The Extent of Essex Parks
Cantor, writing in 1983, suggests that the medieval park was probably between 100 and 200 acres.
In this publication I have suggested a figure of around 250 acres as the average size for a park. I
have found many parks in Essex within this range - Danbury (1282) 123 acres, Bedfords (15th
century) 215, Gidea (1462) 200, Harold's (1225) 200, Thundersley (1254) 250. However, of 23
medieval parks in Essex for which I had a calculated or good estimate for their extent, an average
figure of 449 acres (181 ha) was calculated.
Of these 23 parks, 11 were under 250 acres, whilst four were well over 8 - 900 acres. These four
sizeable parks, as far as I am aware, were the largest parks in Essex. Rayleigh (c.800 - 1.000),
Crondon(c. 1,000), Ongar (1,200) and Havering, the largest of all Essex Parks, 1,300 acres. This
will have led to an inflated average figure for Essex Parks. When a total of 34 Essex park acreages
from all periods was calculated and averaged (medieval. Tudor, Stuart and Georgian), an average
figure of 420 acres (170 ha) was achieved. Possibly larger Essex parks are more prominent in the
historic record.
The issue of park size is further complicated by what can readily be admitted to be the minimum (or
indeed maximum) size for a park. Oliver Rackham records a fourteen acre Barking Park in Suffolk
(big enough for just a dozen or so deer), whilst Lancaster Great Park in Sussex (better known today
as Ashdown Forest) was said to cover 13,500 acres and was surrounded by a ditch and bank with a
fence some 34 miles in extent with around 40 gates in it. Fourteen acres is barely "extensive grounds",
whilst Lancaster Great Park was over twice the size of Epping Forest and thirteen times the size of
Hatfield Forest.
The extent of individual parks can also vary greatly, over time being enlarged or partially disparked,
depending on the financial (or political) circumstances or whim of the owner. A 200 acre park in
1340 might be a 450 acre park by 1545 and partially disparked to 325 acres in 1730, but gone
completely by 1850.
There are odd records of parks which seem to have been created to keep deer out, rather than in,
such as the deer-proof fence which hils been erected at Marks Hall, Coggeshall today. This has
been done to protect the many plants and trees in the new arboretum. Similarly in 1285 Reginald de
Gynges was licensed to empark "20 ac. wood. 10 ac. laund. 1 ac. garden in Ingrave [near Brentwood]
round his court there, notwithstanding that the deer repair there by reason of the density of his
wood". This "park" of 31 acres is the smallest I have come across in the county. In not, apparently,
being created for retaining deer, it pre-empts the present day park movement.
Essex Parks: Section 1 - Parks in Essex
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