Hatfield Forest
Encyclopedia
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
lies between the parishes of Little Hallingbury
Little Hallingbury
Little Hallingbury is a village located in Essex, UK. It is between river and forest, on a high rise of ground, near the main railway at Bishop's Stortford and the M11 motorway.It is located in the Uttlesford district of North West Essex....
and Takeley
Takeley
Takeley is a small village in Essex near Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England.When Takeley was first registered by the Normans in 1086-87 its boundaries were approximately 8 miles in length, with a total area of 3,000 acres . However, since the development of Stansted Airport, it has lost...
, and covers 1,049 acres (4.2 km²) of woodland, grassland with trees, lake and marsh. It is approximately 40 minutes north east of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
by car, just off Junction 8 of the M11 motorway
M11 motorway
The M11 motorway in England is a major road running approximately north from the North Circular Road in South Woodford in north-east London to the A14, north-west of Cambridge.-Route:...
. Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire in England. It is situated just west of the M11 motorway, on the county boundary with Essex and is the closest large town to London Stansted Airport and part of the...
and Stansted Airport
London Stansted Airport
-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
are nearby. The forest is not particularly near, nor related to the town of Hatfield
Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It has a population of 29,616, and is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, the home of the Marquess of Salisbury, is the nucleus of the old town...
in Hertfordshire. Rather, in common with several other Hatfields, its name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
word Hoep-Field meaning Heath-field, or heathland in view of the woodland.
Hatfield is the only remaining intact Royal Hunting Forest
Royal forest
A royal forest is an area of land with different meanings in England, Wales and Scotland; the term forest does not mean forest as it is understood today, as an area of densely wooded land...
from the time of the Norman kings, and is now maintained by the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
. It is open to the public. Other parts of the once extensive Forest of Essex include Epping Forest
Epping Forest
Epping Forest is an area of ancient woodland in south-east England, straddling the border between north-east Greater London and Essex. It is a former royal forest, and is managed by the City of London Corporation....
to the southwest and Hainault Forest to the south.
History
Originally a minor Royal ForestRoyal forest
A royal forest is an area of land with different meanings in England, Wales and Scotland; the term forest does not mean forest as it is understood today, as an area of densely wooded land...
, in 1238 the King Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
(while retaining hunting rights) gave the land and trees to Isobel of Huntingdon
Isobel of Huntingdon
Isobel of Huntingdon was the daughter of David of Scotland, 8th Earl of Huntingdon and Matilda of Chester. She married Robert Bruce, 4th Lord of Annandale and through her came the claims firstly of her son in 1290 and later in the beginning of 14th century of her great-grandson Robert Bruce, 7th...
, daughter of the Earl of Chester
Earl of Chester
The Earldom of Chester was one of the most powerful earldoms in medieval England. Since 1301 the title has generally been granted to heirs-apparent to the English throne, and from the late 14th century it has been given only in conjunction with that of Prince of Wales.- Honour of Chester :The...
. She married into the Bruce
Bruce
The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix of the Manche département in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands"...
family; the Forest remained in their hands until Robert the Bruce was defeated and had his English lands confiscated by Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
. Eventually it passed into the hands of the Dukes of Buckingham; the 3rd Duke
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, KG was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and the former Lady Catherine Woodville, daughter of the 1st Earl Rivers and sister-in-law of King Edward IV.-Early life:Stafford was born at Brecknock Castle in Wales...
was beheaded by Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
and it returned to the Crown. Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
granted the forest to Sir Richard Rich
Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich
Sir Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich , was Lord Chancellor during the reign of King Edward VI of England. He was the founder of Felsted School with its associated alms houses in Essex in 1564....
, who sold it to Lord Morley
Baron Morley
The title Baron Morley was created once in the Peerage of England. On 29 December 1299 William de Morley was summoned to parliament. At the death of the sixth baron, the barony was inherited by Alianore de Morley, who was married to Sir William Lovel, who was summoned to parliament as Lord Morley...
. It eventually ended up in the hands of the Houblon
John Houblon
Sir John Houblon was the first Governor of the Bank of England from 1694 to 1697.-Biography:Sir John was the third son of James Houblon, a London merchant, and his wife, Mary Du Quesne, daughter of Jean Du Quesne, the younger...
family until 1923, when Edward North Buxton
Edward Buxton (conservationist)
Edward North Buxton was a British conservationist and liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1886....
bought the forest for the National Trust from his deathbed.
“Hatfield is of supreme interest in that all the elements of a medieval Forest survive: deer, cattle, coppice woods, pollards, scrub, timber trees, grassland and fen,...... As such it is almost certainly unique in England and possibly in the world …….The Forest owes very little to the last 250 years ….. Hatfield is the only place where one can step back into the Middle Ages to see, with only a small effort of the imagination, what a Forest looked like in use.” Oliver Rackham, 1976, The Last Forest (Dent Books).
Ecological significance
Hatfield Forest has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a National Nature Reserve.The ecology of the Forest is in notably pristine condition. It is one of largest areas of land in East Anglia which has not been ploughed in historical times. The ancient coppices and wood pasture are likely to be managed relics of the original wildwood and are now extremely rare providing a last refuge for much rare and specialized wildlife. There are over 800 ancient trees in the wood pasture areas of the Forest. Especially impressive are the huge, old pollarded oaks and many pollarded hornbeam trees. Mistletoe grows in profusion, notably on the old hawthorn scrub.
Of particular significance are the saproxylic beetles (species associated with decaying wood) and the site is in the top 10 in the UK for this specialised fauna. There are also over 600 species of fungi and 400 species of plant, both very high totals for a site in Essex. Recent surveys have found 8 species of bat in the Forest. There are many fallow deer in the Forest and Muntjac and Roe are also regularly observed. The plains of the Forest are grazed by cattle in the summer.
Stansted Airport
In December 1999, Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509
Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 was a Boeing 747-2B5F, registered HL7451 and bound for Milano-Malpensa Airport, that crashed due to pilot error on 22 December 1999 shortly after take-off from London Stansted Airport; at 18:38, 55 seconds after take-off, Flight 8509 plunged into the ground at a speed...
, taking off from nearby London Stansted Airport
London Stansted Airport
-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
, crashed into the forest near the village of Great Hallingbury
Great Hallingbury
Great Hallingbury is a village and a civil parish near the M11 motorway, in the Uttlesford District, in the English county of Essex. It is near the town of Bishop's Stortford- Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 :...
, killing all of the air-crew on board. The National Trust objected unsuccessfully at the 2007 public inquiry into proposals to allow greater use of Stansted Airport's single runway, but successfully campaigned against a proposed second runway.
See also
- List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Essex
- List of National Trust properties in England
- List of Ancient Woods in England