A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



disturbance were accompanied by such destruction. I have elsewhere 

 dwelt on the importance attached by Geoffrey, Earl of Essex, under 

 Stephen to immunity for his ' assarts ' and ' waste of the forest,' 1 and 

 drawn attention to mention of such an ' assart ' at Ugley in a charter of 

 the same reign. 2 Other references to assarts are found in early charters 

 relating to Essex, and we know from three entries, under Herefordshire, 

 in Domesday that clearings in the woodlands for the purpose of cultivation 

 were already known as assarts (or essarts) in io86. 3 Judging from such 

 evidence as we have both before and after the Conquest, we must assume 

 that this loss of woodland represents that extension of the cultivated 

 area (terra lucrabilis) that was always in progress. 



In addition to the coast marshes and the woodlands, ' pasture ' and 

 ' marsh ' are occasionally mentioned inland. At Fairsted, for instance, 

 in the heart of the county, we have mention of pasture worth fourpence 

 (a year), and at Notley, adjoining it, of pasture worth sixpence (a year), 

 while at Walthamstow eight shillings a year were received from the 

 ' pasture,' at Waltham (Holy Cross) eighteen shillings, at Roydon two 

 shillings, at Hallingbury 28 pence, and at Epping with Nasing 32 

 pence. At Witham the annual value of the pasture had risen from 

 sixpence to fourteenpence. The ' pasture ' at Hatfield Broadoak is of 

 interest for the curious payment received from it ; it rendered to the 

 manor 9 wethers and the service of ploughing 41 acres. An entry, 

 apparently unique, records that at Great Wigborough there was ' pasture 

 for 100 sheep, rendering 16 pence (a year).' At Tiltey we have 20 

 acres of marsh ('maresc'), and at Greenstead on the Colne (adjoining 

 Colchester), 24 acres ' of meadow and marsh.' At Little Parndon 

 there were 45 ' what with meadow and marsh,' and at Great Canfield 

 48 ' of meadow what with meadow and marsh.' * A remarkable entry 

 under Peldon speaks of ' 80 acres of arable land and 200 acres of marsh ' 

 having been taken from its 5 hides. This must be a solitary mention 

 of coast marsh as such, and appears to correspond with the few cases in 

 which woodland, as we saw, was reckoned by hides and acres, and not by 

 the number of swine for which it afforded feed. 



We have still to deal with the mills, the fisheries and the saltpans 

 among the sources of profit to the holders of land. The multure or 

 right of the lords to the grinding of all the wheat at their mill made its 

 possession of some value, and it is interesting to find how often the 

 watermills entered in Domesday can be identified at the present day. 

 The most remarkable group of mills in Essex was at West Ham, on the 

 Lea, where we read there were 8 mills and had been 9. At Leyton 

 to its north, a mill, we are told, had been ' taken away ' (ablatus 

 est), a phrase which needs explanation. At some places we find a mill 

 where there had been none ; at others there was none, though there had 



' Geoffrey de Mandevllle, pp. 376-8. * Essex Arch. Trans, [n.s.] viii. 328. 



3 Domesday, i. 179^, 184^ ('essarz'), 1 80 ('exsarta silvae '). In the first of these the word 'essarz' 

 is written over ' terrae project* de silva,' which implies the identity of the two. 



4 ' Inter pratum et maresc ' is the formula used in both cases. 



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