THE WOODLANDS OF ESSEX.
111
A COMPARISON OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF OUR
ESSEX WOODLANDS OF THE PRESENT TIME
WITH THAT OF THE DOMESDAY RECORD.
We find that at the Domesday period the Epping Forest
district was considerably the most heavily wooded part of Essex,
excepting only the Dunmow district. Much of these woodlands
still remains with us, but the tract of forest, formerly stretching
northwards from Epping Forest to Saffron Walden and Rad-
winter, which no doubt included the great Hatfield Forest, has
now almost disappeared. Remnants still exist at Hallingbury
and about Great Easton, while the Saffron Walden district is
still a very well-wooded part of our county. The neighbourhood
of Chelmsford, containing the fine belt of the Writtle High
Woods, and the Witham district also still remain thickly
wooded portions of the county. These districts represent the
forest belt which formerly covered the sands and gravels in the
direction of the Stratford to Colchester road.
It would appear probable that the two great woods in the
Rochford Hundred, namely, the Hockley and Hadleigh
Woods, remain much as in earlier days. The hills of Bagshot
Sands upon which they are situated have little agricultural value,
and the lower-lying surrounding country was probably chiefly
morass in very early times. There are still some good wood-
lands in the Tendring Hundred and the Colchester districts.
These, like most of our remaining woods, are upon sands and
gravels. The Tendring country does not appear to have been
heavily wooded in late Saxon and Norman times, yet, as Arthur
Young speaks of some thousand acres of wood at St. Osyth,
which is shewn in old maps, but which has now nearly
disappeared, we must conclude that even the least thickly
wooded districts at the Domesday period had much more
extensive woods than they now have. The remains of our
primeval woodlands may be readily detected by their flora and
fauna, and by their outline.
I have endeavoured to show on the accompanying map the
distribution of woodlands as indicated by the Domesday record,
as compared with those now existing. For this purpose I have
divided the county into convenient districts, and in each district
I have marked the average number of pigs per hundred acres,