THE REGIONAL SURVEY OF HATFIELD BROAD OAK. 199
Less useful patches are apparently the origin of the several
"greens," with wide road space overlooked by farms and
labourers' cottages. These greens are usually named after
some owner of former days, e.g., Crab's Green, Taverner's Green,
Wright's Green.
Heavy crops have been the rule, and before the days of
agricultural machinery and the possibility of cutting and threshing
and even selling out in the fields within a few days, great storage
places were essential. The grain provided food for the rest of
the year. This essentially agricultural district is rich in large
timber-framed barns, often with one or more transepts and
internal or external aisles. These barns have preserved for us
the early form of manor house and church as developed in Saxon
times. Each parish had its tithes : Town Barn, probably the
tithe barn of Hatfield Broad Oak, still exists, dating from the
14th century.
There are, too, many well-preserved timber-framed houses
which can be compared with the barns. The best is "Ongars,"
just north of Hatfield Heath. At New Hall, not far from
Leaden Roding, there is a perfect example of Tudor barn with
patterns of brick in place of plaster between the timbers. The
building of New Hall, like that of its namesake nearer Chelmsford,
must have been a great architectural event, for the house had
a considerable frontage and was E-shaped in plan. The end of
the east wing is incorporated in the present building, but the
porch of the great hall remains as a ruin. This porch, with the
room above it, is marked on the large scale maps as "chapel."
Doubtless the bricks for house and barn were made locally from
exposures of brick earth in the Roding valley. In contrast to
this fine brickwork the houses further west were nearly all half-
timbered. Lea Hall at Hatfield Heath is a roomy building with
some good carving on the front. This house is surrounded by a
perfect moat. Moats are very common in this part of the county.
Sometimes they have a house within them, but more frequently
there is orchard. Local materials have been used, and these
have stood the test of time. Timber, thatch, clay, lime from
the chalk, local bricks and tiles, all these play their part in
the well proportioned cottages as well as the more ambitious
halls and farmhouses.
The simple barn form of building has been mentioned. At