THE PAST HISTORY OF THE FOREST OF ESSEX. 127
as conventional squares within the parishes containing the
manors. The resulting distribution showed the arable areas
lying so closely together in some districts as to leave scant
space for land of a non-arable character. In localities like
these it was noticeable that the woodland assessment was very
low indeed, or even non-existent. Cases also occurred, usually
with isolated manors or those where the distribution was some-
what scattered, in which the woodland assessment was unusually
high: the hidation of this second type of manor was usually
much smaller than those where the woodland assessment was
excessively small.
The former type of manor—closely packed, with low woodland
assessment, and usually very large—occurred in a broad band
stretching north-eastwards along the eastern London Clay to
skirt the Tendring Hundred. Breaks occurred in the uni-
formity of the belt near Hockley, Danbury and Tiptiee. Groups
of manors similar in type appeared on the three light soil areas,
whilst others rather smaller in area occurred in certain parts
of the Boulder Clay as at Dunmow and Thaxted.
The second type of manor, more scattered in distribution,
smaller in size, and more heavily wooded, obtained throughout
the Boulder Clay region, and, to a lesser extent, in the south-
west London Clay area. Large stretches of land appeared in
these northern and western regions apparently unaccounted
for in the Survey of 1086. One can only surmise that such
areas must have carried woodland of some description.
This manorial distribution indicates that at the close of
Saxon times (1066) the main forested areas approximated some-
what to those suggested from an examination of Saxon place-
names, but the later boundaries appear as broken in outline
and the woodland areas reduced in size. The main core of the
Forest still lay to the southwest of the county—the region of
the present Epping Forest, although settlement occurred within
that area. The northeast trending spurs still projected them-
selves across the surface of the County although the northerly
one, lying as it did on the more chalky Boulder Clay, appeared
with its back very much broken into by a multitude of small
manors. It continued, however, to retain something of its
former size as it passed eastward towards Tendring, small,
isolated and heavily wooded manors appearing within its bounds.