r, also reports, in allusion to this
period, that, "having formerly pulled down and destroyed many cottages,
fences, and enclosures, he had latterly been obliged to desist, fearing
his life and property were endangered by the repeated threats and insults
of the encroachers and their party." He adds that "about 1000 loads of
oak timber were annually being felled for the use of the miners, of which
at least one-fifth part was fit for naval purposes; and that the great
waste, spoil, and destruction of timber and wood on the Forest is and
hath been occasioned by an improper application of the timber delivered
to the miners for the use of their works, one-half of which would have
been more than sufficient, for that he had frequently seized large
quantities of offal timber, and such other timber as the miners could not
use in their works; and in particular that on or about the 28th of
January, 1783, he seized and took 586 feet of oak-timber, and more than
200 cleft pieces of oak, called kibbles, from one George Martin, who
acknowledged that they had been stolen. He had also seized at the
Fire-Engine in the Forest between two and three waggonloads of timber,
hewn up and converted by the colliers into cooper's wares for market, as
the neighbourhood, being a great cinder country, would require." Joseph
Pyrke, Esq., a verderer and deputy-constable, further stated that
"numberless encroachments, enclosing one, two, or three acres, were taken
in for gardens by the idle poor, and also by people in good
circumstances," and that "nothing short of a capital offence would ever
preserve the remaining timber."

We obtain information on the subject of pit-timber from Mr. Hartland's
evidence before the Parliamentary Commissioners. He says that "the sorts
of wood or timber delivered to the miners were oak and beech, and none
other; chiefly oak in the summer, more pits being sunk in the summer than
in the winter, and the keepers having the bark; more beech is allowed in
the winter than oak. But oak timber is necessary, and is always allowed,
for sinking the pits, and for making what the miners call the gateway, or
gangway, from the body of coal to the pit, and also for the gutters in
the levels, for draining off the water; but beech, birch, orle, holly, or
any other kind of wood, would serve for the purpose of getting coal, and
supporting the earth after the coal is taken away, but none is ever
delivered to them but oak and beech." He go