Buildings and other structures within Parks
The first and most obvious structure needed for a deer park was the pale, a fence of cleft oak which
surrounded the entire perimeter of the park, its purpose to contain the deer. The pale would have
breaks for gates (hatches) and sometimes a deer-leap (saltory). Deer-leaps are recorded at least for
Wanstead, Writtle and Havering Parks. They allowed deer to get into the park, but not out. The
perimeter fence, usually surmounted on a bank and ditch, was an expensive undertaking, hence the
rounded oblong shape typical of early parks, classically seen in Ongar Great Park.
The second most important structure within the park would have been the lodge. The presence of
large numbers of poachable deer within the park would have required the permanent presence of an
individual to look after the deer, the parker, who oversaw and ran the park from the lodge. Most, if
not all, deer parks must have had at least one lodge situated usually in a position from where most
of the park could be seen. Many parks had just one lodge, even the large 1.200 acre (500 ha.) Ongar
Park. Some giant parks, such as Clarendon Park (4,000 acres = 1,666 ha.) in Wiltshire had three
lodges. Lodges were prevalent in the early medieval period before grand houses and manor houses
came to be situated in parks.
One early park in Essex was the Royal Park of Hadleigh. Hadleigh Castle was built in c. 1230. The
park was licensed shortly afterwards, in 1235, but it was emparked on land adjacent to the castle. It
may have been that the deer park was seen as very much a working component of a much larger
landholding. comprising farmland, vineyard, woodland, water mill and fisheries. Hadleigh Park is
recorded as having a park lodge in 1366, being repaired then along with the pale.
A recent excavation of farmland west of Stansted Airport (and immediately north of Hatfield Forest)
has revealed what is almost certainly a lodge occupied from the 14* to the 18" centuries. Originally
it was a simple timber-framed hall with a later wing added to create an 'L' shaped building, then
having what was probably a bake-house or kitchen detached from the main structure built. Smaller
ancillary buildings - possibly stables or barns - were also found. The buildings were thought to
have been demolished and the site cleared in the 18* century. It was the small finds which gave a
clue to the buildings' possible original use, including many objects to do with horse furniture and
hunting, including harness fittings, various forms of arrow head, spurs and horseshoes. The excavated
bone assemblage also included equal amounts of sheep, cattle and fallow deer remains. It is possible
that the building started life as a park lodge, but eventually became a farm when the land was
disparked.
The Royal Park of Havering was disparked and sold in 1652, the two lodges being described thus
- "Great Lodge consisting of a hall, a kitchen, two parlours, butteries, with other necessary rooms
with chambers over them, with a barn and stable - we value at one hundred pounds. The Little
Lodge consisting of a hall, a kitchen, a parlour and chambers over them, with a barn and
stable........we value at forty pounds". The Little Lodge may have been the earlier of the two
buildings; it was described as a "ruinous tenement". The lodges were probably a standard design,
built to cater for the needs of housing the parker and assorted huntsmen, horses and dogs when they
came to take the deer in the park.
Littley Park Farmhouse (still extant) near Leez Priory, shows three phases of building, of which
the earliest c1470 is thought to be the original park lodge, later added to in the 16th and 17* centuries,
eventually becoming the farmhouse when the park reverted to agricultural land. Littley Park was
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Essex Parks: Section 1 - Parks in Essex