C.(Page 42.)WOODEN FORTIFICATIONSOF THE TOWN.
A further grant was made for the same purpose by Henry III. “On May 10, 1220, King Henry III., being at Worcester, orders the Sheriff of Salop to aid the Burgesses of Bruges in the enclosure of their town, allowing them out of the Royal Forest near Bruges, as much of old stumps and dead timber as would suffice to make two stacks (rogos). This was to be done with as little injury as possible to the Forest.” (Antiquities of Shropshire, Vol. 1, p. 299.) Notwithstanding this caution, however, a good deal of damage was done, on account of the large amount of timber which was required for this purpose; for in the Sheriff’s report of the state of the Forest in 1235 there is the following notice:—“Item. TheBoscof Worfield was viewed—much wasted by ancient waste, to wit, in the time of the great war [the Barons’ war], and also in the time of R., late Earl of Chester, who, whilst he was sheriff, sold 1700 oak trees there, besides other wastes made in his time for the Castle of Bruges, and besides delivery of timber made for enclosing theVillof Bruges, before it was fortified with a wall.” (Ibid, Vol. 3, p. 215.)