recreational facilities, playing fields and so on. The Verderers in the Forest of Dean have been in existence since at least 1218 and are charged with protecting the vert and venison (that is, generally,

2240-513: The King's sole rights as enshrined in forest law. The clauses were as follows (taken from translation of the great charter that is the Magna Carta ): After the death of John, Henry III was compelled to grant the Charter of the Forest (1217), which further reformed the forest law and established the rights of agistment and pannage on private land within the forests. It also checked certain of

2304-563: The activities of the Freeminers . The sale of cordwood for charcoal continued until at least the late 18th century. Deer were removed in 1850. The forest is today heavily wooded, as is a substantial formerly privately owned area to the west, now treated as part of the forest. It is managed by Forestry England . Epping and Hainault Forest are surviving remnants of the Royal Forest of Waltham. The extent of Epping and Hainault Forests

2368-477: The addition of fat in the form of bacon, beef, olive oil, or cheese to achieve parity with hamburger cooking time, texture, and taste. Organ meats (offal) of deer can also be eaten. Traditionally, they are called hombres ( originally the Middle English hombres ). This is supposedly the origin of the phrase " humble pie ", meaning a pie made from the organs of a deer. When sourced correctly from

2432-537: The chances of infection by toxoplasmosis . Hunters are advised not to shoot for food a deer that appears sick or is acting strangely, and they are also advised to take general precautions in examining the meat from deer they have killed. Venison (as well as other game meats , mainly wild boar ) is a part of traditional cuisine and is commonly eaten, not considered a specialty. Dishes such as deer goulash are often on restaurant menus. A variety of venison ( roe , red and fallow deer , mouflon ) and other game meat

2496-498: The commissioners again became a Commissioner of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues . In 1924, the Royal Forests were transferred to the new Forestry Commission (now Forestry England ). The Forest of Dean was used as a source of charcoal for ironmaking within the Forest from 1612 until about 1670. It was the subject of a Reafforestation Act in 1667. Courts continued to be held at the Speech House , for example, to regulate

2560-834: The consumption of venison, there have been some fears of dangerous contamination of the food supply from wild deer carrying CWD. The disease has been found among farmed deer in the US and western Canada, but New Zealand has not identified the disease among its herd. According to the CDC , the Toxoplasma gondii parasite can also be transmitted through human consumption of undercooked or raw venison if it did not reach an internal temperature of 145 °F (63 °C) for whole pieces of meat, or 160 °F (74 °C) for ground venison. The CDC also says that freezing meat for several days in sub-zero (0 °F or −18 °C) temperatures can greatly reduce

2624-430: The enclosures surrounding 3,000 acres in groups that numbered thousands of participants. The disturbances tended to involve artisans and cottagers who were not entitled to compensation. The riots were hard to enforce against, due to the lack of efficient militia, and the low-born nature of the participants. Ultimately, however, enclosure succeeded, with the exceptions of Dean and Malvern Chase. In 1641, Parliament passed

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2688-416: The extortions of the foresters. An "Ordinance of the Forest" under Edward I again checked the oppression of the officers and introduced sworn juries in the forest courts. In 1300 many (if not all) forests were perambulated and reduced greatly in their extent, in theory to their extent in the time of Henry II . However, this depended on the determination of local juries, whose decisions often excluded from

2752-693: The first steps towards abolition of the forests, as part of James I's policy of increasing his income independently of Parliament. Cecil investigated forests that were unused for royal hunting and provided little revenue from timber sales. Knaresborough Forest in Yorkshire was abolished. Revenues in the Forest of Dean were increased through sales of wood for iron smelting. Enclosures were made in Chippenham and Blackmore for herbage and pannage. Cranfield commissioned surveys into assart lands of various forests, including Feckenham, Sedgemoor and Selwood, laying

2816-465: The folk history of the " Norman yoke ", which magnified what was already a grave social ill: "the picture of prosperous settlements disrupted, houses burned, peasants evicted, all to serve the pleasure of the foreign tyrant, is a familiar element in the English national story .... The extent and intensity of hardship and of depopulation have been exaggerated", H. R. Loyn observed. Forest law prescribed harsh punishment for anyone who committed any of

2880-407: The forest and apprehending offenders. The forests also had surveyors , who determined the boundaries of the forest, and regarders . These last reported to the court of justice-seat and investigated encroachments on the forest and invasion of royal rights, such as assarting. While their visits were infrequent, due to the interval of time between courts, they provided a check against collusion between

2944-428: The forest in exchange for rent, and advised the warden. They exercised various privileges within their bailiwicks . Their subordinates were the under-foresters, later referred to as rangers . The rangers are sometimes said to be patrollers of the purlieu. Another group, called serjeants -in-fee, and later, foresters-in-fee (not to be confused with the above), held small estates in return for their service in patrolling

3008-415: The forest into them were permitted to be killed if causing damage. Payment for access to certain rights could provide a useful source of income. Local nobles could be granted a royal licence to take a certain amount of game. The common inhabitants of the forest might, depending on their location, possess a variety of rights: estover , the right of taking firewood; pannage , the right to pasture swine in

3072-703: The forest laws. Only one royal forest is known to have been formed in the Lordship of Ireland . In 1282, William le Deveneys was granted 12 oaks from the King's forest of Glencree. William de Meones was keeper of the forest and of "the Queen's timber works" in 1290. It is last mentioned in the reign of Edward I and is believed to have been destroyed during the Bruce campaign in Ireland (1315–18). Podzol , oak trees Venison Venison originally meant

