page_title: Lydford Castle
section_title: Role in stannary and forest law
hierarchical_section_title: Lydford Castle / History / 1150–1239 / Role in stannary and forest law
caption_attribution_description: This cross is known as both Nun's Cross (possibly from the Cornu-Celtic Nans meaning valley or ravine) &amp; Siward's Cross (possibly in connection with Siward, Earl of Nothumberland at the time of Edward the Confessor). It may well be late Saxon or early medieval in origin. It may well have been used as a marker for the track from the monastery at Buckfast to the monastery at Tavistock. It is close to Nun's Cross Farm on South Dartmoor.
context_page_description: Lydford Castle is a medieval castle in the town of Lydford, Devon, England. The first castle in Lydford, sometimes termed the Norman fort, was a small ringwork built in a corner of the Anglo-Saxon fortified burh in the years after the Norman conquest of England. It was intended to help control Devon following the widespread revolt against Norman rule in 1068. The Norman fort had been abandoned by the middle of the 12th century.
  The second castle in Lydford was constructed in 1195 following a wave of law and order problems across England. It included a stone tower with a surrounding bailey, and rapidly became used as a prison and court to administer the laws in the Forest of Dartmoor and the Devon stannaries. The tower was rebuilt in the middle of the 13th century, probably in the 1260s by Richard, the Earl of Cornwall. It was redesigned to resemble a motte and bailey castle, an antiquated design for the period but one that was heavily symbolic of authority and power. In 1342 the castle, still being used as a prison and courtroom, passed to the Duchy of Cornwall, who owned it until the 20th century.
context_section_description: Lydford Castle does not seem to be primarily designed to have a military function, although in 1199 when King John succeeded to the throne he had the castle garrisoned and expensively equipped to prevent any potential unrest breaking out in the region. The castle lacked the usual military features of the time, such as external gatehouses, and its design seems to have been intended to evoke the authority of a traditional defensive fortification rather than to resist an actual attack. Instead, as well as helping to deal with the wider problems in 1195, the castle appears to have been built with the intention of enforcing the stannary and forest law in Devon. It is possible that the Crown originally intended that the castle took over the stannary law across the whole of Cornwall and Devon, although in practice its role extended only to governing the Devon stannaries.
  Stannary law was a medieval English legal system for governing the tin industry. South-West England, and in particular Devon, was a major producer of tin in the 12th century, produced by independent miners who worked the alluvial deposits across the region. The industry was regulated by the Crown, who taxed mining output and raised revenue from any fines imposed on those who broke the stannary laws. The laws also helped to manage the relationship between the miners and other local people, whose economic interests were often at odds. The output of tin increased from the end of the 12th century onwards, encouraging the Crown to extend its regulation and generate more revenue. In 1198, William of Wrotham, who controlled Lydford Castle at the start of John's reign, was appointed as the Warden of the Stannaries, a new office intended to provide additional rigour to the administration of the mining industry. Stannary courts were established in Devon, backed by a team of officials, and, with the creation of the Duchy of Cornwall in the 14th century, the administration of stannary law was delegated to the duchy. From 1198 onwards, Lydford Castle was designated as the prison for supporting the court and its processes.
  Forests were special areas of land in medieval England, owned by the Crown and subject to forest law. They were often selected because of their natural resources, and were expected to provide the Crown with a flow of money or raw materials. In 1195, the Forest of Dartmoor extended across all of Devon, but in 1204 John curtailed the extent of the royal forest, removing much of Devon from Forest Law and leaving the area known in the modern period as Dartmoor. This reduced forest was still subject to the Forest Laws, involving a specialised group of legal officials who met at Lydford Castle to impose fines and other punishments. Probably both Lydford Castle and the forest was given to the Sheriff of Devon, William Brewer, in 1216. The arrangement changed under Henry III, when the estates were given to Richard, the Earl of Cornwall in 1239. Legally, this meant that the Forest of Dartmoor was converted to a chase, although the Earls of Cornwall continued to hold law courts at Lydford Castle, enforcing chase laws that closely resembled the former Forest Laws.
caption: Boundary marker on the Forest of Dartmoor
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FX01", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:04:09 09:39:40", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "420", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7060", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5312", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Landscape Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:04:09 09:39:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:04:09 09:39:40", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "57/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "6908", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "48", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}