Catalogue description The Cyril Hart Forest of Dean Papers

This record is held by Gloucestershire Archives

Details of D3921
Reference: D3921
Title: The Cyril Hart Forest of Dean Papers
Description:

D3921/I COPIES, TRANSCRIPTS AND TRANSLATIONS

 

Public Record Office, London

 

Bodleian Library, Oxford

 

British Library, London

 

Gloucestershire Archives

 

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

 

Northamptonshire Record Office, Northampton

 

Pepys Library, Cambridge

 

Miscellaneous sources

 

Original documents

 

D3921/II SUBJECT FILES

 

Archaeology

 

Churches

 

Forestry and forest management

 

Industry and mining

 

Forest personalties and historians

 

Miscellaneous

 

D3921/III TOPOGRAPHICAL FILES

 

Abenhall

 

Alvington and Lydney

 

Awre

 

Cinderford

 

English Bicknor

 

Forest of Dean

 

Flaxley

 

Hewelsfield

 

Longhope

 

Lydney

 

Lydney, Berkeley and Cirencester

 

Mitcheldean

 

Newland

 

Oxenhall

 

Ruardean

 

St. Briavels

 

Staunton (nr. Coleford)

 

Taynton

 

Tidenham

 

Tidenham, Hewelsfield and Woolaston

 

Westbury-on-Severn

 

Woolaston

 

Out-county

 

D3921/IV MAPS AND PLANS

 

Manuscript and early printed maps

 

Ordnance Survey maps

 

Geological Survey maps

 

D3921/V PAMPHLETS

 

Forest of Dean

 

Forests and Forestry outside Forest of Dean

 

Miscellaneous

 

D3921/VI NOTES, EXTRACTS PHOTOCOPIES CUTTINGS PHOTOGRAPHS ETC

 

ASSEMBLED BY DR HART FOR HIS BOOK.

 

COLEFORD, THE HISTORY OF A WEST GLOUCESTERSHIRE FOREST TOWN.

Date: 1664-20th cent
Arrangement:

Dr. Hart's working papers comprise four principal types of material; firstly, a few early documents, mostly acquired by purchase; secondly, copies of documents in major national repositories and local record offices, often with transcriptions or translations; thirdly, files of notes on forest industries and other subjects; and finally, similar files relating to the history of individual villages in the Forest.

 

Amongst the papers is a considerable quantity of material acquired indirectly by Dr. Hart from his friend Dr. C. Scott-Garrett (1885-1972), a local archaeologist in whose honour Dr. Hart published Archaeology in Dean; a tribute to Dr. C. Scott-Garrett, M.B.E., in 1967. Dr. Scott-Garrett's papers include accounts, drawings and photographs relating to archaeological work in the Forest of Dean, many of them unpublished, and notes on more general historical and archaeological topics. As Dr. Scott-Garrett's notes have been so generally integrated with Dr. Hart's own, no attempt has been made to separate them.

 

The copies of documents from the Public Record Office include many of the important medieval and 17th century records relating to the Forest. Since the Forest was Crown land and extra-parochial, comparatively little material has previously been available locally relating to its early history. The photostat copies of the Eyre Rolls of 1258, 1270 and 1282 and the related Regards (D3921/I/9-12) will, in particular, help to fill this gap. The rolls of the attachment court, 1335-41 (D3921/I/14) and the papers relating to the forest in the 17th century (D3921/I/16-18, 24-28, 35-39, 42-44) are also particularly interesting.

 

The subject files include notes on archaeology (mainly by Dr. Scott-Garrett), churches, forestry, mining and other forest industries. There are also small collections of papers of a number of forest personalities and historians. These include 41 items of correspondence of the Rev. H. G. Nicholls (1823-67), the scrapbook of F. W. Harvey, which includes the manuscripts of a number of his poems, and a few personal papers of Dr. Scott-Garrett.

 

The topographical files bring together notes from a wide variety of sources relating to the villages in and near the Forest of Dean, and are also rich in extracts from professional and local journals.

 

The last two sections of the catalogue, the maps and plans and miscellaneous printed items, both include further important material. Worthy of special mention here are Thomas Sopwith's survey of the coal mines in the Forest, c.1851 (D3921/IV/13), Atkinson's plan of the Forest of Dean, 1845 (D3921/IV/12), and a bound volume of the first four Reports of the Dean Forest Commissioners, 1835.

Held by: Gloucestershire Archives, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Hart, Cyril Edwin, fl 1952-1982, chartered surveyor of Coleford, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire

Physical description: 7 subfonds
Immediate source of acquisition:

Documents deposited by Dr. Cyril Edwin Hart, O.B.E., 30 October 1979, 3, 11, 19, 20 December 1979, 12 January 1980, 27 February 1980, 28 February 1980, 11 March 1980, 3 April 1980, 21 December 1983, 3 March 1997

Accruals:

3935, 3945, 3947, 3967, 3970, 3984, 4750, 7646

Subjects:
  • Scott-Garrett, C, 1885-1972, archaeologist of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire
  • Garett, C Scott- 1885-1972, archaelogist of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire
Administrative / biographical background:

Dr. Cyril Edwin Hart O.B.E. was born in the Royal Forest of Dean, and has lived there all his life, apart from 5 years' service in the R.A.F.

 

From an early age, Dr. Hart has had a great interest in forestry and land management in general, and in the history of the Royal Forest of Dean in particular. He matriculated in botany etc. at London University and has obtained an M.A. at Bristol, an M.Sc. at Oxford and a Ph.D. at Leicester. Contemporarily, by examination, he became a Chartered Land Agent and a Chartered Surveyor, being a Prizeman in forestry. Subsequently, he has acted as examiner in forestry and land economy for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the University of Cambridge.

 

Dr. Hart obtained his forestry and land training under the late Major C. P. Ackers of the Huntley Manor Estate, acting as land agent, and later as Managing Director of the associated companies of Forest Products Ltd., and Woodland Improvement Ltd., at Huntley. In addition, he has managed forestry estates in England, Scotland and Wales, and has lectured in forestry and estate economy at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. Dr. Hart was elected a Verderer of the Royal Forest of Dean in 1952, and for most subsequent years has been H.M. Senior Verderer. He has acted for many years as the Chairman of H.M. Inclosure Commissioners of Dean Forest, and has served as a member of the B.B.C. Regional Advisory Council, and the South West Regional Hospital Committee. He is a director of the three Forest Newspapers. Dr. Hart was awarded the O.B.E. in 1982.

 

As a student of the history of Dean Forest, Dr. Hart has written ten books as well as many articles and booklets relating to its Commoners, Free Miners, laws and industries.

 

When Dr. Hart deposited his papers at the Record Office, he also very kindly donated the major portion of his library of books on Forestry, the Forest of Dean, and the interpretation of records.

Link to NRA Record:

Have you found an error with this catalogue description?

Help with your research