Before Enfield Chase – Domesday and the Forest of Middlesex Domesday returns for Middlesex as a whole indicate that the county was around 30% wooded (much of it
wood-pasture) in 1086, about double the English average. This would have been lower in the lower land, close to rivers that made it more attractive for farming, and higher in other parts of the county. The area that would become known as Enfield Chase is likely to been part of the
Forest of Middlesex, an area under forest law which is likely to have had a high proportion of woodland. The citizens of the City of London held the hunting rights. The Forest of Middlesex was abolished (removed from forest law) by
Henry II in 1218. This removed some of the protections the woods and common land had from encroachment by agriculture. No longer part of the much wider Forest of Middlesex, Enfield Chase became a legal forest in its own right.
Etymology Enfield Chase was recorded as
Enefeld Chacee in 1325 and
chace of Enefelde in 1373, from the
Middle English chace, meaning "a tract of ground for breeding and hunting wild animals". The term
Chase particularly applies to places, like Enfield Chase, where the forest rights are held by someone other than the monarch. In a charter of 1166–89 the hamlet of
Southgate, sited around what is now
Southgate Underground station, is referred to. It takes its name from its location at the South Gate of the old hunting ground, later known as Enfield Chase.
Ownership and management The chase was established by
Geoffrey de Mandeville around 1136-1144. It appears it was not known as Enfield Chase until the early 14th century, and was known as Enfield Wood or Enfield Park before that time. The name Enfield Chase is first recorded in 1325. In the middle ages a forest was an area managed for the breeding and hunting of deer, and was not necessarily wooded. Generally speaking the crown held the forest (hunting) rights, but in a few cases - such as Enfield Chase the forest rights were privately held. Enfield Chase was a forest but it was not a woodland, the habitat was wood-pasture - grazing land interspersed with trees. Many of these trees were pollards. Enfield Chase covered (in 1777), the higher western half of the ancient parish of Enfield. It was part of an area of wood-pasture that extended nine miles northward to
Hatfield in
Hertfordshire. While the landowner held the forest (hunting) and a number of other rights, the land was primarily managed as a common, with various grazing and wood collection rights enjoyed by commoners of Enfield,
Edmonton,
Monken Hadley and
South Mimms. Areas of common land across both areas was inter-commoned meaning that commoners of all districts enjoyed rights in each. This arrangement is thought to derive from sometime before the Norman Conquest when the four districts are thought to have formed a single territorial unit. Much of the wood collection rights was by a sustainable process called
pollarding which indefinitely extended the life of the tree. Common rights are older than forest law which was a
Norman imposition, and where these co-existed (most commons were not in legal forests) there was significant conflict between these two sets of rights. This was partly resolver by the
Charter of the Forest, a sister document to the
Magna Carta, which was produced in 1217. Forest rights were curtailed and the continued exercise of common rights within areas of forest guaranteed.
Period of stability For hundreds of years the Chase was owned by the Mandeville and then the
de Bohun families before passing to the
Duchy of Lancaster in 1471. The Duchy held the manor of Enfield and the Forest rights in Enfield Chase. For the first hundred years, the Duchy was a very conservative landlord and made no attempt to infringe on common rights or to enclose any common land (as the landowners of Edmonton Manor had). It is believed that Princess Elizabeth (later
Queen Elizabeth I) often hunted on the Chase after she was granted the estate of West Lodge Park by her brother
Edward VI in 1547. By mid 1500s population was rising (but was probably not at pre-Black Death levels) leading to pressure on natural resources. Competition for resources between the Duchy and commoners increased. This was exacerbated by the corruption of Duchy officials taking far more wood than they were entitled and selling it on outside the parish without giving local people the customary first refusal. Another problem for Enfield Chase was the enclosure of some common land in Edmonton; as Edmonton and Enfield intercommoned (shared each others common lands) the loss of common in one area increased pressure on common land in both. These factors combined to leads to a centuries long downward trend in the number of pollard and other trees in that wood-pasture environment. At the same time, the rights of the Duchy were being infringed through poaching of deer by gentry and commons alike. The Duchy's response to the competition for resources included rationing, for the first time, the right to grazing and wood collection common rights. taking more than one's allowance became a crime. In 1659, during the
