I BEG to reply to two critical letters arising out of my reference to Magna Carta and a much less famous agreement between the Forestry Commission, the Commoners' Association and endorsed by officials from several local organisations.

In the course of this I confused Mick Holder and Henry Mills who proclaimed their beliefs in a television interview.

The trouble is that I was suffering from a touch of visual impairment and I listened rather than watched and the interviewer concluded by saying 'thank you, Henry', who I now know was not being addressed but sitting in a car. Anyway I apologise.

During my university training as a historian I recall reading any number of charters dating back many centuries.

I recall one which I think was produced in Kent wherein the Lord of the Manor gave consent to his land being cultivated and grazed by a farmer on one condition.

This was that every year he would attend the court of the Lord of the Manor and would leap four times in the air clapping his hands above his head and then breaking wind three times.

Somehow I feel that this charter is no longer observed.

When my brother-in-law retired from serving the City of London Authority he was honoured with a charter making him a freeman of the City.

One clause in the charter authorises him to take his sheep over London Bridge.

This might be legal but if attempted would probably lead to the police arresting him on a charge of behaviour likely to occasion a breach of the peace.

There must be tens of thousands of old charters that are no longer observed as they do not comply with modem conditions.

What mattered then and now in civil disputes was the growth of the common law. So the agreement over the sheep proclaimed in the Speech House is legally ineffective when common law conflicts with the document produced by representatives of various organisations.

At the time of the Speech House document being signed I was a district councillor receiving numerous complaints about damage caused in the forest by sheep and their owners.

I asked the District Solicitor to give me details of breaches of common law. Among other things it made clear that it was illegal for sheep to be allowed to roam around people's homes and businesses.

It was difficult however to bring cases as the sheep were not distinctively marked as the sheep badgers claimed immunity on the grounds of data protection. Consequently the district council decided to take the Forestry Commission to court for allowing the sheep to roam freely.

This was contested and ratepayers looked like having to pay £110,000 to the lawyers.

The judge came up with the sensible arrangement which allowed the 'Speech House guide' provided all parties accepted a method of enforcement which would be supported legally. Sadly I recall Mick Holder rejecting these proposals of enforcing the agreement and the complaints and nuisance have continued.

The letter criticising me quotes Cyril Hart who is a local historical icon in support of the Commoners' point of view.

I have read his story of the Commoners of the Forest of Dean – as he entitles them - who are unique in having no common.

I also recall that during the legal battle he was asked whether he considered it was legal to allow sheep into the towns and villages of the Forest of Dean roaming at will and he declined to answer.

What provoked me to raise the matter was coming across a dead ewe in the middle of the road in a most horrible condition.

This became intensified when on my return the corpse and all the sheep had been removed except for two lambs desperately searching for their mother.

I have travelled widely and lived in several places but I find the people in the Forest the friendliest I have known nationally and if I had to vote for the friendliest town I would vote for Cinderford.

At the same time I have suffered the jokes and jeers of smart people who like to portray us as living in a sort of reservation peopled by wild and dangerous folk. I put them right.

I stretched my last job in education by bringing lots of teachers to the Forest and around 2,000 youngsters most of whom stayed in the youth hostel in St Briavels.

All the reports back were highly gratifying – the one thing that did distress these foreigners from Surrey was dead and injured sheep on the roads.

I like sheep very much and for the life of me I cannot understand why people should expose them so cruelly.

– Roger Horsfield, Bream.