Stourfield
was in late medieval times a large area west of the River Stour,
extending much further north than the late 18th century estate of the
same name which was attached to Stourfield House in Pokesdown.
Christopher Saxton’s map of 1575 depicts Sturfeld Heathe covering
the whole of the area between the Stour and the Bourne Stream, and seems
to indicate a western boundary – the old county boundary - extending
from the Bourne Stream northwards to Kinson.
The medieval history of Stourfield appears never before to have been properly researched, many historians seeming to be content to believe that between the Bronze Age and the Georgian Age the area was little more than a heathland common. One historian considered the issue, but concluded that “none of this land was ever designated a forest or chase”1.
On March 5th 1486, shortly after his accession, King Henry VII appointed “Thomas Westbury, king’s servant, one of the yeomen of the chamber” to be keeper of the king’s game in the land called Sturfeld, with the woods pertaining to the same”2. This is the earliest known reference to Stourfield as a hunting ground. An earlier reference, from 13313, refers to common rights of turbary4, housebote5, and haybote6 in Styrfeld. Being west of the Stour, this area seems previously to have been referred to as “Westesture Field”, i.e. West Stour Field, in charters of 12727 and 13138 which confirmed rights of turbary.
When King Henry VIII came
to the throne in 1509 he renewed Westbury’s appointment, “to be a keeper
of the
hunt
of Sturfeld, Hants., during pleasure, with 2d a day out of the
lordship of Cristis Churche.”9 King Henry
VIII described hunting as a means to avoid “idleness the ground of all
vyce and to exercise that thing that shall be honourable and to the
bodye healthfull and profitable”. It was justified in terms of its value
as a training for warfare which was still regarded at this time as the
gentleman’s principal role.
In October the following year, the King appointed “Sir William Sandys [c.1472-1540], Knight of the Body, to be a steward of the lordships of Ryngewoode and Cristechurche, constable of the Castle10 and bailiff of the lordship of Cristechurche; keeper of the deer in the bailiwick of Styrfeld, Hants; from the first day of the reign.”11
The royal Letters & Papers of 1539 refer to the letters patent of the Countess of Salisbury, by which Oliver Wallop had been appointed as “keeper of Christchurch Castle and Stirfield Chase, Hants, 6l. 13s. 4d.”.
A forest was an unfenced area where deer were kept, and a forest that was the hunting ground of a subject, rather than of the monarch, was normally referred to as a “chase”. A forest was not necessarily woodland, indeed parts were deliberately devoid of trees for the purpose of providing grazing areas, known as 'hays' or lawns, and later landscaped parklands can frequently be traced back to these areas with the mansion house built over or onto the hunting lodge.
The owner of a forest was not necessarily the owner of the land - he simply owned the deer on the land and had the right to hunt them. Forests were also commons, and – as we have seen with Stourfield Chase - had pre-existing common rights such as grazing rights or right of turbary, regardless of who owned the land.
Forests sometimes
contained “parks”, which on average covered about 200 acres, and which
were typically fenced around with a deerproof boundary consisting of an
internal ditch about six feet deep and an outer bank of
around six feet in height with a fence or pale along its top. Thus deer
could leap into the park, sometimes over a purpose built deer leap, but
could not escape. The parks were often round or oval in shape to
minimise on fencing, whilst sometimes part of the boundary was formed by
water. The 15th century seal of the Earl of Angus portrays a park pale
as a wattle fence with branches woven round uprights which are either
posts or trees growing on the correct line12.
In uncompartmented parks, deer could roam freely and trees were either pollarded or grown amongst gorse or holly to protect their young growth from grazing. There would be similar areas of grassland with pollard trees (known as launds) within compartmented parks: these parks were divided into coppices which in rotation would be felled and then fenced until sufficiently re-established to resist damage by deer. There would also be a park lodge in a position commanding a view of areas not hidden by trees13.
In
addition, deer parks often had nearby a 'warren' or 'coneygarth',
sometimes surrounded by a moated ditch, where rabbits were raised for
meat and for fur. Rabbits, or coneys, had been introduced to England by
the Normans, but did not really thrive here until the eighteenth
century: in medieval times they were not allowed to breed in the wild
for hunting, but rather were kept in artificial burrows within warrens.
The netting of the rabbits was usually carried out by servants on behalf
of the owner of the rights of warren. To the south-east of Stourfield is
Hengistbury Head, where Warren Hill may well be the site of just such a
medieval warren. But it was not only rabbits that were reserved: a grant
of warren also extended to hares, foxes, wild cats, partridges,
pheasants, and other small game14, and the
taking of any of these animals by the peasantry was regarded as
poaching.
