Bernwood Forest

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bernwood was one of several forests of the ancient kingdom of England and was a Royal hunting forest. It is thought to have been set aside as Royal hunting land when the Anglo-Saxon kings had a palace at Brill in the 10th century and was a particularly favoured place of Edward the Confessor, who was born in nearby Islip.

From about 1217 through to the 17th century the forest went through a gradual period of deforestation. King Henry II prepared a map of the forest at the time which is an invaluable tool in helping define its ancient boundaries, however his purpose for drawing the map was to divide the forest up among his nobility. By the 16th century another map had been drawn of the forest in which it has reduced greatly in size. Again the map was drawn by the Crown as an audit to see how much money could be made from selling off the forest. By the reign of King James I the forest had lost its Royal status and had completely disappeared.

Today the name refers to the area of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire where the forest was at the time of King Henry II, covering 400 km². The rough boundaries of the designated area today fall within the River Great Ouse, the Padbury Brook, the Claydon Brook and the River Thame. It supports a wide variety of wildlife and is one of the most important butterfly sites in the United Kingdom.