THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
269
Note on Sake's (commonly called "Snake's") Lane, Woodford.
[Abstract.]
The lane leading from Woodford Green to Woodford Bridge, which is now
usually called Snake's Lane, has been of late years generally associated with that
animal; by some people on account of its winding character and length, whilst
others assert that the reptile itself formerly abounded in that locality. Of the
late we have no evidence ; and both these reasons are, I believe, mere invention.
Warner, in his "Plantae Woodfordienses" (1771), mentions in several places
"Sake's, commonly called 'Snake's' Lane," showing thereby his doubts as to the
popular name, but I can show better and far older evidence, going back over 300
years to the days of "Good Queen Bess."
The old Deed, which I exhibit, I found after my father's death in 1879, among
a mass of family records. It is dated 1583 (25th of Elizabeth), and is an
indenture between John Crowche and Margaret Whethill, for the sale of various
lands and houses abutting on Sake's Lane, Woodford. The area was about 30
acres, and it was sold for £270, equal to several thousand pounds of our money.
In this indenture Sake's Lane is mentioned several times, with no variation in
the spelling, and it therefore seems evident that no doubt existed at that date as
to the real name of the lane.
Many and great alterations have doubtless occurred since that period, and so
far as I can gather, the lane did not originally extend down to Woodford Bridge,
but probably ended at the entrance to the grounds of Ray House, with perhaps a
bridle-way or footpath through. The lane had been completed, however, before
the large "Actual Survey, 1772-74," by Chapman and Andre, published in 1777,
and had then an angular turn to the right about half-way down (due, if my
hypothesis be correct, to the closing of the right of way), subsequently skirting
Ray Park down to the bridge; where in olden days the Wood-ford probably
existed. My object in this note is to call attention to this ancient name, in the
hope of eliciting further evidence. Some may have access to older documents or
records, and be more fortunate than I have been in the endeavour to trace the
origin of the name. I might suggest that the name was possibly that of some
earlier owner or occupier of the adjacent land—a custom which obtained to so
large an extent in early times.
The Deed contains many local names of persons and places, all of which seem
to have disappeared except those of "Mounckam Grove" and "Sake's Lane."
The following names of places occur:—"Riptons" or "Ryptons," "Hobbes,"
"Yendes Lane, alias H . . . . Lane" (quaere Horne), "Maggotte, alias Motes,"
"Le Redens," and "Little Boyes."
Mr. N. F. Robarts had had an opportunity of going through the Woodford
Vestry books, commencing in 1679, and found that the first mention of the lane
was "Snake's Lane "in 1738, when Messrs. Hannot and Hollingsworth gave a road
to the parish which passed through their grounds from Snake's Lane to Woodford
Bridge. This was probably the present lower part of Snake's Lane, running from
the old lodge at the entrance to Monkham, which stood where Station Terrace
now stands. He thought it probable that "Ribton Lane" ran from the Wood-
ford, between Harts and "Muncombes," into Sake's Lane to the same spot, as
Warner speaks of the hedge dividing his garden from Ribton Lane, and also of
plants found between Ribton Lane and Woodford Bridge. Mr. Robarts also
called attention to the floods in 1770 and 1888, which greatly damaged the lower
part of Snake's Lane, and to the fact that another road in Woodford, Salway
Hill, was called after a resident, Mr. Salwey, who lived there in the last century.
In this case also the spelling had changed.
The President thought that the tracing of old roads, bye-ways, and lanes, with
their names, and the derivation of the same, was extremely useful, and came to a
certain extent within the province of the Club. He might say that "Maggottes"
occurs as a name of farms in several places in Dengie Hundred ; he thought it had
some topographical significance, and was not connected with any personal cogno-
men. Some of these old-place names had received attention in the ''East Anglian";