The Great Oaks of Essex Parks and Other Trees
I.C.Shenstone - writing in Volume Vill of The Essex Naturalist of 1894 on the subject of the oak
tree in Essex - included a number of sizeable and notable oak trees, the majority old pollards, that
he had recorded in parks in the county. Many of the trees were girthed and some illustrated in the
paper. Shenstone wrote of Danbury Park "I believe that 1 am justified in saying that the spot in all
Essex richest in fine oak trees, is the park at Danbury". Here he notes at least two oak pollards w ith
girths of 31ft. one of which he contends was at one time very much larger, part of the trunk having
fallen away, and five others with girths of between 23ft and 27ft.
Other parks mentioned included Thorrington Hall, Alresford - with "four monster oak pollards"
with trunks girthed at between 27ft and 31ft. At Barrington Hall. Hatfield Broad Oak. he records
two pollards with girths of 29ft 6ins and 18ft 9ins. At Rivenhall Park near Witham and Mistley Hall
near Manningtree, he noted several trees with girths of 21ft to 23ft. From a number of parks he
recorded just single pollard trees - Lawford Hall near Manningtree (19ft 3ins), Skreens, Roxwell
(26ft), Writtle Park near Margaretting (25ft) and Quendon Hall, Newport (20ft 2ins). Privately-
owned Barrington Hall appears to have the largest Oak tree in Essex - a magnificent pollard girthed
at just under 38 feet, measured in November 2003. This appears to be the oak measured by Shenstone.
It also has other sizeable pollard oaks on what was the boundary of the park.
Danbury Park - a deer park since early medieval times - still has good numbers of ancient oak
trees. In 1560 the park was said to be "......for the most part is well grown with timber of oaks".
However, in the 19th century, many hundreds of trees - presumably mostly standards - were removed,
firstly by the Church Commissioners, who purchased the park in 1845 as a residence for the Bishop
of Rochester and later the Bishop of St Albans, and secondly by Hugh Hoare, a later owner who
felled some 430 trees between 1892 and 1903. Interestingly at least two of the pollards at Danbury
are pollarded at a great height - around 12ft - (3.66m).
Thorndon Park still has a number of fine pollard trees, but their numbers are much depleted. Very
little remains of the "2,080 oak pollards and 1,323 hornbine trees" recorded in a survey of 1774 on
Childerditch Common, before it was incorporated into the park around 1800. I did, however, girth
one surviving oak from this era at 17ft 10ins, being located south of the visitor centre.
Weald Park still has good numbers of ancient pollard oaks - the old deer park (the south-east
corner) has a concentration of very large oak pollards, several being over 20ft in girth. This part of
the park currently fenced and grazed by cattle (but also wild deer and rabbits) is probably the
nearest we have to the appearance of a medieval deer park in Essex. It has everything (apart from
a park pale) one would expect in a medieval wood-pasture - ancient pollard oaks, the odd hornbeam
pollard, grassy launds, patches of bracken, some sizeable standard oaks, patches of secondary
woodland and even an old alder slade with sizeable alder stools and standard trees.
The rest of the park is well-wooded with numerous mixed plantations, including many conifers
(Crossbills are recorded here). A tame herd of fallow deer is kept in an enclosure by the visitor
centre; it totalled about 36 head (including fawns) in July 2003.
Mistley Park (now disparked) in the north of the county near Manningtree, in the part now known
as Furze Hill, has a concentration of the largest old pollard oaks in Essex; there are at least a dozen
here with girths between 15ft and 32ft Sins. The latter is the second largest pollard oak in Essex,
affectionately known as 'old knobbly' - the tree even has its own web site.
Essex Parks: Section 1 - Parks in Essex
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