Fig. 2 Pollarded (L) and Coppiced (R) trees (MH)
Forest. W. C. Waller in Buxton's 'Epping Forest' (1911) reports its occurrence in Monk Wood from
a document dated 1582.
In looking through the records of the Court of Attachments for Waltham Forest, there are hundreds
of entries relating to coppiced woodland. This feature of the court record seems to have caused much
confusion right up to the present day to scholars interpreting the Forest record. The solution is that
although the coppiced woods were privately owned and outside the physical Forest, those woods that
were close by the physical Forest were places where Forest deer were likely to feed or seek cover and
the owners were thus obliged to seek a licence from the Forest officials in order that they could cut
their wood.
Atypical entry in the attachment roll reads '7th Sept. 1688 ... for falling of Lay Spring this season,
conteining twelve acres, at ye request of Sir Wm. Hicks, bartt. lying in Layton Walk in ye parish of
Layton' (Sharpe. 1986). Several authors have interpreted the 'falling' of woods as meaning the
destruction of the wood. This, however, is not the case. The 'falling' refers to the cyclical cutting of
regrowth from coppice stools, a traditional method of managing woods and a way of producing a crop
of poles from a self-renewing resource. Most woods, for example the Bradfield Woods in Suffolk,
were managed in this way. These woods have a documented management history going back to the
13th century and the woods have been cut down many times in their history, but, of course, they still
exist.
In the coppiced woodland that surrounded the Forest, if not too large and being of full growth (i.e.
fully grown since the last coppicing) they were cut in one go; only occasionally is there a mention
with a larger wood of it being cut in two or more falls. In 1684 Great Shrubridge (a wood now gone,
but formerly at Wanstead), which was about 100 acres in extent, was granted leave to be felled in four
falls. A little later, in 1720, it was ordered that William Row be given leave to fell a grove called the
Sale in Walthamstow Walk of about 80 acres at '3 severall falls'. The necessity of obtaining a felling
licence through the Court of Attachments was strictly enforced until the late 18th century.
Coppiced woodland, as I have already mentioned, was privately owned, mostly by local landowners.
The attachment roll mentions, among many owners, J. Smart (Ruddox Grove, Theydon Bois. 1686),
Sir Josiah Child (Little Shrubbrish, Wanstead, 1688), Robert Stracey (Clapgate Spring, Waltham.
1719), William Row (The Sale, Walthamstow, 1720), Robert Boothby (Larks Wood, Chingford, 1722),
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