INTRODUCTION
Deer, both wild and park, have been present in Essex for many centuries.
According to Fitzstephen's description of London in the twelfth century, fallow
and red deer were present in the forest which lay to the north of the city, i. e.
what is now Epping Forest (Butler, 1934). There are also eleventh century
records of parks, presumably for deer, at Chipping Ongar (Whitelock, 1930)
and Rayleigh (Farley, 1783).
Although wild deer were once numerous in Essex, they appear to have
become extremely scarce by the end of the nineteenth century, being restricted
to a few fallow, roe and red deer in Epping Forest and a few red deer near
Hatfield Broad Oak. Elsewhere in the county, deer were apparently known only
as park animals (Laver, 1898). Information about deer in Essex is conspicuous
by its absence; apart from a few brief notes, only one paper about deer (Harting,
1887) having been published in the Essex Naturalist from its inception until
1963.
In March 1963, a study was begun of the biology of fallow deer in Epping
Forest. Soon it became apparent that, although the deer moved into and out of
the Forest, little information was available as to the distance they travelled or
even what the distribution was of fallow deer in the surrounding countryside.
The Essex Field Club did appoint a Deer Recorder in 1961 with the aim of
studying the distribution of deer in the county, but the survey was never
completed. In 1964, the Club asked me to organise a survey of the deer of south-
west Essex in order to complement the studies being made on the Forest's deer.
The inaugural meeting of the Survey was held on 19 January 1965 under the
chairmanship of the Club's president, Mr B. T. Ward. Also in 1965, the Essex
Naturalists' Trust decided to carry out a survey of the deer in the remainder of
the county. The inaugural meeting of this Survey was held on 11 May 1965, the
chair being taken by Mr G. A. Pyman, the Trust's chairman. Initially, these
two surveys were separate but, because there was a common organiser, they
eventually became amalgamated into an Essex Deer Survey. Originally it was
hoped that the Survey would be completed within three years but this aim
proved too optimistic. Regular recording of deer stopped after five years, in
1969. In 1971, an attempt was made to update the records and a preliminary
report was published (Eastcott, 1971).
The aim of this publication is to summarize the records obtained by the
Essex Deer Survey and to record the marked change in the status of wild deer in
Essex that has occurred since Laver's Memoir, The Mammals, Reptiles and
Fishes of Essex, was published in 1898.
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