Forest of Dartmoor

[1] Until 1204 the whole of Devon was a royal forest, but in that year King John agreed (subject to the payment by the county's commonality of a "fine" of 5,000 marks) to disafforest all of Devon "up to the metes of the ancient regardes of Dertemore and Exmore, as these regardes were in the time of King Henry the First".

[2] This disafforestation was confirmed by King Henry III in 1217,[3] and in 1239 he granted the Forest of Dartmoor (and the Manor of Lydford) to his brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall.

[4] The next year, in a writ dated 13 June 1240, the king directed the Sheriff of Devon and twelve knights of the county to perambulate the Forest to record its exact bounds.

[7] Although the original document detailing the route of the 1240 Perambulation has been lost, a number of near-contemporary copies still exist, differing only in spelling.

[3] A modern transcription of the places mentioned is as follows:[7][8] There was another perambulation of the forest bounds in 1608 which introduced a number of changes and added boundary points between the existing ones.