History

Hatfield Forest is unique in that it has survived intact, with written records over the last 9 centuries, not only by Kings, but landowners, tenants and peasants.

Hatfield Forest was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. It belonged to King Harold passing to William the Conqueror after his defeat at the battle of Hastings. It is probable that Henry I created Hatfield Forest as a Royal Hunting Forest in around 1100AD and introduced fallow deer to the land.

The name Hatfield Forest comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Hoep-Field.

Its modern meaning is 'heathfield'; 'Hoep' meaning heathland, and 'field' meaning not field, but open space in sight of woodland.

First inhabitants
The first inhabitants of this area were from the bronze/iron age. These communities of people built settlements to the north edge of the forest. In Roman times the area was used for farming, and the woodlands played an important part in supplying fuel, essential in local life for making bricks, iron, pottery, glass and for the villas baths.

A farming village was excavated when Stansted airport was being built. In 1979 Roman pottery was found in Collin’s coppice. Both the ancient churches of Great and Little Hallingbury next to Hatfield Forest are full of Roman brick, and thought to stand on the site of old Roman villas. The Roman road to Dunmow still passes the northern boundary of the forest.

Origins of the word 'forest'

The modern meaning of forest is a 'place of trees, especially a place of planted trees'. The medieval meaning was an area of rough land on which the King, or high ranking noble had the right to hunt deer.

William the Conqueror brought the term 'forest' to England. The first was the New Forest in Hampshire, followed by many more, which where all created to introduce fallow deer (the King's deer) for hunting.

There were different types of forest including moorland such as Exmoor, or wooded areas such as Windsor & Epping. By 1215 there were 143 such forests, of which over 90 belonged to the King by rights or ownership. The rest to belonged to the nobilities.

Rights often meant, hunting, appointing officials and collecting fines. The landowner could have rights to the soil, timber, or grazing. Disappointingly many Forests have disappeared, or changed dramatically in size, or altered from their medieval state.

The Middle Ages
By 1135 Hatfield Forest was well established, with forest officials, and hereditary chiefs, though it was only a minor forest, and was very rarely, if at all hunted by the kings. Medieval kings did not always have time to hunt and would have employed professionals. The forest supplied deer to the king’s table, and deer were often given away as gifts, or as permits to hunt. Medieval kings were great eaters of salted venison and preparations for a feast often took up to a month.

In 1238 the Forest passed into private hands with the King retaining the forest rights, but giving the land and trees to Isabel, daughter of the Earl of Chester, in exchange for part of her inheritance from her father. Isabel had married into the famous Scots family of the Bruce’s. The Forest passed through 3 generations of the Bruce family. In 1304 it passed into the ownership of the famous “Robert the Bruce”.

Robert was well occupied north of the border, after he was crowned Robert I of Scotland. Edward I confiscated all his lands, bestowing Hatfield on his sister Elisabeth, who married Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Essex.

The Bohun family owned most of Hatfield for the next two centuries; finally Anne Stafford inherited the estate, passing it on to her son, who rose in favour, and became the Duke of Buckingham in 1444, Henry VI relinquishing all forest rights to him in 1446. This ended Hatfield Forest’s history as a royal forest.

The third Duke fell from favour with Henry VIII and was beheaded. Henry Confiscated all his lands, and took the unusual step in holding on to Hatfield until his death.

Family disputes
The next owner was the infamous Sir Richard Rich, who survived favour with Henry VIII, Queen Jane, Mary and Elizabeth (he was part responsible for betraying Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More, he also founded Felsted School).

The Rich family sold the forest to Lord Morley in 1592, and the rest of the estate to the up and coming family who were the hereditary Woodward’s of Hatfield Forest, the Barringtons.

This set the scene for 200 years of quarrels between the two Lords, plus those locals with commoners rights. This was because the Barrington’s owned the trees of the north east third, plus the right to pasture animals throughout the forest. They were also lord of the manor with juristiction over the whole forest, including holding court, making fines against any offenders breaking by-laws (including Lord Morley). Lord Morley owned all the forest rights, the soil of the whole forest and the rest of the trees. Morley’s son became famous for uncovering the gunpowder plot.

The Morley’s were heavily in debt by 1665 and sold Hatfield Forest to Sir Edward Turnor speaker of the House of Commons in 1666. His son also died in debt, and the Forest was sold for the last time into private hands in 1729.

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The Houblons
The Houblon family moved to London in 1560, and prospered. Sir John Houblon with others founded the Bank of England, and became its first governor in 1694.

Jacob Houblon purchased the estates of Hallingbury including Hatfield Forest. Jacob Houblon III began by creating the lake, building the Shell House and planting specimen trees. His son consulted Capability Brown when the family where building Hallingbury Place as their new mansion within Hallingbury Park. Hatfield Forest then became more of an extension of the park at Hallingbury.

The Houblons managed the forest in a more genteel manor than their predecessors avoiding disputes, and in 1831 John Houblon VI on the death of the last ancient feuding family, Sir Fitzwilliam Barrington who still owned part of the forest, bought out all the Barrington interests in the Forest. Thus bringing the Forest back into one ownership.

Parliament passed the Enclosure Act, which was designed to bring all land into private ownership for agriculture. This mainly affected open-fields and strip cultivation on common land, and caused the loss of many heaths and commons. But the Act was also applied to Forest, destroying the social fabric of the Forest commoners.

Most land in forests in places such as Enfield Chase, most of Windsor and Epping Forest. was converted to farmland. Hainault Forest became a public scandal in 1851. Hatfield Forest was saved from this fate because of the Houblon’s appreciation of it, and their understanding of its management, keeping up the grazing and coppicing. They however disapproved of pollarding the oaks, but they did like planting exotic trees such as Black Pine, Horse Chestnut, and Copper Beech.

However, the family did eventually invoke the Enclosure Act in 1857 because they where determined to own the Forest outright. Commoners where allocated land around the Forest (that’s why the land boundary around the Forest has straight lines) and the family bought the commoners rights costing the family over £3000 pounds.

Aquisition by the National Trust
The Houblon’s fortunes were in decline by 1923 and the Estate was broken up. Hallingbury House was pulled down and the Forest was put up for sale .A great benefactor appeared in the shape of 83-year-old Edward Buxton, a council member of the National Trust, and a life long preserver of forests. He is credited to saving much of Epping Forest, and what was left of Hainault Forest.

After an administration error, another purchaser, a timber merchant, bought Hatfield Forest. However on his deathbed with the help of his sons, the Buxtons managed to purchase the Forest. This was then given to the National Trust. Hatfield Forest was opened to the public by Lord Ullswater on the 10th May 1924. Major Houblon gave the remaining small parcel of land, Woodside Green, Wright’s Green, Table Coppice and Mott’s Green to the Trust in 1935.

Wall Wood was presented by the Essex and Puckeridge Hunt in 1946 and the Forest was once again almost complete as it had been in medieval times.

Ancient pollarded oak with buttercups at Hatfield Forest