Wood-pasture in Essex today
It is enormously difficult to give an assessment of the actual acreage of wood-pasture in Essex
today. There is only a small amount of working wood-pasture, ie where animals are grazed beneath
actively pollarded trees, as at Hatfield Forest. There is slightly more where animals are grazed, but
the trees are not managed as at Weald Park. Assessment is complicated by some sites, such as
Hylands, which has no formal grazing regime, but the park is mown (grass and for hay) and is also
accessed by a substantial herd of fallow deer. Some very old parks which are now disparked and
are largely arable fields, can still have relict areas of wood-pasture. It is still possible to see cattle
grazing on old pasture beneath old ash pollards at what was Littley Park near Hartford End.
The wood-pasture total below includes all these categories, including derelict wood-pasture in
which no grazing or wood-cutting takes place at all. It also takes into account private wood-pasture
sites, which may or may not be working. The total acreage of parks docs not include many small
parks (less than 40 acres) and of the estimated total of 4,000 acres, a significant percentage of that
acreage comes from just eight parks, including Hylands (577), Thorndon (435), Weald (425),
Braxted. Dagnam. Shortgrove, Stansted Hall and St Osyth. Hylands, at 577 acres, is by my calculation
the largest park in Essex today. Essex, with sites such as Epping and Hatfield Forests (totalling
some 7,000 acres) and parks, including Weald, Thorndon, Quendon, Stansted Hall. Langleys.
Hassobury, Barrington Hall and St Osyth - which all have grazing animals - may make a very
significant contribution to Britain's acreage of lowland wood-pasture.
Total wood-pasture in Essex today
Acres Hectares
Forests (Epping, Hatfield and Hainault) 7,360 2,981
Parks (estimated) 4,000 1,618
Wooded Commons 255 103
Total: 11,615 4,700
Harvey in 2002, writing in his book 'Parkland', suggests there may be as little as 74,130 acres
(30,000 hectares) of lowland wood-pasture in Britain, which considering there were probably 40,000
acres (16,188 hectares) of medieval park in Essex alone (not including forests and wooded commons)
is a substantial decline of a very important biotope.
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Essex Parks: Section 1 - Parks in Essex