There is a rather ambiguously located press report dated 9th October. 1849 (Ramsey and Fowkes,
1986) which mentions that 'vast numbers of Rabbits are netted for the London market in that portion
of Epping Forest, known as the Warren, lying near the Roebuck at Chingford'.
On the night prior to capturing the rabbits, stakes were driven into the ground at intervals up to
about 300 yards in length near the warren holes and the next day when the rabbits had come out to
feed the nets were hung on the stakes and the rabbits then driven back towards the burrows and caught
in the netting (Fig 2). It was not uncommon to catch twelve dozen Rabbits in one mornings's work.
The entry concerning the Chingford Warren is of interest since Henry Deakins, who operated the
Warren in 1753, was also Keeper of Chingford Walk and he presented his own Warren to the Forest
Court! The Chingford warren was probably sited near where the Warren Pond is situated today. I
suspect this was a warren without pillow mounds. There are two references to this warren in the
attachment roll in the 19th century. One concerns an unsuccessful attempt at enclosure. In 1843 (CA
IV p.32) the Revd. Mr. Heathcote (the lord of the manor) was presented before the court of attachment
'for enclosing thirteen poles at the Warren (formerly a rabbit Boro') within the Forest'. The warren,
however, was still a viable operation. In 1848 (CA IV p.61) William Watkins (underkeeper of
Chingford Walk) presented a plea before the Court of Attachments that he had held a Warren in the
parish of Chingford for which he had paid rent and taxes for 40 years and that for some time past he
had sustained great loss by reason of people shooting in the immediate vicinity of the warren. In
particular he singled out Edward Foster who was to be found shooting on the Forest almost every day
with a beater and a great number of dogs and a further consequence of this was the disturbance of the
deer.
The fifth warren, on Wanstead Heath, is the best documented of the Epping Forest warrens (Iyan
Chown, 1941). It is also the largest at 30 acres and possibly the oldest of the warrens. In the mid-16th
century there was a building (later to become Aldersbrook farmhouse) on the Forest at Aldersbrook
(known then as Aldersbrook Heath or Aldersbrook Common). Much of the land belonging to the
property was unenclosed and constituted a warren, the building having probably been built originally
as a warren house or lodge. Morant (1763-8) records a claim by Francis Osbaston (as lord of the manor
of Aldersbrook he was also High Sheriff of Essex until his death in 1678)'... in the Forest of Waltham,
for himself and his heirs, the Maner of Aldersbrooke, and another in Wansted, with two hundred and
twenty acres of arable, meadow, wood and pasture in those parishes ... and coneys and coney-burrows
in thirty acres parcel of the maner and tenement aforesaid'.
In 1660 the warren house was tenanted by Roger Tupper who in 1670 was presented for encroaching
an acre into the wastes to enlarge his coney-burrows. The warren was ordered to be seized into the
King's hands, the offending burrows were stopped and Francis Osbaston was fined £1 and required
to pay an indemnity of £20 for his tenants 'good abearing'. The Aldersbrook estate was purchased by
John Lethieullier (a family originally from Brabant) in 1693, and the warren house was later tenanted
by the Heybourne family well into the 18th century. John Heybourne caused some problems by closing
the footpath across the warren from Little Ilford to Wanstead Park and digging a number of holes in
the pathway lightly covering each with turf so that the unwary traveller might fall into the trap. A
complaint was made and the footpaths were speedily reopened.
In 1718 a complaint against Henry Davis was presented at the Court of Attachments for not erecting
a 'spurr gate in Cranbrooke meads leading to Mr. Lethieulliers Warren'. This is one of the few mentions
of a spur gate in Essex, a gate through which a horse and rider could pass.
In 1740 (CA I p.154) Smart Lethieullier made representations to enclose, with a 'common pale or
fence', about 15 acres of the Forest land upon which part of the warren was situated: a licence to
enclose was duly granted by the Lord Chief Justice. Presumably the remainder of the warren,
approximately 15 acres, is the warren referred to in the Court of Attachments for 1753 being occupied
by widow Hepburn. (This may possibly be a corruption or mistranscription of the name Heybourne).
In 1754 (CA II p.43) the Court of Attachments ordered that the keepers of the walks which contained
warrens enquired of their owners by what right they could claim to have a warren on the Forest. All
the Forest warrens were owned by the lord or lady of the manor and were leased to a tenant, the lord
or lady having the right to make burrows and put conies on the common (a right which the commoners
did not have) but should they overstock the common with rabbits, the commoners had the right of
recourse to the courts to get the nuisance removed, but they could not stop up burrows without due
recourse to the courts (Daniel, 1812).
In reply to the Court's request. Andrew Searle, on behalf of Sir Charles Wake, lord of the manor of
Waltham and owner of the warren at the King's Oak, and Edward Sotheby (father of the poet William
Sotheby) Lord of the Manor of Sewardstone and owner of the New Lodge warren both claimed to
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