be marked by the Reeve. A list of cattle marked and their owners, the 'Return of Cattle Marked' was
to be submitted to the Court of Attachments.
There are a number of entries in the attachment roll relating to the surcharging (overstocking) of
the pastures of the Forest. This could take the form of allowing unmarked animals on the Forest, the
marking of beasts from other parishes or allowing commoners to have too many beasts on the Forest.
In 1790 (CA II p. 142) it was ordered that the Reeves marked for every person that had the right of
common in the Forest two cows for every £4 annual rent or one horse and no more, but poor cottagers
were allowed up to two cows or one horse without this qualification. In 1797 (CAIII p.21) Abraham
Miller, one of the Forest Reeves, is mentioned as permitting the Forest to be surcharged and accepting
money from people not having a right of common. Unmarked beasts on the Forest could be
impounded: until recently there were pounds in several places on the Forest. The cattle would be kept
here and if, after a period of time the owner had not claimed the beast and paid a fine, the beast was
taken to market (Waltham or Epping) and sold. Commonable animals were 'horse beasts and neat
beasts', meaning horses and cattle of various sorts. Sheep seem not to have been commonable beasts
at this time. In 1789 (CA II p. 134) a Mr. Utterton was presented before the Court of Attachments for
having a hundred sheep or more, daily driving them to feed on the Forest in the lanes within the
boundary of the Forest to the very great injury of the Forest and those who had right of common in
the Honey lane Green area. It was ordered that the underkeeper of Epping Walk and the Reeve impound
the animals. However, some landowners were licensed to keep large numbers of sheep on the Forest,
among them Waltham and Stratford Langthorne Abbeys in medieval times but only in specified areas.
Goats were not permitted to graze on the Forest. In 1751 (CA II p.26) William Fellows was ordered
to take his goats off the Forest at Leyton (presumably Leyton Flats) otherwise have them impounded.
Asses (donkeys) were also not permitted to graze the Forest. In 1719 an entry in the attachment roll
requires poor cottagers living adjacent to the Forest to keep their geese near their houses and not allow
them to wander in the wider Forest '... otherwise to shoot them'. Domestic geese can still be seen at
large on the Forest near Epping, feeding around the cottages by Epping Plain on the Lower Forest.
The Epping Forest Commissioners in 1877 (Fisher. 1887) found that there existed a right of common
of pannage for commonable swine within the Forest, although as Fisher states, there is scant evidence
for this assertion. It seems likely that pannage would have occurred in the privately owned woods
outside the physical Forest but within the legal Forest. Forest officials generally did not interfere in
such matters outside the physical Forest. However, in 1630 some claim was made in Leyton for
pannage rights in the physical Forest and at the Justice Seat in 1670 it was claimed that the inhabitants
of ancient messuages and tenements in Sewardstone Hamlet had the right to common pasture in all
the wastes there and pannage for their hogs. In all the records of the Court of Attachments for the
years 1713 to 1848 I do not recall seeing a single entry relating to pannage or to pigs pastured on the
Forest.
The Reeves, as well as marking the cattle, had other duties as well. In 1744 (CA I p. 169) it was
requested that they and other Forest officials assist each other in driving the Forest during the fence
month, to herd the commonable animals off the Forest. On another occasion a Reeve was required to
remove a glandered (diseased) horse from the Forest and to have it destroyed. Impounding animals
also could cause some friction. In 1718 the Beadle of the Forest presented before the Court Edward
Jones of Stratford for assaulting him and taking his horse out of the pound. An entry made in 1747
(CA I p. 184) in the attachment roll required the Reeve of Roydon to take all strays from Broadley
Common (unfortunately destroyed in the mid-19th century) to the manorial pound. This entry is
interesting: it is the only record I have found relating to grazing on a common outside the physical
Forest (but within the legal Forest) and where Forest officials have interfered with what was essentially
regarded as a matter of manorial interest.
Today relatively few cattle are grazed on the Forest. Occasionally tethered horses and goats are to
be seen in the Lower Forest, the bye-laws now permitting tethered goats to graze. Commoners today
in the Epping Forest Parishes are those owning half an acre of land or more - there are many hundreds
of commoners, but few exercise their right to graze cattle. The register of commoners includes,
amongst others, housewives, farmers, a surgeon, a gynaecologist, an engineer, a clerk in Holy Orders,
and a number of corporate bodies who hold land in Forest parishes - the London Boroughs of Newham
and Waltham Forest, Thames Water Authority and Epping Forest District Council. The City of London
Corporation is technically a commoner by owning the deer sanctuary at Theydon Bois. Very few
commoners (as few as five) exercise their right and most cattle on the Forest today come from the
parish of Waltham Holy Cross.
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