{"id":3866,"date":"2023-06-22T13:28:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T13:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foresttown-net.stackstaging.com\/?page_id=3866"},"modified":"2024-02-18T15:35:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T15:35:01","slug":"the-grate-harakan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/foresttown.net\/index.php\/spa-ponds\/history-of-spa-ponds\/the-grate-harakan\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grate Harakan and the steel waters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Period: 1714-1748<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “very grate harakan” of 1714<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1714 a powerful storm blew down large sections of fencing at Clipstone Park and many trees. The wind was widespread and severe enough to be noted in records from Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. While the storm was seen by some as a tragedy as it let the deer eat the grass and corn belonging to the tenants, others appear to have been more concerned with the profit made from the sale of this ‘windfall’ wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation was summarised in a blog post from the University of Nottingham which noted that: “At the time of the \u2018hurricane\u2019, the Surveyor of the King\u2019s Wood at Sherwood (Queen Anne the reigning monarch) was Thomas Hewett. The Surveyor was responsible for general management, for the felling of timber for the Royal Navy, for repairs to property, for royal gifts to subjects, or for sale, and for dealing with claims to customary rights in the forest, for paying keeper\u2019s wages and for providing hay for the deer in times of scarcity. In the documents at Nottinghamshire Archives, Hewett lays claim to his right to sell the valuable \u2018windfalls,\u2019 citing examples where windfall trees had apparently been considered to belong to his predecessors in the post of the Surveyor of His Majesty\u2019s Forests, rather than the Crown. Hewett was requested to report to the Lord Commissioners of His Majesty\u2019s Treasury to give an account of the damage. In presenting his case, he explained how unusually extreme the storm had been, \u2018this was an extraordinary storm \u2013 for that there are few or no wind falls, but when such winds happen, the last of which was above 20 years since, in the time of my predecessor Mr Laycock who then had as many as amounted to several hundred pounds\u2019 (Nottinghamshire Archives DD\/FJ\/10\/9\/7\/30). As Bailey (1853) explains, \u2018Windfalls they had in abundance; but a windfall bringing down timber in one night to the value of two thousand five hundred pounds, was indeed an event of no common occurrence.\u2019”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact on Clipstone Park was noted in a letter from Charles Palmer, keeper of Clipstone Park from 1st February 1714\/15 to written in a somewhat obsequious manner to Lord Edward Harley (the husband of the Lady Henrietta Cavendish-Holles who owned Clipstone Park, and presumably at least the northern portion of the Spa Ponds site):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“…May it please your Lordship I have been with her Grace [perhaps Edwards daughter Margaret Harley, later Margaret Cavendish-Bentinck?] several times to get some fence wood for the park fence and some hay for the deer but her grace will not Grant any and I fetch home a great many Dead deer that dies for poverty I had a very fine hand of stags and a very fine hand of Bucks and without a speedy remedy they will all be lost and since her grace came a way we have had a very Grate harakan by a Double wind and it has blew Down above 4 miles of the park fence flat to Ground and we are in to lose all the deer for want of hay to keep them at the feeding places in the park for they run all about the country and the country people will kill them. I humbly beg your Lordship orders what Lordship will have me. The dog kennel’s blown down and all the outhouse is blew fall to pieces\u2026”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Extract of a letter from Charles Palmer, keeper of Clipstone Park, Nottinghamshire, to Lord Edward Harley [later 2nd Earl of Oxford], St James’s Street, London detailing the impact of a hurricane; 1 Feb. 1714\/15. Pl C 1\/43 \u00a9 University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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The original letter from Charles Palmer. Pl C 1\/43 from the University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections.<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Other mentions of the storm’s impact on Clipstone Park include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n