Rockingham Forest is a former royal hunting forest primarily located in the English county of Northamptonshire, with a small section extending into neighbouring

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

. It is an area of some lying between the River Welland and River Nene and the towns of Stamford and

Kettering Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...

. It has a rich and varied landscape, with farmland, open pasture, pockets of woodland and villages built from local stone.

History

The forest was named after the village of Rockingham, where the castle was a royal retreat. The boundaries were marked by the River Nene on the eastern side and on the western side what is now the A508 road from Market Harborough to

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

. Over the years the forest shrank, and today only a patchwork of the north-eastern forest remains. The bulk of the remaining forest is located within a square, of which the corners are Corby,

, Thrapston and Oundle. The area became a royal hunting ground for King William I after the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

. The term ''forest'' represented an area of legal jurisdiction and remained so until the 19th century. A

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

abbey was established in 1143 which became known as Pipewell Abbey. In 1298 the de Lacys were granted permission to inclose pertaining to the manor of Wadenhoe, lying within the forest, in order to make a park. The forest boundaries were set in 1299, although the boundaries returned to a smaller area as a result of King Charles I's actions. King Charles II took little interest in the forest and gave away or sold much of it. By 1792 there was no significant royal ownership of the forest area. Parliamentary enclosure of the bailiwicks and disafforestation of Rockingham bailiwick in 1832 resulted in a much smaller forest area with much of the land turned over to agriculture. The

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respons ...

took over the remnants of public woodland in 1923. The forest originally stretched from Stamford down to Northampton.

Geology

The forest extends across a tract of country underlain by

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

s of

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

age, a part of the great Jurassic escarpment stretching from the Cotswolds to the southwest through the East Midlands to the Humber via Lincoln Edge. Largely a mix of mudstone and

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

layers dipping gently eastwards, the sequence is this (in stratigraphic order i.e. youngest/uppermost at top): * Ancholme Group ** Oxford Clay Formation * Great Oolite Group ** Cornbrash Formation ** Blisworth Clay Formation ** Blisworth Limestone Formation ** Rutland Formation * Inferior Oolite Group ** Lincolnshire Limestone Formation ** Grantham Formation ** Northampton Sand Formation The plateau is largely covered by glacial till of a stony, clayey nature. Exploitation of the ironstone within the Northampton Sands was the basis for the once-important iron and steel industry in Corby on the western edge of the forest.

Management

Areas of Rockingham Forest managed by the Forestry Commission include: * Southey Wood, Peterborough (Cambridgeshire) * Wakerley Great Wood (Northamptonshire) * Bedford Purlieus National Nature Reserve (Cambridgeshire) * Fineshade Wood (Northamptonshire) * Fermyn Woods (Northamptonshire) It is famous for its population of red kites which now number 300.

Chequered skipper reintroduction

In the spring of 2018 chequered skipper butterflies (''Carterocephalus palaemon'') from

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

were released at a secret site as part of the Back from the Brink (BftB) project. A further release of butterflies from Belgium will take place in the spring of 2019, to supplement the newly emerged offspring of last years release. Invasive scrub has been removed from more than 8 km of woodland rides by Butterfly Conservation and their partners, and if the reintroduction is successful they will be the first native-born chequered skippers to emerge in England in more than 40 years.

External links

Forestry Commission

References