The Pollard Trees
Epping Forest is justly famous for its pollard trees. Probably nowhere else in Britain, or indeed western
Europe, is there such a large concentration of surviving trees of this type. The trees are relics of an
ancient system of management whereby the grazing of animals could be combined with the production
of wood, the trees being pollarded (or lopped) at a height, usually 6-10 ft. in Epping Forest (Plate 1),
at which grazing stock could not reach the regrowth which could then be cropped about every 7-15
years, principally for firewood.
The earliest written reference to pollarding in Epping Forest occurs in 1365 (Rackham, 1978).
However, the practice was almost certainly well established in the medieval period and could possibly
date from at least the Anglo-Saxon period in Epping Forest. Pollarding must have pre-dated the
establishment of the legal Forest (c. 1130). The Forest laws were principally concerned with the
protection of the 'vert and venison' of the Forest and it is extremely doubtful that such an 'injurious'
practice as pollarding would have been allowed to develop on such a scale as it did in Epping Forest
under Forest Law. In addition, there is no record of a legal right to lop trees in the Forest, a fact that
was often brought up in disputes concerning the wood cutting rights.
In 1630 and 1670 the lords of fifteen Forest manors and sub-manors claimed the power to lop the
existing pollard trees, in most cases without the necessity of the action being sanctioned by the Forest
officers, the cut wood being used as firewood or for mending hedges and fences. Claims were also
made by customary tenants, freeholders and other inhabitants of certain manors to a right of estovers
(common wood) within the Forest at the same time (Fisher, 1887).
The existence of pollard trees throughout the Forest from the southernmost parts in the Wanstead
area to the northernmost parts, the Lower Forest, indicate that at some stage inhabitants of all the
Forest manors must have practised pollarding, although the southern manors, in which the Forest is
principally grassland or grass-heath (i.e. Wanstead and Leyton Flats) have relatively few pollard trees
when compared to the northern parts of the Forest.
A third feature of pollarding, which may further substantiate the claim that it pre-dates the formation
of the legal Forest, is that it was regulated by the manorial court and not by Forest courts or Forest
officials. The court rolls of the manor of Loughton between 1570 and 1828 contain orders for the
regulation of lopping and that whilst the orders attempted to limit the right to estovers by tenants of
the manor the orders constantly recognised its exercise by 'inhabitants', 'cottagers' and 'other
persons' and sometimes refer to it as 'common' or 'custom' wood. In 1570 an order was made that
tenants of the manor were not allowed to draw their customary wood from the Forest with draft oxen
or carts and a further restriction was attempted later in that tenants or inhabitants of recently built
houses within the manor were not to be allowed customary wood. This order seems to have been
impossible to enforce and a further order was made to the effect that tenants who had new tenements
should not draw their wood on sledges (as was the custom with established tenants), the idea being
that the new tenants were reduced to the status of cottagers who could only take as much wood as
they could carry themselves. The wood thus cut was for the use and consumption of the inhabitants.
It seems to have been understood and observed that the customary wood was not sold out of the Forest
(Fisher. 1887).
Lopping was carried out in the winter months. It commenced on All Saints' Day (1st November)
and ended on St. George's Day (23rd April), although the Court Leet of 1753 altered the
commencement of lopping to 12th November in accordance with the change in the calendar in 1752.
Thus lopping did not interfere with the fence month (see page 26) in midsummer, but there are records
of fines being levied for breaking this rule as far back as the 14th century. In the Hainault division of
the Forest, some parishes, for some reason, had the right to lop wood in the fence month - these parishes
were Barking, Dagenham and Stapleford Abbots (Fisher, 1887). The reason may have been, for
Barking and Dagenham at least, that for repair of the seawall to prevent a breach occurring, wood
could be cut from the Forest (Hainault) at any time of year, even during the fence month, to prevent
the calamity of flooding (EN VI p. 158).
Apart from the customary right of inhabitants to estovers enjoyed in some manors, a second category
of wood right (but not, strictly speaking, a common right) existed - the assignment (or fuel assignment
as it was also known). In the Epping division they existed at least in Waltham, Loughton, Sewardstone
and Upshire; in the Hainault division at least in Barking and Dagenham. Assignments were attached to
particular estates or messuages not to individuals, each assignment having a designated letter or letters.
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