Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues and predecessors: Unfiled Correspondence...

CRES 2

1513-1913

This series comprises the papers which accumulated in the Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues before the introduction of a filing system in the late 19th century, and which were not then or subsequently incorporated into that system, as a number of similar papers were. They consist largely of in-letters and minutes, the corresponding out-letters appearing in the entry books and report books in CRES 6-20, 22 and 24. The series includes a series of papers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which had been placed in blue pasteboard covers by Zachary Chambers, Deputy Surveyor General in the middle of the eighteenth century.

The papers in this series are miscellaneous: several have plans attached. Among the subjects covered are: the building of the Savoy Hospital in 1513; the establishment of the Millbank Penitentiary (including negotiations with Jeremy Bentham); the policing of Delamere Forest against arsonists, 1847-1863; Regent's Park; and the Thames Navigation. General subjects include enclosures, works and repairs to public and other buildings, royal forests, mines, fortifications, lighthouses, foreshores, etc.

The general arrangement of the series is by county (within the three blocks CRES 2/1-1625, 1626-1721 and 1722-1778). Pieces 1-1625 and 1722-1778 are (in most cases) loose bundles of papers. The papers in pieces 1626-1721, which relate mainly to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, are in blue pasteboard covers, apparently placed there in the eighteenth century by Zachary Chambers, register and deputy surveyor general. The original arrangement of the papers in their covers has been preserved as far as possible but the covers themselves have been rearranged in order of the counties to which their contents relate.

The files are continued in CRES 35

LRRO 60

Public Record(s)

English

• Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, 1810-1832
• Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, 1851-1924
• Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings, 1832-1851
• Surveyor General of Woods and Forests, 1715-1810

1778 file(s)

Subject to 30 year closure

Topics

Maps and plans

Royal Parks

Forestry

Prisons