Grazing Animals in Parks
The principal beast of the medieval park was the fallow deer, probably introduced by the Normans
to stock forests and parks. Other much less frequently encountered park beasts were the native red
and roe deer, semi-wild park cattle and wild swine. The vast majority of Essex parks were stocked
with fallow deer.
Deer were a prized item. They were something money could not buy and were a sought-after gift
from the Crown or other owner of the park. There arc numerous records of deer given as gifts by
the Crown from Havering Park, often only in small number- two or three for the Queen of Scotland
in 1238 - but sometimes much larger quantities. In December 1241 and January 1242. a total of
219 deer were taken from Havering Park and neighbouring Hainault Forest, of which 140 came
from the park. The majority of these deer were eaten at feasts - Christmas, Easter and the fortnight
of St Hilary are mentioned. Other deer from this total were taken as gifts, often with the number of
animals being stipulated. On January 8th1242, Simon de Chelefield was permitted to take 10 does
in the park "of the King's gift". In December 1238 Richard de Muntfichet was ordered to take 80
does and 40 bucks (alive) for the Count of Flanders, presumably to start a forest or deer park there.
The actual taking of deer for feasts was undertaken by professional huntsmen. William Luvel and
William May are recorded as huntsmen (vadletti) in 1236 at Havering Park, being required to take
50 does, salt the meat and transport it to Westminster. Ten does were taken from Havering in 1251
to be used at the feast of the enthronement of the Bishop of Rochester. The demand for salted
vemson at Havering was presumably the reason for a salting house being ordered to be made in
1228.
I suspect that little or no hunting took place in smaller parks, unless on foot. It would take probably
just a couple of minutes to gallop across a 250 acre park on horseback and would also "stress-out"
the non-target deer. Livestock other than deer (ic sheep or cattle) would also make it impossible to
hunt some parks. Hunting on horseback may have taken place in very large parks, for example
Havering (1,300 acres), but again when no domestic stock were in the park.
The carrying capacity of Havering Park (a park of 1,300 acres = 542 ha.) for deer is twice mentioned
at 1,200 animals - around one per acre - and Illis not including any domestic livestock pastured in
the park. In practice the number may have been much lower than this. However, in March 1251 —
probably following a very hard winter - hay was ordered to be brought-in for the deer, but by April
it was ordered that the dead deer and swine rotting in the park should be removed and buried
(notably no domestic stock is mentioned).
Wild swine were ordered to be brought to Havering Park by Thomas de Langley, Keeper of the
Forest of Wychwood in 1223. Domestic pigs were also kept in the park, sometimes with the
instruction that they had rings in their noses to prevent them from rooting-up the park. Presumably
the domestic swine hybridised eventually with the wild, or it is possible that the wild swine were
kept in a separate enclosure within the park. In September 1234 it was ordered that all hogs in the
park for pannage were to be slaughtered and salted.
Cattle were also grazed in the park; in some instances the grazing at Havering was rented out. The
park keeper of Little Lodge was permitted to keep 24 cows and one bull in the park in the 17*
Century. In 1223 it was ordered that 50 lean oxen were to be fattened at Havering for the feast of St
Martin. Later in 1260 it was requested that 200 cattle be put on the park to "eat up the old grass".
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Essex Parks: Section 1 - Parks in Essex