APPENDIX
MONK WOOD, IN LOUGHTON
A FRAGMENT OF FOREST HISTORY1
By W. C. Waller, M.A.
The following very interesting note on the history
of Monk Wood by that excellent authority on old
documents, Mr. W. C. Waller, which I am permitted
to extract from the Essex Naturalist, throws no
little light on contemporary customs, and is worthy
of study:—
" Somewhere about the beginning of the
thirteenth century one part of Loughton was called
'Luketon Snarringe,'2 as being, or having been,
the fee of one Geoffrey de Snarring. He, we may
say in passing, was probably an under-tenant of the
great Norman barony of de Valoines in Essex, as
in Norfolk; from a place in the latter county, now
called Snoring, he seems to have derived his name.
It appears, however, that he had granted at any
rate some portion of his estate to three owners,
who held a certain wood in Luketon Snarrynge in
common, though their shares were not equal. But
at this point it will be well to let two of them,
Geoffrey Renitot and Roger Fitz-Ailmar, speak for
themselves through the medium of an interpreter,
their own words being recorded in monkish Latin :—
"To all the faithful in Christ, Geoffrey de Renitot and
Roger Fitz-Ailmer send greeting in the Lord. Be it known
1 Authorities: Harl. MS. 4809. D. of Lanc: Surveys and
Depositions; 24 Eliz. D. of Lanc.: Misc. Rec; xxv. F. 17a.
2 It may have been a small manor. That a hill on the
southern border of Monk Wood is still called "Court Hill" is
a significant fact.