More than a century must be passed over in order to reach our next
fragments of documentary evidence. These are gathered from charters, or
grants, made by Kings and Popes to the monks at Waltham, and are not
sufficiently important for us to dwell upon now, except to say that, in
1182, a church at Loughton is mentioned.
The lapse of nearly another century brings us to a considerable amount of
very curious and interesting information relating to the lands in the
parish, contained in certain MSS. of great antiquity formerly belonging
to the great Abbey at Waltham, and now, with so many other treasures,
stored in the British Museum. The Canons at Waltham went on adding acre
to acre—sometimes by purchase, sometimes by the gifts of the faithful—and
the little ‘charters,’ or deeds of grant, were copied into a book, and
kept for reference. And so it comes about that, six hundred and fifty
years afterwards, we can still put our fingers here and there on the
parish map, and say that, here or there, was such or such a man’s land.
Some of you perhaps know a little meadow on the left as you go to the
Tram Farm; it is still called Plum-tree Mead, and by a name but little
different (Plumtre Croft) it has always been known; about 1250 it
belonged to a man named Edward Reintot, who gave it to the Canons. In
England’s-lane, again, there is a small freehold known as Marlcroft; this
was held of Richard de Munfichet by John Pyrle, who paid a half-yearly
rent, and three hens and a cock on St. Stephen’s Day, and when he went to
make payment at his lord’s court at Woodford or elsewhere, he and his
horse were duly fed by the lord. After the lapse of centuries Pyrle’s
name has been revived, and stands on the Ordnance Map; it had survived,
but in the corrupt form of ‘Pole.’ Some may still be familiar with
Poles-lane, as old folk call Rectory-lane, and a field at the corner of
Rectory-lane called ‘Poles.’
But of all these early grants the most interesting is one relating to
Monk Wood, the story of which we will trace back from the time when the
Corporation of London acquired it, by purchase, from the lord of the
manor, sometime in the seventies. Monk Wood you all know, and it may
have occurred to some to wonder why it differs from the rest of the
Forest round about it, from which it is not in any way separated. The
fact is, that, although subject to rights of common of pasture, it was
the lord’s wood; and from time to time be exercised his right of lopping
in it. In a plan of the manor made one hundred and fifty years ago Great
and Little Monk Wood are set out, with their bounds; and in a still
earlier survey (1612) the rights over them of the lessees of the manor
under the Crown are recognised. About thirty years before that date
certain circumstances had led to the empanelling of a jury of the
neighbourhood, which, as part of its verdict, found that Monk Wood—_i.e._
the timber therein—had been three times sold within the memory of man:
one time by the Abbot of Stratford, and twice in Queen Elizabeth’s time.
This intrusion of the Abbot of Stratford into what was pre-eminently the
territory of his brother of Waltham, strikes one as a little singular,
and it is here that our charters come in to help us to the explanation.
We have already learned from Domesday that Peter de Valoines held two
manors in Loughton, and, from a somewhat later authority, we find that
among those holding of the Valoines barony in Essex were some subtenants
called de Snaring (so called from Snoring in Norfolk), and from them a
part of Loughton came to be called ‘Loughton Snarryng.’ In this part was
a certain wood of 56½ acres, once the joint undivided property (in
unequal shares) of Geoffrey Reyntot, Roger Fitz Ailmar, and Ralph de
Assartis (a subtenant of de Snaring), who had given his three quarters to
the Abbot and Monks of Stratford. The remaining fourth part, with their
rights of cutting down and carrying away trees, and pannage, Geoffrey and
Roger gave to the Abbot and monks of Waltham. To the 56½ acres seventeen
were afterwards added, and credited to the share of Waltham. Trouble
arose, as might be anticipated, between the tenants in common, and
sometime in June, 1240—over six hundred years ago—the Abbots met at
Chelmsford, in the mother church there, and settled their differences.
The document containing the agreement they came to, doubtless after long
parleying, is illustrative of the elaborate methods of the time. It was
agreed that when Stratford owner of three-fourths, wished to fell timber,
he was to send for Waltham’s bailiff, and then choose four trees of equal
value. Of these Stratford had first chore as to two, Waltham next
choice, and the fourth tree remained to Stratford. Vice versâ, if
Waltham wanted to fell timber, he was to send for Stratford’s bailiff.
If either Abbot did not want to fell his timber at the moment he was to
mark and leave it standing. The feed in the wood was to be divided into
four pasts, of which Stratford was to have three. The last provision
seems to indicate that the wood was then enclosed and not subject to
common rights of pasture. In later times, however, this was overlooked,
and it seems to have been held that Monk Wood was only reserved to the
lord on the condition that his tenant farmers should be restrained from
lopping at large in the Forest and so infringing the privileges of
copyholders. Monk Wood was lopped for the last time somewhere about
1840. In 1767 the tenant of Alderton Hall had under his lease an
assignment from it of 1000 faggots yearly ‘to be made up as London ware,’
and 100 logs; in 1787 he had 500 faggots and 250 logs: all to be used on
the premises. For this information I am indebted to a couple of old
leases kindly lent me by Mr. G. S. Gould.