The Houblon family came from Flanders, moving to England in the 16th century to avoid religious persecution.

Over time the family prospered well in the City of London. Sir John Houblon was possibly the most famous, becoming a Lord of the Admiralty in 1694, and Lord Mayor of London in 1695. He was also the first active Governor of the Bank of England along with three of his brothers on the board.

Sir John was buried in the adjoining church to the bank in 1712. Later the church was destroyed and the ruins were incorporated into a major extension of the Bank of England, so Sir John’s grave now lies beneath the bank. A large portrait of him still hangs in the bank chamber.

Jacob Houblon III, as a trustee of the family fortune, was directed to find a suitable estate for the young male heir. The family purchased Hallingbury Estate including Hatfield Forest. Jacob moved into his new country house, Hallingbury Place, on the Hallingbury estate in 1737, after finishing his education at Cambridge. Hallingbury had a park of its own which backed on to the forest and Jacob began to re-landscape this park treating the forest as an extension of the same.

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Shell House and lake
Jacob’s first major alteration to the forest was to create a lake on the marshland fed by the Shermore Brook. The brook was straightened and a dam built at the far end. The lake was approximately 8 acres and possibly larger than it is today, being well stocked with fish. The lake was altered later with the introduction of two fashionable curves and the enlargement of the dam. Capability Brown may have influenced this (see below)

Houblon built The Shell House in approximately 1754. It was attached to a cottage by his new lake, occupied by a housekeeper where she kept poultry, and peacocks. The cottage was later demolished. This small Shell House was built for picnics and summer parties for friends and family, overlooking their new lake in the heart of the forest.

Jacob’s daughter Laetitia decorated the interior and exterior with exotic and colourful shells, (mostly from the West Indies as they were used as ballast in the holds of slave ships) split flints, blue glass, coral and sands. The designer of the building is unknown, but it was of Italian influence. Similar designs were around at this classical time, for instance The Duchess of Richmond and her daughters built a shell grotto along similar lines at Goodwood in the 1740s.

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Planting of exotic trees
Jacobs’s son further enhanced the park of Hallingbury and the forest in 1770, when he consulted Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, the famous landscaper. Brown was consulted at the same time as Hallingbury Place was being rebuilt, doubtless to incorporate the whole scheme of the house and park. There was further tree planting around the lake, including more exotic trees such as yew, cedar, and scots, stone, corsican and Austrian pine. Some areas were also opened up to improve the views. The lake was also altered at this time.

Exotic trees were planted to enhance the area, fortunately mostly around the lake and Shell House. Trees were also planted in nearby Table Coppice which was within view of the Shell house. The planting of exotic trees was very fashionable at this time and Black pine, Horse Chestnut, Copper Beech and Stone pine were introduced to the forest.

The Houblons loved Hatfield Forest, although their perception of conservation was quite different to ours. Forest woodland is often waterlogged with small ponds and marshy land. Forest trees adapt to this, rooting down to only approximately three feet of soil. The Houblons unfortunately dug deep ditches draining much of the wetlands in the forest and building brick drains in some coppices, thus upsetting the balance of the soil.

They also introduced foreign trees to the indigenous stock. Carriageways and rides were cut through coppices and woodland. They were fond of their deer, and kept the herds well, though records show that the herds were possibly too large for the available grazing (between 500 to 800 animals were grazed).

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Forest economy
Coppicing continued as an important part of the estate and forest income until the late 1870s when demand for wood was fell into decline. Coal had become the more important fuel supply, and coppicing was very labour intensive. Two thirds of the coppices were abandoned. Warren coppice was converted to plains, and Doodle-oak coppice disappeared.

Timber was still sold by the Houblons, mostly ash and oak. Oak bark was also a valuable by product used in the tanning industry. In the 1790s oak prices increased due to a shipbuilding boom. Records show that the Houblons took full advantage of this. Pollarding continued up to a point but the Houblons disliked pollarded trees and stopped pollarding the old oaks by 1820s. The Barrington’s continued this tradition until later in the century.

