From the 1770s onwards Alice Holt and Woolmer forests were required to devote themselves primarily to producing oak for the Royal Navy, though they had been neglected and their trees were past their prime. The Lieutenant of the Forest was dismissed in 1811 and four years later the Office of Woods initiated a massive re-planting programme on of Alice Holt, all oaks. Records of traffic in oak timber during the Napoleonic wars indicate that the logs were taken not to Portsmouth, the nearest port, but overland to the River Wey at Godalming, Surrey, whence they were shipped or floated down to the Thames dockyards in London.