Forest of Essex

The naturalist Oliver Rackham carried out an analysis of Domesday returns for Essex and was able to estimate the county was 20% wooded in 1086.

[1] The area covered by Forest Law excluded the least wooded areas of the county along the Thames and North Sea coasts so the percentage for the Forest of Essex was a little higher.

Over time parts of the country were disafforested, removed from Forest Law.

Forest Law now applied only to royal manors and the heavily wooded areas in the south-west Essex.

Hatfield and Writtle were royal manors while Kingswood was attached to the borough of Colchester, but the king owned the trees and grazing there.