The Western Rising was a series of riots which took place during 1626–1632 in Gillingham Forest on the Wiltshire-Dorset border, Braydon Forest in Wiltshire, and the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire in response to disafforestation of royal forests, sale of royal lands and enclosure of property by the new owners. Disafforestation is a change in legal status that allows the land to be sold normally, rather than being preserved as a forest. Enclosure takes the land out of common use, denying access to non-owners who had previously used it.