Glossary of Park Terms
Officials - about 1531 a list of the park officials are given who were based at Havering Park, a
large royal park. Most parks would not have had this number of employees
John Gray - Keeper of the out-woods
John Glynne - Keeper of the south gate and pale
William Crane - Keeper of the park
John Wheler - Keeper of the manor of Havering-atte-Bower and the
parks of Langlemere and Stratfield Mortymer
John Celye - Paler
Pale - the fence, usually of cleft oak pales, surrounding a deer park. In 1609 the repair of Havering's
pale included work on the "posts, rails, pales and struts"
Paler - (also palystere) - one who made or repaired a park pale
Pannage - the foraging of pigs in autumn on the acorn crop
Parcus - in Domesday Book and later, a park
Park - an area of ground often licensed by the Crown and surrounded by a pale expressly for
keeping deer or other beasts. Later applied to landscape parks which may not have had deer, just
domestic stock and today to country parks - some of which (ie those on coastal grasslands) may
never have seen a deer at all. Once disparked. the name often remaining, ie Park Farm or New
Park Field, giving a clue to a park's possible previous existence
Parker- (also parcarius) - one who oversees a park; also the origin of the surname
Paroke - (also perookez and peroke) - a fenced enclosure within a park from where a Tudor
ritual hunt would be conducted. Also later apparently used for deer coursing
Patte d'oie - literally goose foot, a series of rides radiating from a central point
Pillow-mound - artificial mound in a warren created for rabbits to burrow into
Pollard - a tree cut at 6 - 10ft above ground level to prevent livestock from browsing the re-
growth They produced firewood and other items, such as rails and hedging stakes and depending
on the species, browst for the deer
Pricket - a 2nd year male fallow deer
Pynguedo - season of high grease (fatness) for venison
Quicksort - Hawthorn and Blackthorn for hedging parks
Red deer - the second favoured deer species for parks, requiring much larger parks than fallow.
At Hedingham Castle, the Little Park or New Park was created specifically for red deer
Robora - (also robur) - usually taken to be an old pollard fit only for firewood (and rare beetles)
Sagitta - arrow
Salting house - mentioned for Havering Park in 1228. Presumably with the often large number of
carcases to be dealt with, this building was constructed to process them
Essex Parks: Section 1 - Parks in Essex 59