Wyre Forest

The historic extent of the Wyre Forest is debatable. It is thought that it once stretched from Worcester to Bridgnorth along the west bank of the River Severn, but evidence for that is thin. Wyre Forest has none of the legal peculiarities of a historic forest at all, instead has those of a chase (of common land) with hunting rights belonging to the Mortimer family, who had the title Earl of March from 1328, as holders for centuries of the manor and liberty of Cleobury Mortimer, which technically still enjoys such hunting rights. How far north the Mortimer family's hunting rights extended is debatable, but it may have included the whole area in south east Shropshire of which they were…