Programme

Our 2023 programme: 23 Feb: '1926' - our speaker is our Chairman, Martyn Lockwood. 23 Mar: Annual General Meeting. 27 Apr: 'John Ray' - Jennifer Rowland. 25 May: Napoleonic Invasion Plans - Neil Wiffen. 22 Jun: 'Jersey under the Jackboot: the occupation of Jersey during WW2' - Patrick Griggs. 27 Jul: 'The Life and Times of William Byrd (c1540-1623): A Local History' - Andrew Smith. 26 Oct: 'The Prison at Hill Hall' - Anne Padfield. 23 Nov: Pre-Christmas meeting. Talk to be confirmed. Admission: Members £1, Non-members £5 Annual Membership: £15 (Family: £30)

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Traditional Buildings of Ongar: Next Meeting on 29 May 2014

The High Country History Group’s next meeting will be on Thursday 29 May (not tomorrow – it is Election Day) when Anne Padfield will be speaking on the traditional buildings of Ongar.

We will also have a bookstall and an opportunity to look at a book dated 1634 – being a translation of Pliny’s Natural History.

… and refreshments of course.


See you 29 May. Usual place: Toot Hill Village Hall, 8pm.

Saturday 17 May 2014

Essex Field Names (1): Introduction

Essex Field-Names
Collected and arranged by William Chapman Waller, M.A., F.S.A.
An extract from the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, ‘new series’ Volume 5 (1895)

Part I: The Hundred of Ongar, and the Half Hundreds of Harlow aand Waltham [Extracts cover High Country Parishes only]

Short and disconnected lists of field-names appear from time to time in various publications, but, as far as I know, no attempt has hitherto [to 1895] been made to collect and arrange systematically those which are found to occur over the whole area of any particular county.  A passing reference made some years ago (by whom and where, I have forgotten,) to “the valuable lists of names contained in the Tithe Commutation Awards,” stuck, as such phrases will, in my mind, and it occurred to me that I would some day try to collect those parishes comprised in the Hundred of Ongar.  My first intention was to make a pilgrimage to each parish and there to inspect its particular Award.  But further consideration led me to abandon this plan as not only tedious but impracticable.  Later on, acting in concert with Council of the Society, I approached the Board of Agriculture, in whose custody the sealed copies of various Awards are deposited.  At first certain obstacles, which appeared almost insurmountable, stood in the way of my obtaining the facilities necessary for the execution of the work contemplated.  But at length, thanks to the cordial interest which the Right Hon. Herbert Gardner, one of our Vice-Presidents, manifested in a project approved of by our Council, and the courteous kindness of certain permanent officials of the Board over which he presides, all difficulties were got over, and the first instalment of Essex field-names now finds its place in the Society’s Transactions.

A few words explanatory of the scheme adopted are, perhaps, desirable.  The first proceeding was to go through the Draft Awards of the forty-one parishes contained in the Hundreds chosen, copying out all the field-names other than those absolutely common-place – such, for instance, as Broadfield, Longfield, Tenacres, and a few others, which occur by the score.  The names excerpted, to which the Tithe Map numerals were added, are in books which will ultimately be added to the MSS Collections of the Society.  Each name was next re-copied on to a slip, with the addition of a number corresponding to that assigned to be parish which it was found to occur.  Duplicates having been eliminated, the slips were arranged alphabetically, in which order they are now printed.  By way of pendant to this explanation I must add a word of thanks to my friend, Miss E M Allen, of Girton College, for the help she very kindly contributed towards the somewhat tedious process of re-copying and sorting.

It would be out of place to attempt, here and now, to say much as to the names of which the list is composed.  They exhibit a remarkable variety, the same name in precisely the same form rarely occurring more than once over whole area under review.  And it must also be added that the variations, in some few cases, appear to be due to the idiosyncracies of the original draughtsman or copyist, or of the person who informed him, rather to essential differences in the names themselves.  The explanation of sundry inaccuracies is probably to be found in the fact that the Awards, which were for the most part drawn up about half a century ago, were done in haste, and many names seem to have been misunderstood, misspelt, and mangled, while others were insufficiently authenticated. To give an instance or two: - the field which figures as ‘Peerless’ [Loughton] should indubitably appear as ‘Spare Leaze’, while ‘Luscious Mead’ [also Loughton] is really Lusher’s or Lushen’s mead; the various ‘Readings’ [e.g. Little Hallingbury, Matching], ‘Reddings’ [Stapleford Abbots, Great Hallingbury, Epping], etc., of which ‘redene’ is the earlier form.

