Contemporary observers applied the language of ‘internal colonisation’ to Exmoor, arguing explicitly that there was a moral imperative to reclaim a landscape that had been misused and neglected by its ‘slovenly’ local inhabitants. They praised the sale of the Royal Forest in 1818 to Midlands iron-founder John Knight as an opportunity to redeem the land for the national interest by applying superior external knowledge, personnel and capital. The chapter charts how Knight embarked on a wholesale transformation of Exmoor. However, because these efforts did not produce obvious or swift results, they were downplayed by contemporaries and later historians. The chapter uses the rediscovered estate archive to emphasise the potentially radical scope of John Knight’s schemes, and how they embodied ‘colonial’ thinking.