REGIONAL SURVEY OF HATFIELD BROAD OAK. 193
Hatfield to the west of Hertford.4 In the map, Hatfield Broad
Oak is marked, so that its position on the high ground between
Stort and Roding is clearly seen. The bird's-eye view is drawn
to show the area covered by the map, and on it Hatfield Forest,
in the north of Hatfield Broad Oak parish, is marked. Hatfield
Forest (like Epping and Hainault Forests) is open to the public
for ever through the good offices of the Buxton family. These
woodlands are all remnants of the great Forest of Essex to which
kings came for sport and in which the people pastured their
cattle and cut timber for fuel.
In considering any region it is absolutely essential to consider
external relationships to adjacent as well as to more distant
parts. The district we are studying to-day has three outstanding
relationships which have helped to mould its development,
namely, the historic route-way of the Stort valley, the elevated
cornlands of the Upper Roding country, and the great metro-
politan area. Of these the first two have been functioning
for centuries, whereas the last has become important only
during the past hundred years.
Our earliest ancestors used the rivers as a means of transport
and established habitations along the valley-sides. The Lea-
Stort line, providing a convenient south to north route, must
have been important throughout the human history of southern
Britain. Between Sawbridgeworth and Bishop's Stortford the
valley is narrow, forming a kind of defile, which was crossed by
the Roman Road from Colchester to Braughing on the Ermine
Street. It is not surprising, therefore, to find evidences of
pre-Roman settlement in this valley, and it is a simple matter
to picture early man occupying vantage points along the valley
between the forest and the river-marsh, points from which he
could keep a look-out against potential enemies. Settlements
doubtless existed where Bishop's Stortford and Sawbridge-
worth stand to-day, on the western side, while midway between
them, on the east, is Wallbury, an earthwork of considerable
interest. Standing near Wallbury Encampment the church
spires of Sawbridgeworth and Bishop's Stortford can be distinctly
seen, calling to mind the three fortress castles of the Meuse
gorge in Belgium—Dinant, Crevecceur, and Poilvache. Their
relative position is much the same.
4. Such a map is published by Bacon & Co. at 1d.