Grazing Animals in Parks
By 1652, when Havering was disparked and eventually sold, there were just two hundred deer "of
several sorts". Interestingly, they were given a value of £200. At the same time the vicar of
Hornchurch, who usually received a buck and a doe per year, had his gift commuted to a value of
£5.00. There are many instances of deer (Red and Fallow) being poached from Essex parks.
Wild swine, apart from being found at Havering, were also recorded as late as the 1520s - 1530s in
the emparked Chalkney Wood near Earls Colne. One entry related to Havering Park in 1240 indicates
red deer were present; an order was made for 12 bucks (fallow) and two stags (red). The 126+
parks of the medieval period in Essex had dwindled to just nine functional deer parks by 1892. All
these parks had fallow deer, but three also had red deer - Easton (120), Thorndon (40) and Weald
(70). Sika (9) and Roe (2) deer are also recorded for Weald Park. AlthoughHylands now lias aherd
of around one hundred head of fallow deer - mainly nocturnal visitors to the park - it seems that no
deer were present in the park in 1892, just domestic livestock. An engraving of Hylands House
dated 1854 does, however, show a small herd of fallow deer in front of the house. The modern herd
of fallow deer at Hylands (probably shared with Writtle Forest) are really at Hylands by default.
They access the park through the non deer-proof parts of the western boundary of the estate. There
is a deer-proof fence between the lower Belt and the neighbouring golf course at Webbs Farm.
Muntjac, an introduction from Asia, is also present in small numbers at Hylands today. Nearby
Writtle deer park - now disparked and consisting of vast arable fields - actually still has a sizeable
herd of fallow deer at times on its ground. Muntjac are also present in Writtle Forest. Fallow deer
herds have now built-up to high numbers in Essex. They are even moving into urban areas, such as
Harold Hill, near Romford, to feed in gardens. There are deer warning signs in place on the
outskirts of Harold Hill not far from Dagnam Park.
White park cattle were, until recently, kept at Thorndon Park, but currently has a small herd of
shorthorn cattle. Longhorn cattle are present at Marks Hall, a small group (around 6) from the
Chalkney Mill herd. Young in 1807 writes of longhorn cattle kept at Rochetts, South Weald.
Horses are much under-recorded in parks, but as (he principal means of transport up to the early
20th century, they must have occurred at some time in all parks. The earliest records I know of, are
of horses being reared at studs at Hadleigh and Rayleigh Parks in the reign of Edward II in the very
early 14th century. A statute of 1535 made it compulsory for park owners to maintain studs for
breeding horses, even stipulating the number of brood mares and also the size of the horse (15 hh
for stallions and 13hh for mares). John Halfhcad, Keeper of Havering Park, was permitted to keep
six horses there in the 17th century, presumably for patrolling the 1300 acre park. The stable block
at Hylands, dating from the early 19th century, had a number of stall stables and loose boxes and
could accommodate up to 20 horses. Carriage and draught horses, the latter in the Home Farm,
were present at Hylands and 1 assume that hunters (Arthur Pryor, a Victorian owner of Hylands was
a noted huntsman in his time) would also have been stabled there. The horses would have grazed
and been fed on hay from the park - possibly a reason why so much grassland and meadow survives
in the park today. The third Lord Braybrooke at Audley End was a horse-racing enthusiast and a
number of famous racehorses were bred here, including 'Sir Joshua', winner of the 1000 Guineas
in 1816. A number of ponies and horses currently graze Stansted Hall park.
The 18th century was a great period of agricultural improvement in Britain. Many parks became
disparked at this time. The perceived need to improve agricultural quality and yield may have
Essex Parks: Section 1 - Parks in Essex
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