When the Countess of Salisbury was attainted and executed in 1541, King Henry VIII appointed Sir Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, “to be steward of the lordships or manors of Ringwood and Cristechurch, steward of the court or under-steward there, constable of Cristechurch castle, and bailiff of Cristechurch hundred, Hants; and keeper of the chace called Stowrveld (and of the deer therein) adjoining the said castle; which premises belonged to Margaret late Countess of Salisbury, attainted; with fees of 10l. a year as steward, constable and bailiff, 5l. a year as steward of the court or under-steward, and 60s. 10d. as keeper of the chace and deer.”15
After the death of Henry VIII, Edward VI granted to Edward, Duke of Somerset the forest and chace called Stowerveld Chace alias Sturfeld Chace and its liberties and all game and deer, male and female, furze, heath and woods therein. These grants were confirmed in 1550 after Somerset had been removed from power, including “the chace and forest and liberty of chace and forest of Stoerfelde alias Sturfeld”.
On 15th May 1553 Edward VI granted to Sir “John Gates, knight16, vice chamberlain and captain of the Guard and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, … the castle, lordship and manor of Cristchurche, Hants, the hundred of Cristchurche, the tithings of Christchurche,… and all kinds of lands and liberties (including “merkes of swannes”, free warrens or free chace, “purlewes”, wreck of sea, advowsons, and fairs pertaining to the premises) as amply as Edward late Duke of Somerset … held them”. On 6th July, King Edward VI died, and Gates was the chief supporter of the Duke of Northumberland’s promotion of the succession of Lady Jane Grey. By 2nd August, Queen Mary was on the throne, and Gates was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Gates pleaded guilty at his trial on 19th August, and he was beheaded with three blows from an axe on 22nd August.
A letter written to Sir John Gates by Sir Oliver Wallop and referring to the chase of Stourfield is in the British Library17. It was written in July 1553, and is the latest known reference to Stourfield Chase [reproduced below the title of this essay]. When the hundred and castle of Christchurch, along with the lordships and manors of Christchurch and Westover, and the borough of Christchurch and hundred of Westover were granted to the Earl of Huntingdon in June 1554, no specific mention is made of Stourfield, although there is reference to “all kinds of lands and liberties”. Within a century, in about 1652, Christchurch Castle was virtually demolished on Cromwell’s orders, it having been a Royalist stronghold during the English Civil Wars.
All of the documentary evidence of the Chase so far discovered dates from the periods when the land repeatedly reverted to the Crown, from 1478 to 1513 and from 1541 to 1554. It may well have existed long before 1478, but its survival beyond 1554 is doubtful. Stourfield passed in 1597 from the Earl of Huntingdon (an absentee landlord) to his son, Henry Hastings of Woodlands. As Henry lived nearby and was a renowned lover of hunting, it seems unlikely that the chase was still functional when he sold most of Stourfield in 1601. He retained Holdenhurst Wood (see map below) and property across the Stour in Christchurch.
The interest of the Crown and nobility in forests generally had been declining since about 1300, leaving the forests to the landowners and commoners. The depopulation caused by the Black Death had contributed further to their demise. Many of the surviving forests suffered from King Charles I’s attempts to privatise them, and from encroachment by plantations intended to save the Navy Board the expense of buying oak for shipbuilding.
Some of the most interesting hunting ground in Stourfield was perhaps in the area now covered by Queen’s Park, with the steep-sided valleys of Great Dean Bottom18 and the stream that at one time ran along Longman’s Bottom (where a pond existed before its enlargement at the time of the golf course’s construction). These same features contributed to the land’s preservation as a common at the time of the 1805 enclosures, because it was among the least suitable land in the whole of Stourfield for the development of agriculture or housing.
Some of the field names
from the 1843 Holdenhurst tithe apportionment seem to be relics of
Stourfield Chase, for example Broad
Lawn, Hunt Breach, Staghay, Oathay, Woodhays, and Hounds Hill. The
locations of these fields are indicated on the modern map below. Also
noted in the tithe apportionment is Deer Ditch, shown in the
photograph below, which might once have formed
a deer leap trapping animals in an enclosure to the right of the
photograph. A
1647 survey of Westover
also refers to Broad Hays, Cony Hay, Cote Hay, Downe Hay, Dunzie Hays, Flax Hay, Keepers Hay, Lady Hay,
Short Lawn, Long Lawn, Mead Lawn, Pike Hay, and Pooks Hay. Of
particular interest is the field named “Park” in the 1843 tithe
apportionment. Prior to the 1805
enclosures, this was part of a much bigger enclosure shaded in blue on
the accompanying map, and is probably the area of heathland referred
to as "Le Parocke" in the 1647 survey (Old English pearroc
= park or enclosure).
Covering an area of about 100 acres, it is possible that this might have
been a small deer park within Stourfield Chase, with the site of
Littledown House and the modern JPM Chase building an ideal location for
an associated hunting lodge. These buildings replaced a small farming
hamlet which might have grown around a redundant hunting lodge. The
field's reversion to heathland by 1647, as indicated by the survey,
suggests that the chase had long since fallen out of use.
