A survey of hedgerows in the parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning
Map 1600
Surveyed by John Walker & Son. The farm at this time contained three small woods - Box (Boxoll)
Wood, Well Wood (then known as Apisfield Wood) and Langer Hedge or Spring - each of between
six and ten acres - and an unnamed spring of around an acre. There arc also what appeal- to be two
small thickets in the field between Well Wood and Long Mead. The fields were large compared
with those of neighbouring properties - up to 22 acres (9ha) - although two of the largest were
divided in two for farming purposes by what appear to be lines of trees.
Map 1779
Thought to have been surveyed by Henry Clayton. Considerable changes had taken place by this
time. Well Wood had sprouted two extensions, one of them where the thickets were situated in
1600. This may well have arisen naturally from scrub as there is no surviving evidence of a wood-
bank or other enclosure. On the other hand, a completely new copse, Bushy (then known as Gust
Leaze) Wood, had probably been deliberately planted. On a slightly earlier map of 1743 it is depicted
differently from the other woods, the symbols possibly denoting that it was not yet mature or that it
was a pure coppice as opposed to a coppice with standards. The two lines of trees in 1600 are now
clearly defined field boundaries and two other hedges have also been added, one of which extends
between Well Wood and the edge of the farmyard while the other encloses a small paddock near the
house. Both appear to have been thorn hedges and - 250 years on - remain poor in species.
Map 1876
Surveyed by Captain H.G. Pilleau and Lieutenant W. Wynne of the Royal Ordnance Survey Corps.
The only changes between 1779 and the tithe map of 1839 were the loss of Well Wood's linear
extension and also the small unnamed spring. During the next forty years Langer Spring was grubbed
out, necessitating the reorganisation of the farm's field boundaries in that area and creating a very
large field of around 50 acres (20ha). The extension to Well Wood which arose between 1600 and
1743 was also removed plus an older linear arm of Box Wood that had nearly linked the two
woods. Both the hedges that replaced them - but particularly the former - contain many old coppice
stools of ash, field maple and hornbeam which may have been existing coppice when the wood was
cleared. The other hedge that linked Box and Well Woods - which originated from a line of trees -
had been grubbed out
Map 2004
Based on a map produced by George Trollope & Sons of Mount Street, London in 1936, when the
farm was sold by the Petre estate. Updated from personal observation. On this map the hedge
between Box and Well Woods had mysteriously reappeared, but perhaps as a fence line rather than
a hedge. Otherwise, the farm was unchanged from 1876 and remained so into the 1980s. At that
time the farm changed hands and the new owners built a large lake on the site of Long Mead. This
involved the partial destruction of two old hedgerows but a new hedge - composed entirely of
hawthorn - was planted alongside the footpath between the lane leading to the farm and the boundary
with a neighbouring property, Dawes Farm. The lake was used initially for water sports but towards
the end of the 1990s it was turned into a fishery and several small ponds were added to hold fry and
immature fish. A further short stretch of hedge, containing several native species, was planted to
screen new building work near the farmhouse in 2004.
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)