Buildings and other structures within Parks
Many parks also had moated sites within their bounds, possibly the sites of ancient, long-gone,
manor houses, the house demolished and their land incorporated into the park. Many of these
moats could no doubt have provided fish, as well as originally a means of defence. The 1775 estate
map of Pond Park also includes mention of a Decoy Field. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility
that the extensive ponds attracted numerous wild-fowl and that a duck decoy was made to harvest
them. I know of only one other park with decoys inEssex (they were a commonfeature of the Essex
coast), Navestock, recorded on an estate map dated 1726. The 1775 Pond Park estate map also
shows a Deer house Field, possibly a reference to a Deer-shelter, which occurred in other parks
(and Epping Forest, as in Deer-shelter Plain).
Rabbit warrens, with their distinctive pillow mounds, were another feature, particularly of medieval
parks, but many had been ploughed-up by the 18th century - by which time rabbits had become all
too well adapted to the English climate and become a pest, hence their exclusion from landscaped
parks. Essex, in Rayleigh and Thundersley Parks, had two of the earliest known warrens. The
middens at Rayleigh Castle (in royal hands 1163 - 1215, empty by 1220) were found to have some
of the earliest rabbit remains in England.
Two small building types often encountered in parks are dove-cotes and ice-houses. Dove-cotes
are known from Marks Hall, Castle Hedingham. Ingatestone Hall, Quendon, Langleys, Writtle and
Shortgrove; Quendon's octagonal dove-cote probably dates from before the 16th century. Writtle's
dove-cote is said to be the only circular dove-cote in Essex.
Ice-houses, packed with ice in winter to provide ice and cold-storage for later in the year, are a
feature of many parks, including Blake Hall, Braxted. Gidea Hall and Hylands. The ice-housc at
Gidea Hall was said to have been designed by Richard Woods. The ice-house at Hylands was
allegedly destroyed in army explosives practise during the second world war.
Ingatestone Hall (the short-lived park, disparked by 1605). has provided the only record of a mews,
a place where falcons and hawks used for hawking were kept. Sir William Petre employed a falconer,
Edmund Bell, who is mentioned buying bells, jesses and hoods in 1550. Petre kept goshawks (and
sparrow hawks) as befitted his status. Falcons were probably kept at Belhus Park in the 19th century.
As is often the case in Essex, the abundant London Clay which underlies the count}' was a good
source of clay for brick-making. Because of their size, many brick-built mansions had their own
brick-kilns, established, presumably by itinerant brick-makers nearby. The legacy of this is often to
be found in field and wood names. Albyns has a Brick Clamp Field. Belhus has its Brick-Kiln
Wood (established by 1619). Hylands has two fields - Brick Field (273) and Clay Pit Field (307)
mentioned in the Writtle Parish tithe award for 1839 and Stansted Hall has its Brick Kiln Spring.
Thus the splendid houses of the rich and powerful upper classes came to be built in parks, the
fashion for keeping deer waned and lodges became redundant, or their purpose became subsumed
within other utility buildings in the park. With the great houses came all the necessary buildings to
run the park and estate, such as stable blocks and home farms. Hatch Farm at Thorndon Hall was
built as a 'model farm', fashionable at the time to farm deer and cattle. With many parks being
disparked in the late 17th and 18th centuries, many lodges must have become the farmhouse from
which the land was later farmed and probably many survive undiscovered in Essex today. Fanning
rents by this time were much more profitable than deer and the status conferred by ownership of a
deer park was less significant.
Essex Parks: Section 1 - Parks in Essex
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