Stourfield House was built by Edmund Bott in around 1766 at the top of the hill overlooking the Stour Valley19. In 1773 and 178120, with the signed consent of the commoners21, he enclosed 11 acres of land subsequently named “New Park”. It is possible that this was in recognition of the existence of old parks in the area - indeed Stourfield House itself was in another ideal hunting lodge location.
To the west of the Bourne Stream is Durley Chine. No instances of this name have yet been found predating the post-enclosure development, and though Durley (dēor-leah = deer wood) suggests a hunting connection it is thought that the name was imported from elsewhere in Hampshire by a new landowner. [David Young - The Story of Bournemouth]
Isaac Taylor’s 1759 map of
Hampshire indicates at Hengistbury Head not the Iron Age double dykes,
but “Park
Pales”. This suggests that the medieval hunters re-used the ancient
ditches as a convenient boundary for a deer park. The Head itself would
have been an easy and cheaply maintained enclosure for deer, being
bounded on all other sides by the sea. The possibility should not be
overlooked, however, that Taylor was unaware of the antiquity of the
ditches, and that he misinterpreted their purpose, but here as elsewhere
he would have been drawing on local knowledge and folk memory when
labelling places on his map. It was not unusual in a chase the size of
Stourfield for there to be several parks within its bounds.
Another field identified
on the 1843 tithe map is Castle Gate, alongside Castle Lane which was in
medieval times, as it is now, the main route between Christchurch and Wimborne23.
It has been claimed that "Castle Lane" is
merely romantic modern nomenclature (the road having been known as Wimborne
Road at the time of the enclosures in 1805), but this overlooks references to
both "Castle Lane" and "Castle Gate" in the
1647 survey. In medieval hunting terms, the significance of a castle gate
is as the place to which after a successful day’s hunting the trussed
carcases would be brought,
and
horns sounded the “prise” to announce the event22. From Castle Gate (at
the modern day junction of Charminster Road and Castle Lane), the horns
would perhaps be heard in all the settlements along the Stour between
Muscliffe and Tuckton.
Although deer hunting was the preserve of the elite, many of the peasants and yeomen who inhabited these settlements would have been directly involved in the hunt and the day to day management of the woodland within the chase. Certain methods of hunting required the employment of beaters to drive deer towards raised platforms, known as stable-stands, elricks or trysts, where the gentleman hunters would be waiting with their bows ready. This method of hunting had reached prominence by the middle of the sixteenth century, as opposed to the par force method where deer were chased to the point of exhaustion by hunters mounted on horseback. In return for their labours, the peasantry could expect their invaluable livestock to be protected from predators such as foxes.
Wimborne was significant in the early 16th century as the birthplace of King Henry VII’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. She owned the castle of Christchurch until her death, and founded a chapel in Wimborne Minster in 1509, leaving instructions in her will for the construction of a school there.
Passing through Castle Gate on their way to Christchurch Castle, travellers from Wimborne could not fail to be impressed by their host's great status symbol, Stourfield Chase.
Footnotes:
-
Christchurch Cartulary: William de Mordon “will have pasture in La Styrfeld for all his animals, and can fetch clay and housebote and haybote from common land for repairing his tenement in accordance with ancient custom” .
-
Wood allowed to a commoner for repairing his house and for fuel.
-
Wood allowed to a commoner for repairing his hedges or fences.
-
Charter of Isabella de Fortibus, countess of Albermarle & Devon confirming grant of lands & liberties to Christchurch Priory included “the right to dig 100 cartloads of turf from any part of Westesture field for their kitchen & 2 cartloads daily for their brewery”.
-
Confirmation of charter to canon of Christchurch, allowing (among other things) “a hundred cartloads of turf to be dug for their kitchen, where they will in the field of Westestures yearly upon the grantors’ fee; and two carts daily throughout the year going for heath upon the grantors’ land where they will in the said field”.
-
The ruins of the Constable’s House can still be seen in Bridge Street in Christchurch.
-
“Hunting and Hunting Reserves in Medieval Scotland”, J.M. Gilbert, p.219, quoting from “Douglas”, Fraser, iii, 556 no.3.
-
“The Illustrated History of the Countryside”, Oliver Rackham
-
“Hunting and Hunting Reserves in Medieval Scotland”, J.M. Gilbert, p.210.
-
Gates was knighted at the coronation of Edward VI in 1547. On 8th April 1551 he was made a vice-chamberlain to Edward VI and given land valued at 120l.
-
In 1773 the manor was owned by Joseph Jarvis Clark. By 1782 it had passed to his cousin George Ivison Tapps.
-
Meyrick Archives: see transcript
-
A bridge has existed at Iford since at least 1140, when it is mentioned in the charters of Baldwin de Redvers [“Iford Bridge”, J.A. Young]. This bridge formed the crucial river crossing between Castle Lane and Christchurch Castle.