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stone, marl and also beech mast.  The swine would be driven into the forest in the autumn to fatten up on acorns.  These rights were documented.  The rights enabled the commoners to keep body and soul together despite poor farming conditions.
However as the population grew, there was increased pressure resulting in arguments as to rights with a need for future agreements.  Assarts (enclosures) were scattered across the Forest mainly around existing cottages. By the 17th Century this was a considerable problem.  During the Commonwealth there was a requirement that such unproductive land should become farmland.  The surrounding landowners wanted to enclose the land for their own benefit but the commoners would destroy hedges.  At the end of the Commonwealth, Charles II gave much of the Forest to the Earl of Bristol with permission to disafforest and enclose.
In 1693 a definitive map was produced showing the private and common land which remains unaltered to this day.
By the mid 19th century most of the forest was owned by Earl de la Warr (Lord of the Manor of Duddleswell) and he waged a constant battle against the Commoners – mainly for cutting wood for which the punishment could be hard labour or imprisonment.
The conflict escalated to legal proceedings as to who the commoners were – in the past rights had gone with the cottages - and many were now owned by wealthy people - for instance the Dukes of Norfolk and Sheffield.  Earl de la Warr took them all to court.
In 1877 the opportunity came to settle once and for all. One of the tenants – Mr Hales – had an employee cutting litter and this was used by Earl de la Warr to bring a test case.  The case was brought in 1880 and lasted several days and the Court handed down judgment in favour of Earl de la Warr.  This decision was reversed in 1881 as a result of the evidence collected by Gilbert Raper based on the commoners’ assertion that over many centuries no one had tried to stop them cutting litter (heather, coarse grass and bracken gathered for use or sale) or exercising other rights.
As a result there was the establishment of the Board of Conservators Act 1885, the provisions of which still govern the Ashdown Forest today.
The depositions give an insight into the life on the Forest in the late 19th Century and are a wonderful source of Victorian life in the Ashdown Forest and the different echelons of Society.   Phyllida de Salis
BARBECUE   Our fourth annual barbecue, on Sunday 29th July at The Colleens, Cousley Wood Road at the kind invitation of Celia and Martin Turner, was another out-standing success.  The sceptics were confounded - the weather stayed    
perfect; the pig - though shaken nearly to pieces in transit - ate deliciously, as did the rest of the food.  Thanks to all those who put so much effort - behind the scenes and ‘front of house’ for making the event run so smoothly.
QUIZ NIGHT Saturday 29th September at the Commemoration Hall. After a rather slow take up of tables - despite the number of hands raised at a meeting earlier in the year, showing great enthusiasm for a quiz night! - twelve tables of eager contestants settled down to a series of challenges, devised by our own in-house team of David James, John Breeze and Mike Bleese, who reminded us that yesterday is history.
Rounds included some novelties - slides of old places and historic figures had to be identified; sounds from the past were broadcast [after a few hiccups] in the Hall; and the table quiz included a complicated piece of history-based arithmetic - with the final answer that memorable date 1273.
Some complained that the images and sounds were not shown for long enough - but no one failed to get Vera Lynn after the  first two notes!
Questions on Wadhurst history showed that some teams either did not read our Society newsletters - or had forgotten what they had read; one team scored ‘nul points’.  But the winners - Neil Rose and The Rosebuds triumphed with a total of 85%.
Full scores - if you can remember your team name [as the scorer mis-read them!] were as follows:

Wadhurst History Society Quiz Night

Round
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Total
Rose Buds
8
10
8
8
7
8
6
15
6
10
85.5
1066 and All That
8
10
6
8
8
8
6
13
5
10
82.3
The Ironmasters
7
7
4
8
8
10
7
7
7
18
81.9
Michaelmas
5
6
6
9
8
6
14
5
5
10
73.4
Wellington
7
5
8
7
7
7
6
4
7
14
72.4
The Learning Curves
6
5
6
9
7
5
6
12
9
6
70.2
The Wot Nots
8
5
8
10
7
5
7
4
8
7
69.2
Universally Challenged
5
6
6
16
6
5
8
3
5
8
68.0
All Sorts
6
5
6
8
7
6
12
6
3
10
67.8
The Horizontal Six
4
7
7
5
7
8
6
6
5
8
63.3
The Third Benders
5
6
6
10
5
6
6
7
0
8
58.7
The Try Hards
5
4
5
7
5
5
5
4
11
4
54.8

Round scores rounded Total column as % of maximum score

Oct 11: APPLES – from Adam and Eve to the present day: Peter Griffiths from the Brogdale National Fruit Collection, Faversham
Brogdale is the largest collection of varieties of fruit trees in the world, with over 2,500 different varieties of apple, 550 of pear, plus plums, cherries, bush fruits, nuts and vines.  We were encouraged to visit Brogdale where Peter, our speaker, is one of the team of guides, as well as the bee-keeper.  Not only did he enlighten us about apples but some other fruits crept in as well.
In this country, the earliest apples were the crabs that grew wild.  We like to think that we are the originators of the cultivated apple but this is not so.  It was the Romans who brought the