History of Chigwell Row Wood Local Nature Reserve

A Forgotten corner of Hainault Forest?

To all the staff and volunteers at Epping Forest Countrycare, Chigwell Row Wood LNR is now a very familiar place. For over 20 years numerous volunteer projects have been held in the wood to improve both its nature conservation value and improve access for visitors. But how much do we really know about the wood? Until relatively recently not a lot! However, following historical research and a number of biological surveys a bigger picture is emerging about this very special site, its trees and wildlife.

We can take the history back to 1130 when much of Essex is woodland and the son of William the Conquer, Henry I has just designated the Royal Forest of Essex.

Two centuries later in 1301 the Forest is greatly reduced and broken up into several smaller royal forests by Edward I. Chigwell Row Wood is now part of the Forest of Waltham, which contains both the forests of Hainault and Epping. By the 1640s this impressive Forest still covered some 60,000 acres. This is the way things remained for centuries as colliers and woodsman maintained the management of the wood pasture and what must have been a staggering number of pollards.

However, at the turn of the 1800s trouble was on the horizon for Hainault  as illegal enclosures had forest officials taking people to court. This was eventually to lead to an Act of Parliament being passed in 1851 that saw the wholesale enclosure and destruction of the Forest begin.

Specially invented machines cleared the timber and in just 6 weeks around 3,000 acres of the Forest were gone forever to create farmland. Over the next 50 years further parts of the Forest went to the same way until by 1900 Chigwell Row Wood was the only significant part of the Forest left to the west of the Romford Road. The fact the wood survived at all probably comes down to the fact that in 1896 it was felt the inhabitants of Chigwell should have somewhere to walk and exercise so on the 19th September 1886 an enclosure award established the Manor Hill Recreation Ground as a charity.

A further 62 years passed until in May 1948 Chigwell Row Wood and the recreation ground was bought by Chigwell Urban District Council for £700. The following year in July 1949 a Trust was formed to regulate management of the Chigwell Row Recreation Ground.

In 1990, Countrycare began management of the wood once more with the clearing of glades and the careful restoration of the heathland and old pollards.  

On 17th August 2000, Epping Forest District Council declared the site a statutory Local Nature Reserve.  

Further Information:

• The History and Ecology of Hainault Forest by Lynn Parr