A survey of hedgerows in the parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning
Considerable changes had taken place by 1876. The numerous small farms and other landholdings
on the acidic ridge that extends between Fryerning Church and Mill Green Common remained
largely unchanged, but elsewhere, on the more fertile soils, the numerous tenancies had begun to
amalgamate into larger units with bigger fields. These changes were evident throughout the parish.
as the more industrious farmers responded to increased mechanisation by reorganising their field
boundaries to accommodate the steam ploughs, reapers, binders and other hardware that were
produced during the early years of the industrial revolution. Woodbarns Farm lost most of its linear
springs at this time. Thanks to these changes the hedgerow mileage had been reduced to c.80-85
miles. However, further development along these lines was arrested by the onset of the agricultural
depression, and there were no further changes of note before the 1939-45 war.
The earliest available maps of the three major farms in Fryerning parish - Hewlett's Hall (412 acres),
Fryerning Hall (213) and Ray Farm (100) - date from the 1740s and were commissioned by Wadham
College. Unlike at Ingatestone there were considerable changes on two of these farms between then and
1825, when the first map of Fryerning parish was published. In 1740, for instance, 94 acres of Hewlett's
Hall, known as The Furze Fields, appears to have been either wood pasture or waste. By 1825 this had
been enclosed and hedged. Two small copses - Howlett's Hall Spring and Round About Wood - had
been grubbed out while another - New Wood - had been planted, forming an extension to the existing
Fryerning Wood. At Fryerning Hall, no less than twelve parcels of woodland, including six small
springs, were grubbed out during the same period. Overall, though, the landscape in the rest of the
parish resembled that of its neighbour, and the 1839 tithe map depicts approximately 90 km (57 miles)
of field boundaries, and lists around 58 landowners and at least 64 tenants. There were fewer changes
between 183 9 and 1876 than at Ingatestone (although Howlett's Hall lost another wood - Oak Redding)
and the Fryerning field system depicted on the tithe map was little altered a hundred years on.
The destruction of so many of this country's historical landscape features in the second half of the 20th
century has been well documented by Oliver Rackham, George Peterken and other historians. Radical
changes in the way the land is farmed, swept away the need for woods, heathland, meadows, hedges,
ponds and other wildlife habitats that had been an integral part of the working landscape for a millennium
or more. It is often thought that the most destructive period was during the 1939-45 war, and the years
immediately following, but the worst excesses in this area occurred during the 1960s and 1970s.
Ingatestone and Fryerning did not suffer any major loss of woodland comparable with some
neighbouring parishes - several hundred acres of ancient forest springs were grubbed out at Highwood
at this time for instance - but the 130-140 miles of field boundary present in 1945 had been reduced to
40-45 miles by 1980. However, as in previous centuries this destruction was not uniform. In Ingatestone
the field systems of the farms and smallholdings on the Fryerning - Mill Green ridge, are still
recognizably the same as those depicted on the map of 1600, while in Fryerning parish St. Leonard's,
Furze and Lyndsey Halls, retain much of their former character. The severest hedgerow losses occurred
on the periphery of the parish, particularly on the larger farms - Ingatestone Hall, Woodbarns, Howlett's,
Fryerning Hall and Ray Farm among them. Only Handley Barns bucked this trend. The worst - in
terms of deliberate destruction - would now appear to be over. There have been no further losses since
1980 and in recent years a few new hedges have even been planted. However, excluding the 'hobby'
farms on the Fryerning - Mill Green ridge (which are a recent development) the agricultural land is
nowadays managed by just four farmers.
The Parish hedgerow survey 1997-1999
During survey work in the late 1990s for both the BSBI National Atlas, and also a Flora of Ingatestone
and Fryerning parish, I made a detailed survey of one hundred of the better maintained parish
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)