The Weald of Kent, Surrey and Sussex

The Ashdown Forest Dispute 1876-1882
by Professor Brian Short
published by Sussex Record Society in 1997
Excerpts from this work have been reproduced on this site with the kind permission of Professor Brian Short

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William Augustus Raper
William Young

9.10.1879

Young, William. Fincham Farm, Hartfield. Farmer. Born on the farm 29 August 1834. Baptised at Hartfield. Fincham now consists of the old Farm House and 23 acres. It belonged to my father Henry Young. I have lived on it all my life except 7 years from about 17 to 24 when I was in Woolwich Arsenal, coming home every few months. I can remember from the time when I was 6 years old and from that time down to the present we have always turned out cattle and at times horses and sheep. We have always had litter for the yards and turf and peat for fuel, except this year because it has been too wet. 110 Sometimes we have had heath for thatching and stone, sand and loam for rough building, stone for paving sheds [and] gravel for roads and yards.

My father died in October 1869 at the age of 79. He told me he came to and fro from boyhood to see his uncle and aunt till he succeeded to the property about 45 years before his death and he has repeatedly told me that had been in the habit of turning out [and] taking brakes and litter heath for thatching, turf and peat for fuel and stone, sand and gravel and that he had never been interfered with. He said the Reeve had at times demanded payment for gravel but he had always refused. He told me he had assisted in the last drift of the Forest and that they pounded the cattle at Nutley but the owners of the cattle pounded wrecked the pound and carried away their cattle and the Forest has never been driven since.

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