Of all the names not immediately explicable three stand out as occurring more commonly than the rest: they are Small Gains [e.g. Navestock, Abbess Roding, Bobbingworth, High Ongar, Moreton], Rainbow Field [e.g. High Laver, Little Laver, Stondon Massey, Harlow, Hatfield Broad Oak], and Perry Field [e.g. Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney, Fyfield, Magdalen Laver, Theydon Garnon]. Now ‘small’ is a word rarely found as part of a field-name: the comparison is usually expressed by ‘little’ and ‘great’. But in the case of ‘Gains’, the latter affixes occur once and once only, though ‘Gains’ itself never occurs without some qualifying word.  Perry Field may or may not be the equivalent of the modern Peartree Field [e.g. Theydon Mount, Bobbingworth, Magdalen Laver, Latton, Great Parndon].  But perige or peru is the Anglo-Saxon for pear-tree, and in one case I have come on a ‘Piryfield’ in a late 13th century charter relating to a parish in which later on two Perry Fields are found. … Rainbow Field [e.g. Navestock, Norton Mandeville, Abbess Roding, Beauchamp Roding, Stondon Massey] I hand over to the conjectures of the ingenious, with the remark that Rainbow, like Perry, also occurs as a surname.

Although many ‘Hop Gardens’ [e.g. Shelley, North Weald, Moreton, High Laver, Epping] remain to bear witness to the time when each vill drank its own brew, ‘Flex’ [Norton Mandeville] has in three instances only survived to recall the Statute passed in Henry the Eighth’s time, which rendered obligatory the cultivation of a certain amount of hemp or flax in each parish.


A momentary glance at an Ordnance Survey Map will serve to shew that the Commutation Awards by no means include all the place-names of the parish; and many which are nowhere recorded in print, are yet enshrined in old documents, or, in some instances, still live on the lips of peasant-folk, preserved through the centuries by oral tradition.  … Comment and criticism will of necessity by more advantageously applied when, if ever, the lists for the whole county are completed.  [W C Waller completed and published the work over nine parts from ‘old series’ Volume 5 to 9].

Essex Field Names (2): Stapleford Tawney

Stapleford Tawney (1)

Barbers Mead
Blaze Meadow
Brick Clamp
Canal
Caves Meadow
Charity Land
Chase, The
Church Field
Clay Hills
Cock Field[1]
Collets Hoppet
Colmans Croft
Cook Field
Cornishes
Crumps Mead
Dale Field
Dove House Mead[2]
Elthorpe Spring
Epping Hoppet
Frith, Upper
Froghall Spring
Gibs Croft
Goose Acre
Hagmoor
Hagmoor Shots
Hither How Field
Hooking Field
Hose, The
How Field
Hundred Acres[3]
Hunters Moor
Lady Croft
Liquorish Field, North and South
Long Bottom
Long Shot
Lowlands[4]
Mayletts and Jacobs
Mill Mead
Night Leaze
North Lands, Great and Little
Parks, Hilly
Perry Field[5]
Pipers, Great and Little
Rains, Lower
Sedgy Marsh
Shailes Moor
Stock Frith
Swains Field
Talbot Inn (nr. Passingford Bridge)
Taney Mead
Tawney Wood
Thistley Field[6]
Thompsons Croft
Tylers Hoppet, Little
Well Field
Whitbreads
Windmill Field[7]



[1] Also occurs at Theydon Mount
[2] Also occurs at Theydon Mount
[3] This is the nearest approach to a joke that one comes on; it seems to have been thought witty to call a small enclosure ‘Hundred Acres’ or ‘Thousand Acres’. Instances are not confined to Essex.
[4] Also occurs at Theydon Mount
[5] Also occurs at Stanford Rivers
[6] Also occurs at Stanford Rivers
[7] Also occurs at Stanford Rivers

Essex Field Names (3): Stanford Rivers

Stanford Rivers (2)

