# Assarting

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{{Short description|Clearing of forested lands for use in agriculture or other purposes}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
 
'''Assarting''' is the act of [clearing](/source/deforestation) [forest](/source/forest)ed lands for use in [agriculture](/source/agriculture) or other purposes. In [English land law](/source/English_land_law), it was illegal to assart any part of a [royal forest](/source/royal_forest) without permission. This was the greatest [trespass](/source/trespass) that could be committed in a forest, being more than a [waste](/source/Waste_(law)): while waste of the forest involves felling trees and shrubs, which can regrow, assarting involves completely uprooting all trees—the total [extirpation](/source/Local_extinction) of the forested area.

The term ''assart'' was also used for a parcel of land assarted. '''Assart rents''' were those paid to the British [Crown](/source/The_Crown) for the forest lands assarted. The etymology is from the [French](/source/French_language) word ''essarter'' meaning to remove or grub out woodland. In northern England this is referred to as ''ridding''.<ref name=Muir>{{cite book|last=Muir|first=Richard|title=Landscape Encyclopaedia|year=2004|publisher=Windgather Press|location=Cheshire UK|isbn=0-9545575-1-4|pages=6–7}}</ref>

==Process==
In the [Middle Ages](/source/Middle_Ages), the land cleared was usually [common land](/source/common_land) but after assarting, the space became privately used. The process took several forms. Usually it was done by one farmer who hacked out a clearing from the [woodland](/source/woodland), leaving a [hedged field](/source/Hedgerow). However, sometimes groups of individuals or even entire villages did the work and the results were divided into strips and shared among tenant farmers. Monastic communities, particularly the [Cistercians](/source/Cistercians), sometimes assarted, as well as local lords.<ref name=Muir/> The cleared land often leaves behind an assart hedge, which often contains a high number of woodland trees such as [small leafed lime](/source/Tilia_cordata) or [wild service](/source/Sorbus_torminalis) and contains trees that rarely colonise planted hedges, such as [hazel](/source/hazel).<ref>Barker, Hugh ''Hedge Britannia'' 2012 Bloomsbury, London p.&nbsp;26</ref> Examples are in [Dorset](/source/Dorset), where there is a difference in the hedges in the west and the east of the county, at [Hatfield Broad Oak](/source/Hatfield_Broad_Oak) in [Essex](/source/Essex) where the modern hedges still follow the boundaries of an ancient forest, and at [Shelley](/source/Shelley%2C_Suffolk) in [Suffolk](/source/Suffolk) where there is an unusually long hedge made up of [coppiced](/source/Coppicing) [lime trees](/source/Tilia) that is the remnant of a nineteenth-century woodland clearance.<ref>Barker, Hugh ''Hedge Britannia'' 2012 Bloomsbury, London pp. 26–7</ref>

==History==
Assarting has existed since [Mesolithic](/source/Mesolithic) times and often it relieved population pressures. During the 13th century, assarting was very active, but decreased with environmental and economic challenges in the 14th century. The [Black Death](/source/Black_Death) in the late 1340s depopulated the countryside and many formerly assarted areas returned to woodland.<ref name=Muir/>

Assarting was described by landscape historian Richard Muir as typically being "like bites from an apple" as it was usually done on a small scale but large areas were sometimes cleared. Occasionally, people specialized in assarting and acquired the surname or family name of 'Sart'.<ref name=Muir/>

Field names in Britain sometimes retain their origin in assarting or colonisation by their names such as: 'Stocks'; 'Stubbings'; 'Stubs'; 'Assart'; 'Sart'; 'Ridding'; 'Royd'; 'Brake'; 'Breach'; or 'Hay'.<ref name=Muir/> Many Northern French places called '[Les Essarts](/source/Les_Essards_(disambiguation))' or ending with '-sart' refer to that practice.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{Cyclopaedia 1728 |title=Assart |url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&id=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01&entity=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01.p0196 |accessdate=11 June 2014 |page=151}}

{{deforestation and desertification}}

Category:Forest management
Category:Climate forcing
Category:English legal terminology
Category:English forest law
Category:Forest law

[fi:Kaskeaminen](/source/fi%3AKaskeaminen)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Assarting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assarting) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assarting?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.