Introduction
The disgrace of Hubert de Burgh in 1239 and his estates, including Hadleigh Park, reverting
to the Crown; the disgrace and condemnation of the odious Sir John Gates and the
subsequent confiscation of Great and Little Pleshey Parks by the Crown in 1553 and the
disgrace and subsequent financial demise of devious MP John Attwood in 1855 causing
his loss of Hylands, arc typical and indeed part of a continuous thread that weaves its way
through the history of parks in Essex. Unlike ancient royal forests, that other great legacy
of the wood-pasture tradition that Essex also excels at, parks did not have the continuity
of ownership through the Crown and lords of possibly many manors and many commoners
with established common rights. Parks being privately owned were subject to the success
or failure of their owners (whether politically or financially) and hence lacked the inherent
stability conferred by multiple ownership and use. The ebb and flow of emparking and
disparking has caused a great fluidity in the very existence of Essex parks. Henry VIII had
a mania for creating parks (including a number in Essex) before his death in 1547.Thc
medieval period (Domesday - 1485) saw at least 126 parks in Essex. There is documentary-
evidence for 160 parks in existence in Essex before 1535. Post-1535 parks bring this total
to at least 168 being known in the county. Chapman and Andre (1777) record some 60
parks (not all medieval in origin and some barely large enough to merit park status). By
1892 only 9 parks stocked with deer remained in Essex, although many others carried
sheep and cattle. Many parks by this time had become undistinguished agricultural land.
Essex is an important county in the long history of the creation of parks in England
(relatively few parks were created in Wales and Scotland). The history of parks, however,
goes back much further than this; they were known in the Middle East some 3,000 years
ago. They were known in ancient Assyria, Persia, India and China, as well as Egypt,
Greece and Rome. The Persians called their parks 'pairidaeza' whence came our word for
paradise (a Paradise Road in Writtle actually leads into Hylands Park!).
In Essex we have the remains of one of the earliest known parks in England - Ongar Great
Park - mentioned in an Anglo-Saxon will. Essex also had one of the highest concentrations
of medieval parks in England.
Parks were the status symbol of the powerful and wealthy from earliest times. Their uses
have changed with the fashions of the day and over the centuries as deer parks ultimately
gave way to the landscaped parks of Georgian England.
If one accepts that the average park covered about 250 acres (104 ha.), then parks covered
a relatively small area (about 4%) of the land-surface of Essex. But their real significance
lay in their ownership. Sooner or later research into any Essex park usually reveals the
Essex Parks: Section 1 - Parks in Essex
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