Editing Rockingham Forest (section)

==History==
The forest was named after the village of [[Rockingham, Northamptonshire|Rockingham]], where [[Rockingham Castle|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]]. 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]], [[Kettering]], [[Thrapston]] and [[Oundle]].

The area became a royal hunting ground for [[William the Conqueror|King William I]] after the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman conquest]]. The term ''forest'' represented an area of legal jurisdiction and remained so until the 19th century.

A [[Cistercian]] abbey was established in 1143 which became known as [[Pipewell]] Abbey. In 1298 the [[de Lacy]]s were granted permission to inclose {{convert|30|acre|ha}} pertaining to the manor of [[Wadenhoe]], lying within the forest, in order to make a park.<ref name=vch-1930>{{cite book|last=Page|first=William|title=A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 3|year=1930|pages=149–152|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66276}}</ref> The forest boundaries were set in 1299, although the boundaries returned to a smaller area as a result of [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]]'s actions. [[Charles II of England|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]] took over the remnants of public woodland in 1923.<ref name=trust /> The forest originally stretched from Stamford down to Northampton.