Benjamin Smart (Birch Grove, Theydon Bois, 1722), and William Russell (Suffield Hatch Grove.
Chingford, 1728). Other woods, such as Parson's Grove, Wanstead, may have been part and parcel
of the living of the local clergyman. In 1686 William Holcroft sent a certificate to Lord Huntingdon,
the Lord Chief Justice of the Forest, at the request of Mr. John Copping, Minister of Wanstead, to fall
a grove called Parson's Grove (Sharpe, 1986).
Prior to the Dissolution, local monastic houses were endowed with many woods. In 1135 William
de Mountfichet granted by Charter to the Cistercian Abbey of Stratford Langthorne '... his wood of
Bochherste' (Ramsey, 1953). The wood, now unfortunately destroyed, became known as Monkham
Grove at Buckhurst Hill. Sometimes owners of woods were not local people. In 1652 Wadham Lodge
Farm, Walthamstow was bequeathed to Wadham College, Oxford (Reaney, 1969) and at the same
time I assume it came to own Long Downes Wood, now destroyed but situated in the Walthamstow
area. The Master and Wardens of the College applied for a licence to cut the wood in 1722.
The Crown also owned a number of coppiced woods. In 1688 the following '... woods belonging
to the Kinge within John Berts his woodward East and West Hennold (Hainault) Kinge's Grove, aboute
14 akers; Queens Grove, 14, Lasinge Grove, 20; Gessams Hall Fee, 5,' are mentioned (Sharpe, 1986).
Ramsey (1953) gives an interesting account of the history of Monkhams Grove at Buckhurst Hill,
detailing its management in the early 18th century. A licence to coppice the woodland was requested
in 1718 and granted in 1719 and 12 years later in 1731 another request was made to cut the regrowth
from the coppice stools. Cutting was again noted by the Forest Court between 1749 and 1752 (an
interval of between 18 and 21 years since the last felling) but this time the owner of the wood had not
sought to obtain a licence. Ramsey also mentions the possibility that a house 'Little Monkhams' on
the site of the wood which was gone by the early 19th century may have originated in the 14th century
as a tenement from which the wood could be managed.
Several coppice woods were destroyed, particularly in the first half of the 18th century in the Epping
Forest area. Several are known by their owners being presented at the Court of Attachments for doing
so without licence; others successfully applied for licences to grub up their woods. In 1734 Mr. Inson,
the Rector of Wanstead, was presented for enclosing part of Parson's Grove. Wanstead, with a high
pale (a fence to exclude deer) without licence but by 1741 he was granted licence to stub (i.e. grub up
and destroy) the wood, provided he enclosed it only with the usual Forest hedge and ditch. In 1744
Smart Lethieullier of Aldersbrook desired to stub Newlands Grove, a twenty acre wood in the parish
of Barking to which cattle were gaining entry and had eaten much of the regrowth. Because of its
distance from the Forest a licence to stub the wood was granted. In 1737 (CA1 p. 139) Buntings Bridge
Wood, near Ilford, was the subject of a request to stub the wood, which it was said was frequented by
idle and dissolute persons and being subjected to the attentions of wood stealers. It was found upon
the view of two verderers and one underkeeper who visited the site to be not a haunt of the King's
deer and a licence to stub was subsequently granted. Sometimes only parts of a wood were stubbed.
On one occasion in 1728 Martin Bladen, at his Aldborough Hatch estate, requested leave of the court
to cut vistas through Colt Lees Wood and Wither Wood on his estate. Perhaps the saddest entry relating
to the destruction of coppiced woodland is the stubbing of the 5 acre Christmas Grove in Barking
Parish in 1730. In 1744 it was ordered that the Keepers who took 'the wedges, beetle and other utensils
from the persons stubbing Hellbrinks' without licence should keep them.
Coppiced Woodland Today
Many of the coppiced woods that were found in the southern part of the Epping Forest area have
long since disappeared. Great and Little Shrubbage (= Shrubrish or Shrubush) at South Woodford and
Wanstead have been built on. The Sale has largely been destroyed; its site is now Highams Park.
Monkhams Wood at Buckhurst Hill is now built on. There are some survivals - Larks Wood at
Chingford, with its large population of Service trees is still intact. It is not under the jurisdiction of
the Conservators. However, at least five coppice woods are - Red Oak (= Ruddox) Wood and Gaunt's
Wood in the deer sanctuary at Theydon Bois (neither of which have public access and both of which
have recently had their Hornbeam stools destroyed and been replanted by the Conservators), and three
woods which are accessible to the public. Birch Grove, Theydon Bois and Hatch Grove and Bluehouse
Grove at Chingford.
Walking up the green lane from the winding road that runs past Debden Green, you soon come
across a dense mass of English Elm suckers, some slowly encroaching onto the open part of the lane
itself. This trackway, marked on the Chapman and Andre map of 1777, at one point leads off to the
left. Presumably it was to make the Forest accessible to commoners' livestock and would allow the
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