invasive alien, as it is a tropical specialist and is not adapted to survive the cold of
winter. This seems to apply to the Phasmida (the insect Order comprising stick and leaf
insects) as a whole; there are no species native to Britain and while a few others have
been introduced as escapees, none have established anything more than a very tentative
foothold in the extreme southwest. However, with the changing climate who knows
what might happen?
Stetchwork
David Bloomfield Hortons, Mascalls Lane, South Weald, Brentwood CM14 5LJ
While we were parked on that strange grass car park in the centre of Jaywick on August
16th a member asked if I could explain the stetchwork underlying the site. One of our
leading members suggested I write an article explaining this.
I am no authority but have a lifelong interest and know a little about the subject. I will
start from the very beginning. 1 assume the first plough was the fork of a tree, one limb
cut to about three feet, the other longer. This one was used to pull the shorter arm through
the soil and was probably burnt off to give a hardened point. This would have helped a
little, but its wearing life would have been very short. Probably it was not long before
some bright person made a hole in the point, in which was placed a stone to take a lot of
the wear from the soil. Despite asking I have not yet been shown one of these stones,
which of course is distinctively worn. When iron was discovered a point made from this
was used instead. Although this was a plough its use was different, more like a cultivator
tine it hardly buried any trash or weeds. It was used to make lines across the field as
today's ploughs, but all it really did was make a series of parallel groves with some
displaced friable soil. This would have to be done at least three times to move all the
soil, ideally with an interval of a few weeks between each ploughing. The ideal would
have been to do each ploughing at an angle of 15 degrees - if at 90 degrees it would have
produced square blocks of unmoved soil.
It is believed the Romans brought a mouldboard plough which made a furrow that bur-
ied trash and weeds in one operation. This was the reason they are noted for their straight
sided right-angled corner fields. The fields already here could be and sometimes were
round, since it did not matter to them.
I do not know if the Romans kept ploughing the same way to raise the centre to aid drain-
age, as in the later ridge and furrow, which is so obvious in some parts of the country. The
native people doubtless carried on with the same primitive plough. The Roman plough
was a light metal piece of equipment, probably pulled by two or four oxen.
The Saxons are said to have brought with them a heavier, deeper working plough that
used six or eight oxen; these needed a wide area to turn at both ends, the headland,
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 58, January 2009
13