OUTLYING PARTS OF THE LIBERTY INTRODUCTION
The liberty covered c. 10,000 a. around the
built-up area of the town, and comprised the
outlying parishes of Lexden, Greenstead, Mile
End, Berechurch, and St. Giles's, besides the
substantial extramural parts of St. Botolph's, All
Saints', St. Mary's-at-the-Walls, and St.
James's, and smaller, detached, parts of other
intramural parishes. All were merged into Colchester civil parish in 1897. (fn. 1)
South-east and south-west of the town, until
the 19th century, was the arable which was
probably once the common fields of the borough.
Most of it was cultivated by burgesses
throughout the Middle Ages, and most of it lay
in the parishes of the intramural churches. (fn. 2) In
the early Middle Ages much of the pasture in
parts of the liberty further from the town was
organized into dairy farms or wicks. Canonswick
(later Canwick or Cannock) in West Donyland,
which belonged to St. Botolph's priory, was
recorded in 1160, and an unnamed wick in 1196. (fn. 3)
Bury St. Edmunds abbey had St. Edmund's wick
in Mile End by 1180, and Braiswick in Mile End
and Lexden was recorded in 1257-8. (fn. 4) The
wealthy burgess Adam Warin at his death in 1382
held Braiswick and two other wicks, Oldwick and
Cuntingswick, both probably in Lexden, the
latter near the road to Botolph's bridge. Tubswick in Mile End was named for Richard
Tubbe, its holder in 1296. (fn. 5) The occupants of five
wicks were assessed for subsidy in 1301: Battleswick in the south-east of the liberty, St. Botolph's
wick (Canonswick), St. John's wick (Monkwick
or possibly Middlewick), another unidentified
wick in Donyland, and Arnoldswick in Lexden.
By that date all were mixed farms. (fn. 6)
In the early Middle Ages much of the area
north of the town was woodland, perhaps
divided in the Anglo-Saxon period into Cestrewald, the borough's wood, to the north-west and
Kingswood to the north. (fn. 7) Kingswood remained
woodland and wood pasture throughout the
Middle Ages, and regular grants of timber were
made from it in the 13th century. (fn. 8) As late as
1698 the area, then called Severalls, was 'a sort
of deep moor ground and woody'. (fn. 9) Cestrewald
was cleared in the 13th century, as was some
woodland in Greenstead and part of Shrub wood
on the border with Stanway in the south-west
of the liberty. Further woodland in Mile End
and Greenstead was cut down in the 14th century, but much survived into the 18th century. (fn. 10)
As late as 1774 Colchester was surrounded by
heaths which provided rough grazing. (fn. 11) They
included Kingswood heath (the former Kingswood), Parson's heath and Rovers Tye heath in
Mile End, the small heath at Old Heath, Black
heath in West Donyland, and Lexden heath.
The Mile End heaths were commonable by all
burgesses, but Lexden heath and the heath and
marsh at Old Heath were commonable only by
the tenants of Lexden and West Donyland and
Battleswick manors respectively. All were inclosed in the early 19th century. (fn. 12)
The parish boundaries within the liberty were
complex and generally did not coincide with the
manorial or estate boundaries. In the accounts
which follow, detached portions of St. Botolph's
and All Saints' parishes have been treated with
the neighbouring parish of Greenstead. The area
south and south-east of the town, comprising
Berechurch and St. Giles's parishes with parts
of St. Botolph's, presents particular difficulties;
it is treated below under the heading of West
Donyland, the name used for it until the 19th
century. In the course of the 19th and 20th
centuries most of the land in the ancient liberty
has been absorbed into the built-up area of
Colchester; that process is described above with
the history of the borough. (fn. 13)