Chingford, Buckhurst Hill, Woodford, Walthamstow,
Leyton (including Low Leyton), Wanstead (including
Cann Hall), Little Ilford and West Ham. As to three of
these Parishes, however, viz., Woodford, Little Ilford and
West Ham, parts of them are not within the boundary of
the Forest, and the owners and occupiers of the parts
outside the Forest are not entitled to a right of common
in Epping Forest.
You will have observed that the occupiers of lands and
tenements entitled to this right of common are declared
to be entitled to it for neat beasts and horses levant and
couchant upon their respective lands. The interpretation
of these Norman words into plain English is that the
cattle actually kept on the lands of the Commoners may
be turned on the waste lands; and by "kept" is meant
that a Commoner may turn out on the waste as many
beasts as he can support on the land which he occupies
in the winter by means of the summer produce of such
lands, together with what small food the cattle can feed
upon in the winter off such land.
In order to save enquiries by the Reeves as to what
cattle were actually kept, or could be kept on the land of
the Commoners in the winter, the Court of Attachments
(now abolished) in the year 1790 authorized the Reeves
to mark for every Commoner two cows or one horse for
every £4 of rent paid by the Commoner; but in case
there should be any poor Cottager, having a family, who
was a Commoner, they might mark one horse or two
cows for him, although his rent did not amount to
£4 a year.
Under the Epping Forest Act the Conservators have
power to adopt this rule, and have done so temporarily.