Agricultural History Review, Volume 38 Part 1 (1990), pp. 20–39

This article traces the development of the woodland economy of Kent from the later Anglo-Saxon period until the Black Death. It describes how in the woodlands close to the coast, the navigable Rother, or London, the mounting demand for fuel, at home and cross-channel, so enhanced the value of coppice that it came to displace the much less profitable use of the woods for pannage and cattle pasture; while at the same time diverting colonization into the central core of The Weald, where heavy loads were almost undisposable. Although the Black Death caused a serious slump in the wood market the effects are still observable in the distribution of the woodland today. 

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