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Roche Abbey holdings: woodland
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Woodland not only afforded shelter and privacy,
but provided a number of resources including fuel, pasturage for
animals, and building materials such as timber and thatch. Following
a case between William, son of Richard of Barnby and the abbot of
Roche during Henry IIIs reign (1216-72), William agreed that
the abbot should receive from his woods six cartloads of fine oak
for building, two cartloads of wood for burning and two for fencing,
and that the abbot and his men might pare sods or dig turf there;
he also acknowledged the abbots right that year to common
pasture in his woods for all his animals except goats.(8)
This exclusion of goats from forest pasturage was commonplace, since
they ate the woody growth and young seedlings, thereby inhibiting
regeneration.(9)
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