3136-426: The forest protected by law were given by Manwood as the hart and hind (i.e. male and female red deer), boar , hare and wolf . (In England, the boar became extinct in the wild by the 13th century, and the wolf by the late 15th century.) Protection was also said to be extended to the beasts of chase , namely the buck and doe ( fallow deer ), fox, marten , and roe deer , and the beasts and fowls of warren :

3200-457: The forest; turbary , the right to cut turf (as fuel); and various other rights of pasturage ( agistment ) and harvesting the products of the forest. Land might be disafforested entirely, or permission given for assart and purpresture . The justices of the forest were the justices in eyre and the verderers . The chief royal official was the warden. As he was often an eminent and preoccupied magnate, his powers were frequently exercised by

3264-408: The foresters and local offenders. Blackstone gives the following outline of the forest courts , as theoretically constructed: In practice, these fine distinctions were not always observed. In the Forest of Dean , swainmote and the court of attachment seem to have been one and the same throughout most of its history. As the courts of justice-seat were held less frequently, the lower courts assumed

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3328-534: The foundations of the wide-scale abolition of forests under Charles I . The commissioners appointed raised over £25,000 by compounding with occupiers, whose ownership was confirmed, subject to a fixed rent. Cranfield's work led directly to the disafforestation of Gillingham Forest in Dorset and Chippenham and Blackmore in Wiltshire. Additionally, he created the model for the abolition of the forests followed throughout

3392-475: The more serious offences. Verderers investigated and recorded minor offences and dealt with the day to day forest administration. In the New Forest the Verderers are a group of unpaid individuals whose primary objective is to regulate and protect the interests of the New Forest Commoners , and to preserve the natural beauty and good traditional character of the Forest . Together they constitute

3456-474: The power to fine offenders against the forest laws, according to a fixed schedule. The courts of justice-seat crept into disuse, and in 1817, the office of justice in eyre was abolished and its powers transferred to the First Commissioner of Woods and Forests . Courts of swainmote and attachment went out of existence at various dates in the different forests. A Court of Swainmote was re-established in

3520-579: The preceding 20 years. In 1875 and 1876, the corporation bought 3,000 acres (12 km ) of open wasteland. Under the Epping Forest Act 1878 , the forest was disafforested and forest law was abolished in respect of it. Instead, the corporation was appointed as Conservators of the Forest. The forest is managed through the Epping Forest Committee. The New Forest is home to the British cultural minority known as New Forest Commoners . An Act

3584-517: The registered commoners, two for the northern parishes, two for the southern. The verderers act as representatives of the users of the Forest, meet the Superintendent and other officials regularly, and are members of the Epping Forest Committee of the City of London . A history of the verderers of this Forest was published in 2004. Royal Forest A royal forest , occasionally known as

3648-422: The rights of agistment and pannage . Under the forest laws, bloody hand was a kind of trespass by which the offender, being apprehended and found with his hands or other body part stained with blood, is judged to have killed the deer, even though he was not found hunting or chasing. Disafforested lands on the edge of the forest were known as purlieus ; agriculture was permitted here and deer escaping from

3712-468: The same person. The remaining royal forests continued to be managed (in theory, at least) on behalf of the Crown. However, the commoners' rights of grazing often seem to have been more important than the rights of the Crown. In the late 1780s, a royal commission was appointed to inquire into the condition of crown woods and those surviving. North of the Trent it found Sherwood Forest survived, south of it:

3776-418: The settlement negotiated by the commission. Crown lands would then be granted (leased), usually to prominent courtiers, and often the same figures that had undertaken the commission surveys. Legal complaints about the imposed settlements and compensation were frequent. The disafforestations caused riots and Skimmington processions resulting in the destruction of enclosures and reoccupation of grazing lands in

3840-566: The system decayed. Henry VII revived "Swainmotes" (forest courts) for several forests and held Forest Eyres in some of them. Henry VIII in 1547 placed the forests under the Court of Augmentations with two Masters and two Surveyors-General. On the abolition of that court, the two surveyors-general became responsible to the Exchequer. Their respective divisions were north and south of the River Trent . The last serious exercise of forest law by

3904-454: Was designed to protect the " venison and the vert". In this sense, venison meant "noble" animals of the chase – notably red and fallow deer , the roe deer , and wild boar – and vert meant the greenery that sustained them. Forests were designed as hunting areas reserved for the monarch or (by invitation) the aristocracy . The concept was introduced by the Normans to England in

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3968-451: Was greatly reduced by inclosure by landowners. The Hainault Forest Act 1851 was passed by Parliament, ending the Royal protection for Hainault Forest. Within six weeks 3000 acres of woodland was cleared. The Corporation of London wished to see Epping Forest preserved as an open space and obtained an injunction in 1874 to throw open some 3,000 acres (12 km ) that had been inclosed in

4032-523: Was initially designated forest, any villages, towns and fields that lay within it were also subject to forest law. This could foster resentment as the local inhabitants were then restricted in the use of land they had previously relied upon for their livelihoods; however, common rights were not extinguished, but merely curtailed. The areas that became royal forests were already relatively wild and sparsely populated, and can be related to specific geographic features that made them harder to work as farmland. In

4096-581: Was passed to remove the deer in 1851, but abandoned when it was realised that the deer were needed to keep open the unwooded "lawns" of the forest. An attempt was made to develop the forest for growing wood by a rolling programme of inclosures. In 1875, a Select committee of the House of Commons recommended against this, leading to the passage of the New Forest Act 1877 , which limited the Crown's right to inclose, regulated common rights, and reconstituted

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