The management of the Forest

The natural resources of the Royal Forest had been systematically conserved and managed throughout the medieval and early modern period. The quality of timber produced was very high. There are records of grants by the Crown of beams to buildings of Oxford and elsewhere. In 1648 it was ordered that the "great trees" of the forest were to be reserved for the Navy. The wood was also used for shipbuilding. In 1778 the navy bought 500 trees from Wychwood and later Nelson's ship "Victory" was built from oaks felled on Charlbury Commons.

As time passed the royal coppices were leased out and by the late eighteenth century there was no overall management of the Forest to ensure that growth of timber in the coppices was encouraged. In consequence the quality of the timber declined so markedly that in 1807 Arthur Young reported that "I did not see one very fine tree of navy oak in a ride or 16 or 17 miles". Nevertheless, between 1807 and 1833, nearly 3,000 loads of timber, probably the equivalent of 1,500 trees, were taken from Wychwood Forest to the Royal Dockyards.

Its evil reputation

By this time, the Wychwood region had also gained an evil reputation, as it provided hiding and protection for vagabonds and wrongdoers. Arthur Young commented that "The vicinity is filled with poachers, deer-stealers, thieves and pilferers of every kind: offences of almost every description abound so much, that the offenders are a terror to all quiet and well disposed persons; and Oxford gaol would be uninhabited, were it not for this fertile source of crimes." In consequence, an act of parliament was passed in 1854 to clear the forest for agricultural land. In a period of only 18 months, thousands of trees were cut down, areas of woodland and heath cleared, leaving only the present rump of woodland round Cornbury Park to the north east of Leafield.

The effect of the Disforestation of Wychwood

The disforestation of Wychwood had a disastrous effect on Leafield in particular. In 1851 over one-third of Leafield men earned their living from the woods as woodsmen, wood-labourers, sawyers, hurdle-makers and game-keepers, so the clearance of the forest meant the loss of their livelihood. The clearances provided employment for the woodsmen but only for a brief period.

Several new farms were created on the north west borders of Leafield, owned by the Crown but leased out to farmers, including Fairspear Farm, leased from 1875 by John Simpson Calvertt. These provided more permanent employment opportunities, but the living was not an easy one. The land was of marginal agricultural quality, with mixed and hungry soils and poor water supplies, and not easy to farm. A period of adverse weather and poor harvests, combined with the general depression in English agriculture, due to rising imports, falling prices for grain and widespread disease amongst farm stock caused financial distress to both landowners and their agricultural labourers. Calvertt's diary is a catalogue of rain and ruin.

When in 1916 John Orr followed in Arthur Young's footsteps in surveying the agriculture of Oxfordshire, he concluded that "the enclosure of Wychwood seems neither to have filled the pockets of landlords and farmers nor to have emptied Oxford gaol".

Wychwood today

The loss of the trees dramatically altered the landscape, a change still regretted by many. In 1997 the Wychwood Project was established, with the aim of conserving the Wychwood landscape and increasing the levels of new woodland planting, both for its scenic qualities and as a haven for wildlife. Leafield participated in this by setting up its own Field Town Tree Planting Project, which has proved highly successful. Several farmers and other landowners in Leafield and Langley have planted areas of native woodland and the Leafield Community Woodland has been established with trees grown from seed and planted by the children of Leafield School. For more information on this, see the Wychwood Project's web site at www.wychwoodproject.org.