John Knight and Sir Frederick Winn Knight
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EXMOOR FOREST
In June 1818, the Crown decided to sell Exmoor Forest, so in May 1819 the Royal Forest ceased to exist. The main allotment was auctioned, seven tenders received and the highest of these was from John Knight of Worcestershire for 50,000 pounds for 10,000 acres. He soon purchased some other adjoining allotments and so became the sole owner of what had been the Royal Forest.
He set about improving the roads, making good the tracks through the Forest from Exford to Brendon and Barnstaple and Simonsbath to Challacombe. He enclosed the property with a wall 30 miles long (some parts are still in existence.) He built eight farms in the area, many of which are still functioning. He was also responsible for cottages for farm labourers and shepherds who had previously little or no decent place to live. He took up residence at Simonsbath House in about 1827- the house had been an inn since 1789 - and began to build a 'handsome residence' on rising ground behind the old house. This was to be a spacious mansion and when finished the original Simonsbath House would be demolished.
Lack of funds over the years, however, made this dream impossible and it was never finished. The shell stood for many years gauntly above James Boevey's house and was demolished about 1900.
The sheep of Exmoor as they are today were bred by John Knight by introducing a Scottish strain to harden the stock already in existence. Many Scottish shepherds came to the moor with the flocks and to this day their descendents live all over the area.
John Knight also planned great mining projects for iron ore known to be plentiful and built many canals and railway tracks to carry the ore to the port of Porlock for transportation to Wales. He constructed Pinkworth Pond due west of Simonsbath in the wild area known as The Chains. To this day no-one knows what purpose he had in mind and many suggestions have been made but the lake, though beautiful and remote, remains an enigma. Rumour has it that the Pond was built with a canal running the full length of the Knight property, for the purpose of hauling lime from the kilns at Porlock right along the top of the Estate. This canal can be followed for approximately five miles to beyond Warren Farm.
John Knight died in 1850 and the second phase of the reclamation lasted from 1840 when he handed the development over to his son Frederick as he was ailing in health. Frederick had been brought up in Simonsbath and so knew the Moor very well indeed. He lived in the house with his family and continued to develop farming, sheep breeding and mining with various degrees of success. In 1856 he built a school at Simonsbath and the little church of St Luke and the parsonage. When his father bought the Forest, there had been one house in which lived the Innkeeper and his family of five. In 1856 there were 281 people on Frederick Knight's estate and 30 children at the school.
The whole face of the Moor changed as he planted beech hedges to act as windbreaks and whole forests of beech along the river valleys. All the trees opposite Simonsbath House were planted by him as before only 37 trees stood on the whole of the Forest and all these were around Mr Boevey's house. The last of these trees blew down in a gale in 1971.
In 1879 Sir Frederick's only son died at the age of twenty-eight and his father, whose dearest wish it had been to leave his son a secure inheritance, slowly lost interest in many new experiments he had planned for them to share. But if he made no fresh conquests, neither did he retreat. His sound farming policies were steadily pursued helped by the invention of new agricultural equipment and things were flourishing on his death in 1897.
Related Family Pages
John Knight (1767-1850)