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The upper floors of the hunting lodge would have originally been open to allow visitors to view the hunt.
© Loughton & District Historical Society
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Your Story: The Verderers of Epping Forest. |
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The Forest of Essex in the twelfth century extended over most of the county, but in 1204 the Earl of Oxford compounded to have the forest north of the old Roman road from Colchester, west to Bishops Stortford, disafforested and released from the forest laws. By the beginning of the fourteenth century the forest had been further restricted to the south west part of the county and became known as Waltham Forest, being made up principally of Epping and Hainault Forests. The Forest became a favourite hunting ground for the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, both for recreation and for profit. The Verderers often came from families well known for other appointments that they held in Essex or under the Crown. The Stonards, the Conyers, the Fanshawes, the Gascoynes, the Mildmays, and the Harveys all distinguished themselves as Verderers and in public life, and form part of the history of Essex.
This Tudor Hunt Standing was built in 1543 on the instructions of Henry VIII.
© Loughton & District Historical Society |
The Hanoverian monarchs, however, showed little interest in hunting or enforcing the forest laws. By this time the Court of the Justice Seat had ceased to be held and it was left to the Verderers with their limited powers to try to prevent illegal encroachments on the Forest.
In 1851 the Crown, who were also lord of the manor in Hainault Forest, decided to plough up this part of the Forest and to sell it as farmland. At the same time Epping Forest had been reduced to as little as 3,500 acres by illegal enclosures. However public protest led to Parliament and the City of London coming to its rescue, and in 1878 the Epping Forest Act was passed under which the City Corporation became owners and Conservators of the Forest. Today the forest consists of over 6,000 acres of woodland, heathland and grassland, in a crescent shape extending for some ten miles to the north east of London.
The office of Verderer was continued under the Epping Forest Act, although no longer with any judicial authority. The four Verderers have to live in a forest parish and are elected every seven years by the Commoners of the Forest. Their intimate knowledge of the forest is invaluable to the deliberations of the Epping Forest Committee at Guildhall in the management of the Forest. The office of Verderer also survives today in the New Forest and the Forest of Dean.
Words: Richard Morris OBE
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