may also have been disbanded by neglect when the fences fell into disrepair.
Secondly, the deer have to find a suitable habitat in which to live once they have
escaped. In much of Essex, with its profusion of small woods and copses, lack of
habitat is probably not a restricting factor.
There are no fallow deer in the vicinity of Belhus, Braxted and Wivenhoe
Parks and only occasional animals in the area of Boreham, Langleys and
Thorndon Hall parks. The deer in all these parks appear to have been killed
when the parks were disbanded.
Nine parks in Essex containing fallow deer were disbanded between 1894
and 1950, a period during which there were two World Wars and a marked
economic depression. The absence of many gamekeepers and landowners
during the two World Wars must have helped fallow to become established. The
decimation of much mature woodland by the hasty removal of timber during the
First World War, and the extensive fellings during the Second World War,
caused the rapid growth of ground flora and scrub which provided an excellent
habitat for fallow. The proportion of woodland in Great Britain that was
productive high forest fell from 72% in 1913-1914 to 48% by 1924 and 44% by
1947, whereas the proportion of unproductive woodland, namely scrub,
devastated woods and felled areas, increased from 9% in 1913-1914 to 34% in
1924 and to 44% by 1947. The proportion of productive coppice fell from 19%
in 1913-1914 to 12% in 1947. In 1947, Essex was the fourth highest English
county for the proportion of its woods over two hectares which had been
classified as unproductive. Forty-two percent of the 12,585 ha of Essex
woodlands had been so classified (Edlin, 1952; 1953). Moreover in 1919, the
government, realising the need for home-grown timber, constituted the Forestry
Commission with the aim of increasing the area of productive woodland.
However, this organisation did not start to manage any Essex woods until 1953
when work started on Rowney Wood at Debden. Between 1953 and 1967, a
number of small woods in the county were gradually felled and replaced largely
with conifers. It is interesting to note that the Epping Forest, Markshall,
Navestockside and Strethall groups of fallow all frequent areas of conifer
woodland managed by the Forestry Commission as well as other deciduous
woods. Probably all the above factors have contributed to the fallow deer's
successful colonization of Essex.
The mean rate of spread of fallow deer in three areas of Essex, namely
Clacton-on-Sea, Markshall and Navestockside, is 0.6 km per year. This rate is
not too dissimilar to that of 0.8 km per year calculated by Caughley (1963) for
the rate of spread of fallow deer in New Zealand.
Red Deer
At the time of writing (March 1977), the only known breeding population
of wild red deer in Essex is that based on the Bendysh Woods and Hempstead
Wood to the east of Saffron Walden. No evidence of red deer was found in the
Bendysh Woods when they were visited in 1965-1966 and the absence of deer
was confirmed at that time by the local Forestry Commission Forester (Waters,
35