| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
 Hornbeam pollards in Hainault Forest | |
  Location within Greater London | |
| Location | Greater London |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | TQ477938 |
| Coordinates | 51°37′18″N0°7′45″E / 51.62167°N 0.12917°E /51.62167; 0.12917 |
| Interest | Biological |
| Area | 135.31 ha (334.4 acres) |
| Notification | 1986 |
| Location map | Magic Map |
| Natural England website | |
Hainault Forest was a large wooded area in the English counties ofEssex andGreater London which was mostly destroyed after 1851. Popular outrage at the destruction of most of the forest was an important catalyst for the creation of the modern environmental movement.
Less than a tenth of the original forest survives, with many of the surviving fragments managed as a part ofHainault Forest Country Park. Thecountry park also includes other habitats.
The country park is located on the edge of Greater London, with portions in theLondon Borough of Redbridge, theLondon Borough of Havering, and theLambourne parish of theEpping Forest District in Essex.[1]
With an area of 135.31 hectares (334.4 acres),[2] Hainault Forest Country Park has been designated aSite of Special Scientific Interest.[3]
The Redbridge section of the park is managed by Vision Redbridge on behalf of Redbridge Council. Across the border, the Essex section is managed by theWoodland Trust, who hold a long-term lease for the management by its owners,Essex County Council.[1][4]
Hainault Forest is one of the three forests of west Essex alluded to in theThree Forests Way. This is a 59-mile (95 km) long-distance circular path which passes through Hainault Forest,Epping Forest andHatfield Forest.[5]
The first recorded use of the name is asHenehout in 1221, and thenHyneholt in 1239. The name comes from two place name elements;higna andholt, which translates into modern English asCommunity Woodland, with the community referred to being the ancient female monastic community ofBarking Abbey, which held the hugeManor of Barking, of which most of Hainault Forest, along with the rest ofIlford, were then a part.[6][7]
Hainault Forest therefore means "Monastic Community Woodland Forest". The modern spelling ofHainault is first recorded in 1590, and is due to a fictitious connection with QueenPhilippa of Hainault, the wife of KingEdward III. The old spelling continued in parallel with the more fashionable modern spelling for many years.[6]
The Chapman and Andre map of 1777 shows the Forest extending west toBarkingside and Claybury, north toChigwell Row, south-east toCollier Row. In a survey made forHenry VIII in 1544 its extent was some 3,000 acres (12 km2).[8]
The area is thought to have been given legal status as aroyal forest byHenry II in the 12th century. At the time it was part of the much largerForest of Essex, which covered nearly all of the county. The wordForest was a legal term, meaning thatForest Law applied, that only the King had the right to hunt deer. The term did not mean the land was well wooded: the large majority of theForest of Essex was agricultural land.
TheForest of Essex gradually shrank in size as land was removed from Forest Law and it was replaced by a number of much smaller forests includingWaltham Forest (which gives its name to the modernLondon Borough of Waltham Forest).Waltham Forest was a legally defined area which included the areas later known asHainault Forest andEpping Forest; the rest of theWaltham Forest area was only lightly wooded. The place name Waltham Forest had passed out of use by the end of the seventeenth century.[6]
Although the monarch held hunting and associated rights, most of the forest was part of theManor of Barking, which was held by the nuns ofabbey of Barking until theDissolution of the Monasteries;[9]
It was managed as acommon where the landowner benefitted from certain rights, with local commoners benefitted from common rights such as pollarding and grazing.
The landscape was primarily wood-pasture, with the pollarding of trees allowing enough light to reach the ground so there was enough grass and other growth to allow cattle to graze. The Chapman and Andre map of Essex (1777) indicates there was a large open area in the centre-east, and open common land and a little coppice woodland around the periphery.
Oaks from the Forest were harvested to build ships for the Royal Navy, most notablyHMS Temeraire (launched in 1798), which was famous for its role in theBattle of Trafalgar. The harvesting of trees to build warships did not lead to deforestation.[10]
The nunnery of Barking Abbey, established in the 7th century bySt Erkenwald, was suppressed by Henry VIII in 1539, and its assets seized, during thedissolution of the monasteries. The Forest passed to the Crown with the King therefore enjoying the rights of the landowner as well as the royal forest rights he already enjoyed. The Forest was sometimes also known asKingswood after this change. Common rights appear to have continued unchanged.
The Forest was a popular leisure resource for East Enders especially at the time of the annualFairlop Fair, held on the first Friday of July beside the famousFairlop Oak. The Fair was founded in 1725, by Daniel Day, a marine engineer fromWapping. Day began the fair as a benefit for his workers - they dined on beans and bacon, and this may be the origin of the English wordsbean-feast and beano.[11] The occasion quickly grew and eventually crowds of 200,000 or more would come to the fair.[12][13] After the forest was largely destroyed, the fair continued at nearbyBarkingside, with the last gathering of any size occurring in 1900.
| Hainault Forest Act 1851 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for disafforesting the forest of Hainault in the county of Essex. |
| Citation | 14 & 15 Vict. c. 43 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 1 August 1851 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Wild Creatures and Forest Laws Act 1971 |
Status: Repealed | |
The forest land, which had previously been managed as a common, wasenclosed (privatised) following anact of Parliament, theHainault Forest Act 1851 (14 & 15 Vict. c. 43). The deer were removed, the trees grubbed out using machines specially designed for the purpose, and 92-96% of the forest converted to farmland. The land became marginal agricultural land and subsequently a significant proportion has been built on. The destruction was deplored by SirWalter Besant in his works on London: the forest is also the setting for his novelAll in a Garden Fair.
Oliver Rackham described how the outrage at the destruction of Hainault led to the establishment of the modern conservation movement with the creation of conservation groups which successfully opposed such a fate happening to Hainault's "sister forest",Epping Forest.
Thecampaign to save Epping Forest, in which ordinary East Londoners played a major role, has been described as "the first major victory, in Europe, for the modern conservation movement".[14][15]
After public pressure to retain some remnant of Hainault Forest, headed byEdward North Buxton,[16] a total of 804 acres (3.3 km2) of land was bought for public use on 21 July 1906. It included 253 acres (1.0 km2) of woodland and rough pasture.
Hainault Forest Country Park protected areas include: open space parklands — with numerous public footpaths and a large lake; Hainault Forest Golf Club; and Foxburrows Farm — which is used in part for preserving rare breeds of animals.
Much of the remainder of the remnant, or the formerly forested area is built up, or consists of poor quality arable land. Other formerly forested areas are managed as public open spaces such asFairlop Waters Country Park,Hainault Recreation Ground,Hainault Lodge Nature Reserve,Hainault Forest Golf Club and theRedbridge Cycling Centre at Hog Hill.
There have been calls for non-urbanised part of the former forest area - especially the agricultural parts - to be rewilded, especially where that links surviving areas of wildlife rich habitat.[17]