Gravel was scarce in the Hatfield area, so the small deposits by Shermore Brook were of great value. Small amounts of gravel and sand had been removed before the 1600s. The Houblon’s had opened some pits for their own use and to sell to the highways authorities. This caused the Barrington’s once again to go to court, saying that topsoil had been removed, and 50 acres of pasture was destroyed, as well as damage to herbage and fencing. By 1826 however the highways authorities were authorised to remove road metal free of charge from common land, including Hatfield Forest.

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Forest buildings
There are three principle buildings in the forest including the Shell House. Forest Lodge is situated in the middle of the forest and was possibly the Head Keeper’s cottage. It was built in the late 16th or very early 17th century and is of a traditional oak framed construction with elm floorboards. It had two rooms upstairs and two downstairs with a massive brick chimney in the middle. It occupies an excellent site, with good views over the forest. A watchtower was added later to improve observation, and keep an eye on the day to day proceedings in the forest.

Three later alterations were made, possibly by Lord Morley in the 1600s, then the Turners in the 1670s and then finally by Archer Houblon, when he added a small pine frame addition. Houblon also built some out-houses, including a butchery for game and deer carcasses. It is believed that the original lodge, which fell down, could have been built by the Duke of Buckingham. Some of the original timbers were reused in the present medieval part of the building.

Warren House was built in the 1680s and is almost hidden in Warren earthworks. It is a very unusual cottage, originally only 13 feet by 26. At one end there is a staircase turret and the other end has a full-size walk-in fireplace. It is built of hard, handmade red bricks to a high standard and the tiled roof sits on heavy wall plates. It is a mystery why Sir Edward Turnor built such an expensive warren keeper’s cottage in the middle of the forest. Almost all houses in the area are timber framed, so this was an oddity. Perhaps because a warrener was highly esteemed in those days meant that his house must be built from the most expensive materials. (Please note: both the above properties are privately let and cannot be visited)

the edge of the forest are old Tudor & medieval boundary houses. All overlooked the forest up to 1857, sadly only Beggars Hall continues to do so today. Most lost their frontage when the Houblons gave land away to commoners when they introduced the Enclosure Act. Then they sold a strip of land facing down Takeley Street, which included a row of Boundary Houses, now well disguised with brick cladding. The oldest boundary house is Forest Cottage hidden away at the edge of Woodside Green which dates back to the 1300s.

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Changing times in the forest
Land fashions were changing with multiple landuse, to conventional farming. Land was becoming private property. The Enclosure Act reinforced this and destroyed the fabric of many forests after they had been enclosed, turning them into farmland. Many well known local forests like Enfield Chase, most of Hainault, and large parts of Epping and Windsor suffered from this fate. Hatfield fortunately changed little during this time and we have the Houblon’s love of the forest to thank. However, change was in the air.

In 1831 Archer Houblon VII inherited the estate and he made extensive enquires about the rights of the forest. In the following year the last of the Barringtons died and Archer bought out all the Barringtons interest in the forest. The Houblons now owned 85% of the forest. In 1830 there were 187 commoners’ claims to the forest, but only approximately 51 people exercised that right. The reason for the decline was that larger farmers no longer found it viable and only the small farmer continued. Hatfield’s commoners rights were only for grazing, unlike many other forests which included the removal of a certain amount of wood each year.

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Archer set about buying out as many commoners’ rights as possible. In 1857 the Houblons used the Enclosure Act in Hatfield, compensating some of the commoners with money (£1834 in total, a large sum in those days). To others he gave pieces of land around the forest edge, thus giving the forest straight-line boundaries it has today. The Houblons now owned the forest almost completely, free of all commoners’ rights.

The Houblons thankfully continued to manage the forest as before, and did not succumb to the profit of the plough. Sadly the fortunes of the Houblons declined and they left Hallingbury for their other family estate in Welford, Berkshire in 1909.

Hallingbury Place was let out briefly, but in 1922 it was pulled down. The forest shared in this decline and although grazing and wood cutting continued, the fencing was not repaired, thus allowing cattle and deer into the coppices to eat the young shoots and destroy coppice stools.

In 1923 the Houblon’s estate was broken up, and Hatfield Forest was put up for sale.

Acknowledgement
Hatfield Forest is most grateful to Oliver Rackham, whose book 'The Last Forest' has been an invaluable source of information.

Written by David E Kidner, National Trust volunteer, Dec 2002.