44
ESSEX AS A WINE-PRODUCING COUNTY.
At the end of the Thirteenth Century, there appear to have
been, in the parish of Witham, fields or parcels of land known
respectively as Over and Nether Winefield, or Winesfield, or
Winesland, which probably were or had been vineyards. These
are referred to in several deeds recently printed.32
The late Dr. J. E. Thorold-Rogers has recorded 33 that, in a
terrier of the rents of Barking Abbey, dated 1540, he found the
following entry :—
" Item : a vineyard, empaled with elmes, well stored with
vines, by estimacon 5 acres,— [rent] 20 shillings."
As late as the year 1667, Admiral Sir William Battens
vinted the produce of the vines growing in his beautiful garden,
at Walthamstow, where he had his country house.34 Pepys,
referring to the taking of some prizes by a ship in which he and
Batten both had an interest, says, on July 17th 1667 35:—
" I at Sir W. Batten's [where I] did hear the particulars of
"it; and there, for joy, he did give the company that were
"there a bottle or two of his own last year's wine, growing
"at Walthamstow; than which the whole company said they
"never drank better foreign wine in their lives."
Doubtless careful search through early records would bring
to light many other instances of the existence of vineyards in
Essex in former days. Indeed, it seems probable that, from the
time of Domesday Book onwards, the residence of each of the
great Norman lords and all the great monasteries had a vineyard
attached to it almost as a matter of course. At the same
time, it is practically certain (as Sir Henry Ellis has already
remarked 36) that at no time were English vineyards sufficiently
numerous and extensive to produce the quantity of wine needed
to meet the home demand, which had, therefore, to be supple-
mented by wine imported from other countries.
Various reasons may be advanced to account for the discon-
tinuance of viniculture in Essex—or, for the matter of that, in
the south of England generally. Most people would, no doubt,
attribute it to a marked deterioration of the climate of this
country which they believe to have taken place since the time
of the Romans. A belief in such a deterioration of our climate
32 See the Chartulary of St. John's Abbey, Colchester, pp. 481-486.
53 Notes and Queries, Jan. 10th, 1880.
34 Batten, who was Surveyor of the Navy, died Oct. 5th 1667.
35 Diary, vol. iv. (1848), p. 122.
36 Gen. Intro. to Domesday Book, i., p. 121.