ON AN ANCIENT OAK AT CHIGNAL ST. JAMES.
109
Oak Pollard mark'd ; then over the hedge straight on down Broad
Field [still so called] to the cross path;2 then straight on the right
hand to an oak mark'd at the Style ; then to the left over the hedge,"
etc. The last-named oak is the one in question ; and, within the last
few years, I have seen on it a large notch, which I have always
supposed to be the "mark" cut in it with a hatchet, when, in former
times, the boundaries of the parish were "perambulated"—a custom
which was maintained in Chignal until at least as late as the year
1836.
Another interesting thing in connection with the tree is the fact
that the former name of the field in the hedgerow of which it stands
was (as stated above) "Puttock's Lees." This name survived until
at least the year 1810, as I find "Puttock's Leys" and "Puttock's
Leaz" on maps of the parish of that date ; but, soon after that time,
the field was thrown into the present Broad Field.
Now the Buzzard and the Kite (though extinct as breeding
species in Essex) were formerly not uncommon, and were known
locally by the name of "Puttock" ; whilst "Lees," "Leys," "Leas,"
or "Leaz" (all forms of the same word) are, no doubt, corrupted
from the very ancient and now-obsolete English word "Leasow,"
meaning a meadow or a pasture, which is probably derived from the
Anglo-Saxon laes, a meadow. Tusser (1557) uses the word "lease"
for a pasture. The word still survives locally, chiefly in names of
fields. Thus, in Mr. W. C. Waller's interesting paper on "Essex
Field Names,"3 we meet with a "Lees Field" in Hatfield, a "Great
Leighs" and a "Cowleaze" in Stanford Rivers, a "Wood Leighs"
in Great Parndon, a "Crab's Leys" in Fyfield, and with many other
similar combinations. There is also a meadow known as "The
Lays" in Roxwell parish, but adjoining the Chignal Boundary, and a
Sty Lees in Broomfield.
We get, therefore, "Buzzard's Field" as the modernised name of
"Puttock's Lees"; and there can be no doubt whatever that the
name is a relic of the time—perhaps two centuries or more ago, for
field-names are very enduring—when a Buzzard or a Kite regularly
bred in some large tree in the hedgerow of the field—probably in the
very oak tree in question, as there is no other large or ancient tree
anywhere in the immediate vicinity. According to Mr. Waller,4 there
is still also a "Puttock's Oak Field" in Roydon parish.
2 "Mr. Crush [then residing at Stevens Farm] has here altered the land."
3 "Trans. Essex Arch. Soc," vol. v., p. 144.
4 Loc. cit., p. 172.