Thursday 21 July 2011

What is a forest?

To the modern mind a forest is a large woodland.

The Amazon 'rainforest' is so named because it is an enormous area of wild woodland.

Alongside Robin Hood himself- it is the Major Oak that is the symbol of Sherwood Forest.

But in the Medieval mind a forest was something quite different...

If you asked a medieval person to define a forest their anwswer would probably relate to Deer and the Crown.



This is because a forest was a geographic area subject to forest law

A law introduced by the Normans to protect Deer for the king.

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