A survey of hedgerows in the parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning
in Stock Lane - which stands at around the 40 m contour- and the Woolpack public house at the top
of Fryerning Lane, which is close to 95 m. the maximum height above sea level in the parish.
Unless you are fit you'll probably need a drink by the time you get there! If you fancy a pub crawl,
then it's fairly flat going along the top of the ridge to, firstly, The Cricketers, then The Viper, where
the land falls away again.
The map depicting the surface geology of Essex printed in Jermyn (1974) was partly based on old
series geology maps dating back to the early 19th century but, fortunately, most of Ingatestone &
Fryerning was covered by updated information that became available just prior to publication. This
clearly shows that the parish lies on the boundary between the London Clay to the south and the more
recent (in geological terms) Chalky Boulder Clay to the north and west. Basically, the tops of the
Fryerning-Mill Green ridge are capped with acidic Bagshot Pebble and Gravel Beds, below which lie
an extensive area of Bagshot Sands. As the land descends, these merge with the Claygate Beds and
finally with the London Clay, the latter of which contains areas of mixed soils, known as Head, close
to the River Wid. The map also depicts a few small pockets of Chalky Boulder Clay close to the
surface. These are most evident where the soil has been disturbed, such as at Handley Barns, where
the recent construction of a fishery revealed a considerable area of calcareous material. As, however,
the majority of parish soils are neutral to acidic, this obviously influences the species composition of
the hedgerows. Shrubs like Buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica, Guelder Rose Viburnum opulus and
Wych Elm Ulmus glabra - which are often common in hedgerows a few miles to the north and west
- are rare or unknown locally while both Spindle Euonymus europaeus and Dogwood Cornus
sanguinea arc commonest on farms where the pockets of boulder clay occur.
The evolution of the parish landscape: 1600-2000
As Oliver Rackham and other authors have pointed out, several misconceptions regarding the evolution
of the farmland landscape in eastern England have gained credence at one time or another in recent
years. One of the most persuasive - often propounded by irresponsible landowners - was that even the
oldest hedges in this part of the country were planted during the half century following the Enclosure
Acts of the late 18th century, and many much later than this (Rackham 1980, p.26). Thanks to the
works of Rackham it is now well known that this is true only of one half of lowland England; the
other, dubbed by Rackham as Ancient Countryside was enclosed many centuries before, and is "the
England of hamlets, medieval farms in hollows in the hills, lonely moats and great barns in the clay-
lands, pollards and ancient trees, cavernous holloways and many footpaths, fords, irregularly shaped
groves with thick hedges colourful with maple, dogwood and spindle - an intricate land of mystery
and surprise" (Rackham 1980, p.4). Its landscape often dates back to Saxon times, if not earlier.
Ingatestone & Fryerning sits firmly in the middle of that ancient countryside and still retains many of
the features that signify a thousand or more years of historical continuity.
Another misconception was that the destruction of so many hedgerows and other historical features
of the landscape since 1950 was unavoidable, as the countryside had always been changing in the
light of agricultural improvements, and the current changes were no different. That has an element
of truth to it, of course, but overlooks the fact that some of the most destructive periods in the past
were associated with agricultural protectionism, as they are now. In particular, the widespread
grubbing out of ancient woodland and hedgerows in the first half of the nineteenth century was
directly connected to the failure by politicians to repeal the Corn Laws, following the Napoleonic
Wars. Which resulted in the price of wheat remaining at an artificially high level, despite a downturn
in agriculture as a whole. The evidence is that, as Rackham (1980 p.26) states, changes have happened
at some times and in some places but not others. This is certainly the case in Ingatestone and
Fryerning, where changes between 1600 and 1950 tended to be piecemeal rather than wholesale.
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)