History
The earliest form of the name Charnwood is probably derived from cerne woda, from the Celtic carn, meaning cairn, and the Old English wudu, meaning wood. Some sources give cwern as the derivation, meaning hand mill, the stone for which was quarried in the area.
Archeological evidence has shown that the area was inhabited as far back as the Neolithic period, approximately 4,000-2,000BC. Beacon Hill is the site of an Bronze Age hill fort, dating from between 600BC-AD43. This forms one of the last surviving visible features in the landscape known to the Coritani, the tribe who occupied most of the East Midlands area at the time of the Roman Conquest.
According to Domesday Book, there was only one settlement in Charnwood Forest in 1086, at Charley whose name would appear to come from the same root, with the suffix -ley denoting open land, rather than forest.
In the 200 years after the Norman Conquest, newly created settlements took major areas of land out of the Forest for use in agriculture. Quorn was established between 1086 and 1153, and all the land up to Woodhouse had been reclaimed from the forest by 1228.
There were comparatively few major changes in land use in the post Medieval period, until the demand for timber and charcoal for the early Industrial Revolution contributed to a further loss of woodland. By the end of the 18th century, most of the woodland had disappeared leaving large areas of moorland and pasture.
The area was the inspiration for "Charnwood Poems", a collection of poems by author, playwright and poet Albert Francis Cross (1863–1940).
Read more about this topic: Charnwood Forest
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