During The Ashdown Forest Dispute 1876-1882 commoners and land owners were interviewed by the solicitor William Raper. Their comments were recorded in a series of notebooks:
Gurr, Caesar. Rents a cottage and about an acre of land of Mr. Melville at New Bridge. Aged 60. Born in Maresfield in a house built by my grandfather Bennett on the edge of the Forest. Lived there till I married when I was over 30. I used to do job work till I was 20 and then went to work daily at Pippingford out in the Forest where I still work. For the first 30 years I was always about in the Forest on the Maresfield side. I used to cut a little litter for my father's pigs but I cut for no one else. I saw most of what went on in the Forest.
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