Morfe Forest was a medieval

royal forest A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...

in east

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

. The forest was perambulated in 1300 and the bounds were recorded. The forest was bounded by the

River Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

on the west, by the River Worfe on the north and stretched east to Abbots Castle Hill and south into Kings Nordley. At its core was a wood stretching from

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the United Kingd ...

to Six Ashes (near Enville) and Claverley.P. W. King, 'The minster ''aet Sture'' in Husmere and the northern boundary of the Hwicce' ''Transactions of Worcestershire Archaeological Society'' 3rd ser. 15 (1996), 74-6. By the 17th century, the wood had become a heath, which was enclosed in 1805. The forest takes its name from the manor of Morfe (in Enville) which was however not part of the forest.

''Moerheb''

It has been suggested that the name Morfe is derived from an Old Celtic form ''Moerheb'' meaning "horse bramble" - an area of shrubs near where horses were kept.

Andrew Breeze Andrew Breeze FRHistS FSA (born 1954), has been professor of philology at the University of Navarra since 1987. Early life Breeze was born in 1954 and educated at Sir Roger Manwood's School, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (where he took a fi ...

, "Britons at Morfe", ''Transactions of the Staffordshire Archeological and Historical Society'', 45 (2011), 107-108. This might imply horse-breeding took place there in pre-Anglo-Saxon times. However the name ''Moerheb'' occurs only in a charter of 736 AD, the

Ismere Diploma The Ismere Diploma (London, British Library, Cotton Augustus ii. 3) is a charter of 736, in which Aethelbald of Mercia grants ten hides of land near Ismere to Cyneberht, his "venerable companion", for the foundation of a ''coenubium'' ( min ...

, granting land for the foundation of a minster in the province of Husmere, on both sides of the River Stour, with the wood of ''Cynibre'' (

Kinver Kinver is a large village in the District of South Staffordshire in Staffordshire, England. It is in the far south-west of the county, at the end of the narrow finger of land surrounded by the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and the ...

) on the north and the wood of ''Moerheb'' on the west. This is not possible for any place to be so located, if ''Moerheb'' is Morfe. On the other hand, the relationship to Kinver fits well with the minster being at

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a market town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester, England, Worcester. Located north of the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour and east of the River Severn, in th ...

. In that case, the wood of ''Moerheb'' would be a predecessor of Kidderminster Heath (now Devil's Spittleful and Rifle Range Nature Reserve and Habberley Valley).

References

Forests and woodlands of Shropshire English royal forests {{Shropshire-geo-stub