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:

Minns, John. 62. Living close to Mr. Nesbitt's entrance gate. Born 20 October 1817. Baptised at Maresfield. Born at Oldlands which my Father Benjamin (dead) managed as bailiff for Mr. Holford (dead) the owner. When I was a boy Oldlands was the same property as Mr. Nesbitt now has, except that Mr. Nesbitt has added on about 20 acres in Maresfield which he purchased from Lady Shelley. When old Mr. Holford died the property passed to his nephew who let the farm to my Father. He farmed it for a number of years till his death and I then farmed it for 7 or 8 years till Mr. Holford sold the property about 10 years ago to Mr. Patmore who took the farm off my hands. After about 6 months Mr. Patmore sold it to Mr. Nesbitt. I worked on Oldlands from the time I left school till it was sold to Mr. Patmore and I also worked for Mr. Nesbitt for the first 8 years after he bought it. I went to a day school, coming home every day; Saturday was always a whole holiday. From the time I was a small boy down to the time I left working for Mr. Nesbitt, that is about 2 years ago, we always had litter from the Forest for consumption on Oldlands. I do not think we missed a year.

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