Hatfield Forest

Hatfield Forest

Hatfield Forest in Essex, England lies between the parishes of Little Hallingbury and Takeley, 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 by car, just off Junction 8 of the M11 motorway. Bishop's Stortford and Stansted Airport are nearby. The forest is not particularly near, nor related to the town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire. Rather, in common with several other Hatfields, its name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word Hoep-Field meaning Heath-field, or heathland in view of the woodland.

Hatfield is the only remaining intact Royal Hunting Forest from the time of the Norman kings, and is now maintained by the National Trust. It is open to the public. Other parts of the once extensive Forest of Essex include Epping Forest to the southwest and Hainault Forest to the south.

History

Originally a minor Royal Forest, in 1238 the King Henry III (while retaining hunting rights) gave the land and trees to Isobel of Huntingdon, daughter of the Earl of Chester. She married into the Bruce family; the Forest remained in their hands until Robert the Bruce was defeated and had his English lands confiscated by Edward I. Eventually it passed into the hands of the Dukes of Buckingham; the 3rd Duke was beheaded by Henry VIII and it returned to the Crown. Queen Elizabeth granted the forest to Sir Richard Rich, who sold it to Lord Morley. It eventually ended up in the hands of the Houblon family until 1923, when Edward North Buxton 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).

The Lake

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 8509, taking off from nearby London Stansted Airport, crashed into the forest near the village of Great Hallingbury, 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

External links

• Hatfield Forest- The National Trust