Marsley Farm

The Stiperstones Forest was a royal hunting forest in the late Saxon period. It is unmentioned by name in Domesday Book but at Marseteleie, now represented by Marsley Farm in Habberley there was a Saxon royal hunting lodge and a series of Hayes and enclosures connected with the chase. Marsley stands on a commanding promontory in the valley and was ideally sited for its purpose, as indeed was The Lodge at Gatten at a later date.

Game was probably driven northwards down the valley towards Marsley where the hunters would be gathered. The Stenufrestanes Forest was granted to Roger Corbet by Henry II and confirmed by Richard I to his nephew Robert in 1190 (Eyton,VII,12) and to his son Thomas Corbet in 1236 (Ibid., 21-2). They were all dedicated to the chase. The quarry was red deer, roe deer, wild goats and wild boar and the Corbets had free Chace within the bounds of their private forest.

However if their quarry escaped into the adjacent royal Long Forest which included townships along the western edge of the Long Mynd they could not pursue. They did, and at the forest Assize in 1209 Robert Corbet was accused of taking a stag with hounds near Stretton in company with two of his Welsh servants (Ibid., 16).

His son Thomas had permission to pursue any three wild boar unkennelled in his forest into the royal forest in 1224 (Rot. Litt. Claus.(Rec.Com.), 114) but the family continued to have problems. A hind wounded by an arrow on Thomas Corbet’s forest dropped dead in the bailiwick of Peter de Muneton the forester of the Long Mynd in 1262 (Eyton, XII,6) and Thomas Corbet’s son and heir Peter was accused at the Assize in 1271 of pursuing a stag unkennelled in his father’s forest into the Royal Forest (Ibid.,VII,30).

The Corbets were not alone in their infractions of Forest law. Not content with deer Peter Corbet had permission to exterminate all wolves in Shropshire, Staffordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire in 1281 (Ibid., 33). A distant branch of the Corbet family, the Corbet’s of Leigh in Worthen, were the hereditary foresters of the Stiperstones and adjacent forest south of Minsterley which had already been divided into four bailiwicks by 1352 by which time the Gatten quarter was already detached.

South of Minsterley deer were so common in 1370 that the hilly ground was alleged to be uncultivable because of their depredations. There was large scale poaching in this area which led to special commissions in 1299 and 1377 and as late as 1521 there were said to be 600 fallow deer in Hogstow.

Poaching was rife in Heath and Hogstow in 1521 when gentlemen and tenantry from Halcetor (Corndon) and the hundred of Chirbury, which were all under the control of the Crown lordship of Montgomery, were presented for hunting with greyhounds and bows and arrows and or taking deer on nine occasions (TSAS. 4ser.,IV, 81-8).

John Leland c 1540 recorded that Hogstow Forest “hath deer and is large.” (VCH Salop. VIII, 298) The state of Hogstow in 1562 was much better; Lord Stafford gave regular warrants to the keepers of all the walks to send bucks and does to Caus castle, Stafford castle and to his acquaintances and neighbours. Fallow deer were still present in Habberley walk and poachers were home grown. Two were presented for one instance in Netherheath and in Habberley walk two of the Jenens family from Walleyborne in Pulverbatch were accused of trespassing equipped with bow and arrows and crossbow in the lower Vessons. Cottagers in Hogstow were suspect and an ordinance was made that they should “be bound of their good aberinge to my lords wods and game.”

Illegal lopping and felling of alder and holly was rife. Pannage and the taking of “tak” pigs was recorded in all walks and owners and numbers carefully recorded (SA 6000/2495 Caus court rolls 1562, swainmote rolls).

The disorderly state of the forest in the early part of the century had been redressed and the laws of the forest maintained. Regrettably it is not possible to document the effect of the break up of Lord Stafford’s estate on the forest. Judging by the state of the Shropshire Royal Forests in the thirteenth century it is likely that red deer and roe deer were in retreat and the permit to Corbet in 12– to take six live red deer in the royal forest may reflect the need to breed park deer.

Whilst there is no evidence for hunting in the Gatten area after 1300 the tenants at Wentnor in 138- were still obliged to accompany their lord as beaters when hunting (SRR 6000/6172) and this record probably represents ancient practice. Thomas Corbet had been careful to preserve his right to pursue game onto land given to Buildwas Abbey in Kinnerton and Ritton in 12 and gave the monks and their tenants permission to drive deer off their land. However they had to compensate Corbet for any game found dead on their property. The monks had power to ditch their property and Monkesdiche, otherwise known as Black ditch, on the south-west flank of the Stiperstones was the result. The Corbets themselves reserved rights of passage through Kinnerton and Ritton along defined routes.

The routes described in 12 are of some topographical interest. On the northern edge of the Stiperstones forest after mentioning a way to Pontesbury and another to Habberley it names “Murcherk” and “Alrenmor”. Both these places were mentioned in an inquest in 1226 to determine whether the Forest of the Stiperstones, Gatesden, Murtherlegh, Godwynescot and the park of Elrenor were part of the barony of Thomas Corbet or appurtenant to the Honour of Montgomery which abutted on Corbet’s land and the forest of Halcetor (Corndon Hill).

The point at issue was one of pasture rights and it was determined that that the Men of Montgomery had no right to pasture their beasts or cut hay in Corbet’s hayes of Gateden, Murtherele and Godwinescall or in his park of Elrenemor or in his Forest of the Stiperstones. (Eyton,vii,20-1;Ibid.,xi,134).

The identification of Gateden as Gatten is certain lying south east of what is now Gatten Lodge. The Lodge itself is not mentioned until 14 but curved field boundaries to its immediate south indicate the possibility of a park and this may be that of Elrenor. Murcherk, Murtherlegh and Murtherele are probably now represented by Marehay, first so named in 1452 (SA60000/6173) but Godwinescot is more problematical.

Whilst the corruption of Murtherlegh to Marehay is just about possible that of Godwinescot to Gittinshay is not. In 1443 Jontenshaye (Ibid.) occurs which was preserved as Yockeshay in the early modern period and gave its name to a farm (now demolished) south of Leasows Bank farm until the early 19th century.