REGIONAL SURVEY OF HATFIELD BROAD OAK. 191
The exhibits include :—
1. Large general maps of geology, relief, drainage and
communications ; maps concerning changes in popu-
lation, plans of architectural interest, and a field survey
to show surface utilization.
2. Photographs and prints from various sources.
3. Sketches in colour and black and white.
4. Specimens from the gravel and boulder clay pebbles,
together with a list of over one hundred and seventy plants and
some other objects of interest. The results of the general
collecting of authentic published information and facts gleaned
from local people remain a packet of notes awaiting further
developments. The exhibits will speak for themselves, since
they are all provided with appropriate comments.
I propose, therefore, to give some account of the district as I
have come to know it.
Hadfelda in the half-hundred of Herlaua (Harlow) was held
by Harold since the time of King Edward. From the Domesday
Survey onwards the manor maintained royal connection until
after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Hatfield Regis, for
such it came to be called, was always important, and within it
on a favourable site Hatfield Town developed, side by side with
an important priory.
Hatfield Broad Oak is a large parish of 8,810 acres, of some-
what irregular shape, much larger than all the neighbouring
parishes. It resembles in some respects the extensive Downland
parishes of Sussex, but only in size and shape, for this parish
covers a unit of land drained by the Pincey Brook, the most
important tributary of the Stort. The Pincey Brook occupies
a middle position between the Roding and the Stort, and at the
southern limit of Hatfield Broad Oak parish, turns westward
to enter the Stort valley by Harlow. This section of its course
follows the N.E.—S.W. structure lines taken up by many Essex
streams.3
A glance at the contour map of the Lea Basin well shows the
Pincey Brook valley and the relation of the Hatfield Broad Oak
district to the whole of the country, including the better known
3. Wooldridge, S. W. Paper in Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xxxiv.
Hatley, A. R. Geography, vol. xiv., part 4. Notes on Regional Geography of
Essex.