Adams, Great and Little
Alder Car
Alder Field
Archers Field
Ash Elms
Backdoor Mead
Bandish Field
Barren Ley
Bean Croft
Bellhouse Grove
Bellhouse Mead
Bentons
Berwick Ham Mead
Binders Field
Black Croft
Black Root
Borehams Hoppit
Bower Field, Upper and Lower
Brain Field
Brains Lay
Bramble Field
Brewers Mead
Brewsters Mead
Brick Earth Pits
Brickland
Bromley Marsh
Brookwood, alias Ice House Wood
Broomfield
Bulmer Field
Burnt Field
Cains, Upper and Lower
Callaways, Hither and Further
Capons, Hither
Carters Hill Meadow
Chapels Croft
Chaseway
Chase Field
Church Hide
Clarks Field
Clinkles
Coars Field, Upper and Lower
Coarse Field
Colliers Hatch
Common Mead
Cooks Field
Court Oak
Court Oak Hoppit
Cowleaze
Creepers Hill
Crooked Field
Crooked Mead
Crumps Croft
Dool Field
Dooley Field
Dove House Field
Dowley Field
Dutch Barn Field
East Meadow
Fearney, Little
Fen Acre Downs
Fendells
Fish Pond Mead
Flaggy Piece
Flat Bottoms
Forest, Great, Upper & Lower
Forest, Little
Freshits, First &c.
Gains, Small
Gallows Green
Garden Cock Pond Field
Gays Wood
Gravel Pit Wood, or Long-ford Bottom
Greensteads, Little
Half Way Field
Hand-post Field
Hollands Foot, Lower
Hop Garden
Hop Ground
Hop Yards, or Bear Field
Horse Lands Chaseway
House Field, Old
How Croft
Howlands, Little and Great
Howletts
Keeps Mead
Kemps Croft
Kemps Mead
Kiln Field
Kings, Great and Little
Kingslands, Great and Little
Kittlebury
Kittlebury Mead
Knights Lands
Knights Land Wood
Ladys Field
Landditch Mead
Lanes Mead
Lay Field
Leighs, Great
Lilly Pond Field
Lucks
Marriages Mead
Mill Field
Mill Hide
Mill Hide Spring
Millers Grove
Mole Hill Field
Mon, The
Moon Field, Great and Little
Nightless
Oakes Lands
Pagle Mead
Parsons Hill
Parsons Lay
Perry Field[1]
Pig Ridden
Pigs Mead
Plaisters, Great and Little
Pollard Field, Upper and Lower
Poor Field alias Small Gains
Poor Mead
Pot Ash Mead
Pound Field
Ramseys Mead
Repentance
Robins Land
Rolls
Rowlands
Sage Marsh
Sandy Field
Sanmores, Great
Savage Croft
Scotch Street, First, Second & Further
Seven-Acre Downs
Sharps Hoppit
Sheep Pound
Shocks Trough
Short Lands
Shot, Upper and Lower
Shoulder of Mutton Field
Sledgy Marsh
Stanfield
Stoney Rocks
Tanners Field
Thistley Field[2]
Three Corner Field
Three Corners
Tile Mead
Toothill Field
Tory, Old
Tye, Great and Little
Wain Field
Wallers Mead
Wallers Wood
Wards Meadow
Water Mill Field
White Bear Inn
White Bench Field
White Face
White Lays
Windmill Field[3]
Woolmores Hoppet
Workhouse Hoppit
Wrens Field



[1] Also occurs at Theydon Mount
[2] Also occurs at Theydon Mount
[3] Also occurs at Stapleford Tawney

Essex Field Names (4): Greensted

Greensted (13)

Accrams Grove
Alder Carr
Anchor Field
Black Boy Field
Blyths Barn Meadow
Bob Davis Pasture
Brank Field
Buck Horns
Churn Wood Hanging
Clapgate Field
Clay Hill
Clinker, Lower
Clump Field
Colchester Field
Common Meadow
Crockleford
Dead Lane
Devils Meadow
Dock Meadow
Doctors Drift
Doctors Field
Dunghill Field
Fox and Bullock Wood
Glaze Lights
Grove Hanging
Hangings
Havens Lane
Heath Slipe
Hewes Delight
Hunts Pightle
Lock Field
Mumsey Field [Nursery Field]
Noland Wood
Park Field
Plumtree Field
Salary Brook Field
Slough Lane
Stoney Field
Sun Meadow
Wavering Meadow

Winding Meadow

Essex Field Names (5): Theydon Mount

Theydon Mount (23)

Arthurs Croft
Barbers Green
Bartholomew Spring
Bitchett, The
Bobs Piece
Bourses, The
Brick Kiln Field
Cock Field[1]
Crabs Spring
Cross Shot
Cutbush
Dell Hole Field
Dove House Mead[2]
Fulwells Bottom
Gallows Croft
Half Field
Hide Field
Hilly Roodings
Honey Castle Spring
Hook Mead
Hull Mead
Langhills
Lowlands[3]
Peartree Field
Pool Field
Prentice Mead
Russell Field
Sheeplands
Shot, Long
Side Hills, Great and Little
Smell Brooks
Stanmead
Stoney Downs, East and West
Triangle Meadow
Warren Mead
Whitecroft




[1] Also occurs at Stapleford Tawney
[2] Also occurs at Stapleford Tawney
[3] Also occurs at Stapleford Tawney

Monday 5 May 2014

Sunday 4 May 2014

ESAH160: Archaeological Notes: Transactions ns Volume 12 Pa...

ESAH160: Archaeological Notes: Transactions ns Volume 12 Pa...: Archaeological Notes taken from Volume 12 Part 3 of the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society in 1912.  Includes:  - Ilford ...