Interregnum, desperate for funds, parliament sold off large parts of the chase to a number of parliamentarian army officers and other influential figures. Outraged at the loss of their ancient feudal rights, local commoners tore down the fences that the incomers had erected, so that they could graze their cattle there as before. The 'Intruders', as they were referred to, hired well armed off-duty parliamentarian soldiers to enforce their acquisitions. The soldiers shot and stole the commoner's sheep, and also shot cows and horses. Confrontations followed with the soldiers shooting and killing several locals, before being overwhelmed by the people of the parish. Several of the soldiers were captured and beaten, ending up at
Newgate prison.. The Chase was secured for Enfield (and neighbouring intercommoned parishes) for another hundred years. In the 1700's, the ongoing social conflict meant Legal Forests, particularly Enfield Chase and
Waltham Chase in Hampshire, came to have a bad reputation in parliament, especially among modernising
Whigs who already viewed them inefficient and anachronistic. The situation in Enfield Chase, and the lobbying of Enfield Chase rangers (men who had bought lucrative ‘ranger’ positions in the Duchy organisation and wanted to maximise return on their investment) such as
Sir Basil Firebrace and Major General John Pepper was a major factor in leading
Robert Walpole’s Whig government introducing the
Black Act of 1723. This was the most significant piece of legislation among many which together are known as the
Bloody Code. The Black Act (and the Bloody Code generally) made hundreds of offences punishable by death, including relatively petty offences such as poaching and being in a forest in disguise (typically camouflage). In addition suspects who did not hand themselves in could be executed without trial. Under the Act, communities were subject to collective punishment for poaching and related crimes. The
Hundred in which the crime took place (Enfield Chase was in
Edmonton Hundred) was made to pay reparations to the landowner through a special levy. The Act was not fully repealed until 1823.
Enclosure of 1777 By the '''''' (
17 Geo. 3. c. 17), the Chase was enclosed (privatised), and common rights, including the right of access, wood collection and grazing, were extinguished. The Chase ceased to exist as a legal entity. Only
Monken Hadley Common, covering around 2% of Enfield Chase, continued to be managed as a common. Enclosure was carried out on the grounds of increasing agricultural output and to stop it being a 'nuisance to the public' as a site of criminality. Agreement to enclosure was secured by compensating the wealthier stakeholders. The poor were not consulted or compensated. The
Survey and Admeasurement of Enfield Chase drawn up by the Duchy of Lancaster surveyor
Francis Russell in 1776/7, showed the Chase then covering an area of . The Chase extended from Monken Hadley in the west to Bulls Cross in the east, and from Potters Bar to Southgate. The map showed how the Chase would be divided among the following authorities: In 1777 George III leased the central part of the Chase to Sir Richard Jebb, his favourite doctor, as a reward for saving the life of the King's younger brother, the then Duke of Gloucester. This land later became
Trent Park.
The Chase after the enclosure and division of 1777 The opening of Enfield station on the Great Northern line in 1871 (renamed
Enfield Chase station in 1924 to avoid confusion with
Enfield Town station) resulted in the first period of sustained housebuilding on former Chase lands. This began with 'artisan's cottages' built along Chase Side in the 1880s and accelerated after the opening of new stations at Gordon Hill and Crews Hill in 1910. In the mid 20th century, areas at Southgate, Oakwood and
Hadley Wood were developed. The grounds of
South Lodge were acquired by developers Laing, who built a new housing estate in the period 1935-1939. Boxer's Lake and Lakeside, once part of South Lodge, are the only remaining open spaces. Areas that remain undeveloped include
Trent Park, Whitewebbs Park, Hadley Common, Fir and Pond Wood near Potters Bar, and the valleys of the Salmons Brook, Turkey Brook and Merryhills Brook, as well as golf courses at Hadley Wood and Whitewebbs Park. Remnants of the Chase now within the urban area of London include Chase Green near Enfield Town and Boxer's Lake Open Space in
Oakwood. ==Enhancing the undeveloped areas==