The Wooded Weald: Private Woodland Management and England's 'Timber Famine', 1680-1790.

Abstract

Early modern England was a world of wood. Everyone from laity to elite had a vested interest in woodland resources because it was a necessity for all aspects of life from warmth, fuel, shelter, transportation, and industry. Starting in the late fifteenth century and lasting through the early modern period, anxieties about timber scarcity spread as the Royal Navy complained of shortages. Since the Royal Navy was responsible for the protection of the Kingdom and was an integral part of England’s colonial exploits abroad, the possibility that the maintenance of the fleet was at risk was cause for grave concern. Through the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Royal Navy accused merchant ship builders, agriculturalists, woodland industrialists, and private woodland owners of fomenting shortages through careless destruction of woodlands for profit, leading to a “timber famine”. Although most naval timber that furnished the Royal Navy came from private estates, historians have focussed on management in the Royal Forests. This thesis investigates how private woodland owners in the Weald, who owned most of the wood and timber reserves in southeast England managed their most essential resource. Private landowners’ interests directly conflicted with the interests of the Royal Navy, yet ultimately it was not the landowners who were responsible for perceived timber shortages. However, an inability to reconcile these competing interests contribute to historic myths about the state of England’s woodlands in the early modern period. Through an in-depth HGIS (Historical Geographic Information System) study, this thesis argues that private landowners in the Weald were motivated by profit to sustainably maintain their woodlands. They chose to manage their woodlands with a preference for local underwood economies rather than timber because they were the most lucrative and thriving markets, much to the behest of the Royal Navy. I argue that the Royal Navy’s inability to procure timber during this period was due to lack of funds, disorganization within the Navy Board, and poor Royal Forest management which ultimately left them unable to keep up with the competitive timber market and provided more motivation for landowners to give preference to local underwood economies. Additionally, this thesis argues that timber scarcity in the Weald did not result in woodland destruction. In fact, the case study on Glassenbury demonstrates that Wealden landowners’ sustainable management was largely responsible for the maintenance of Wealden woods to this day.