Morfe Forest was a medieval

royal forest A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...

in east

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. The forest was perambulated in 1300 and the bounds were recorded. The forest was bounded by the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

on the west, by the

River Worfe The River Worfe is a river in Shropshire, England. The name Worfe is said to derive from the Old English meaning to wander (or meander) which the river is notable for in its middle section. Mapping indicates that the river begins at Cosford Brid ...

on the north and stretched east to Abbots Castle Hill and south into Kings Nordley. At its core was a wood stretching from

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. Histor ...

to Six Ashes (near Enville) and

Claverley Claverley is a village and civil parish in east Shropshire, England. The parish also includes the hamlets of Beobridge, Hopstone, Upper Aston, Ludstone, Heathton and a number of other small settlements. Claverley village is east of the market to ...

.P. W. King, 'The minster ''aet Sture'' in Husmere and the northern boundary of the Hwicce' ''Transactions of Worcestershire Archaeological Society'' 3rd ser. 15 (1996), 74-6. By the 17th century, the wood had become a heath, which was enclosed in 1805. The forest takes its name from the manor of Morfe (in Enville) which was however not part of the forest.

''Moerheb''

It has been suggested that the name Morfe is derived from an Old Celtic form ''Moerheb'' meaning "horse bramble" - an area of shrubs near where horses were kept. Andrew Breeze, "Britons at Morfe", ''Transactions of the Staffordshire Archeological and Historical Society'', 45 (2011), 107-108. This might imply horse-breeding took place there in pre-Anglo-Saxon times. However the name ''Moerheb'' occurs only in a charter of 736 AD, the

Ismere Diploma The Ismere Diploma (London, British Library, Cotton Augustus ii. 3) is a charter of 736, in which Aethelbald of Mercia grants ten hides of land near Ismere to Cyneberht, his "venerable companion", for the foundation of a ''coenubium'' ( mins ...

, granting land for the foundation of a minster in the province of Husmere, on both sides of the River Stour, with the wood of ''Cynibre'' (

Kinver Kinver is a large village in the District of South Staffordshire in Staffordshire, England. It is in the far south-west of the county, at the end of the narrow finger of land surrounded by the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and the ...

) on the north and the wood of ''Moerheb'' on the west. This is not possible for any place to be so located, if ''Moerheb'' is Morfe. On the other hand, the relationship to Kinver fits well with the minster being at

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...

. In that case, the wood of ''Moerheb'' would be a predecessor of Kidderminster Heath (now Devil's Spittleful and Rifle Range Nature Reserve and

Habberley Valley Habberley was one of the hamlets of the ancient parish of Kidderminster in the county of Worcestershire, England. It is now divided so that part of it is an area of the town of Kidderminster (to the northwest of the town centre) and part of it (i ...

References

Forests and woodlands of Shropshire English royal forests {{Shropshire-geo-stub