ECONOMIC HISTORY.
In 1086 the manor of
Wanstead, comprising one hide, contained 2
tenants' ploughs and 1½ on the demesne (1 in 1066).
There was woodland for 300 swine, while a mill and
a saltpan had been added since 1066. There were 3
villeins, 8 bordars (7 in 1066), but no serfs (2 in
1066). (fn. 1) Hugh de Montfort's manor, later Cann
Hall, comprised 3 hides, with 1¼ tenants' plough
(1 in 1066) and 1 on the demesne (2 in 1066).
There was woodland for 150 swine and 30 a. meadow.
The livestock comprised 60 sheep, while 4 swine
had been added since 1066. There were a priest, a
villein, and three bordars (6 villeins, 4 bordars, and
2 serfs in 1066). (fn. 2)
It is clear from these details that both manors
were only small forest hamlets. Wanstead manor,
which was the more densely wooded, had no livestock, except for the plough-teams. The mill and
the saltpan were both probably at Aldersbrook,
which until the 16th century was part of Wanstead
manor. Millfield, at Aldersbrook, is mentioned in
1535. (fn. 3) The Roding is tidal up to Aldersbrook, but
not normally above it. (fn. 4) The mill was acquired by
Clerkenwell priory in or before 1176. (fn. 5)
The wealth of woodland and the restrictions imposed by the forest laws largely determined the
economic life of the parish down to the 19th century. (fn. 6) As late as 1796 some 70 per cent of the parish
was still woodland or forest waste, (fn. 7) and even in
1841 the figure was over 40 per cent. (fn. 8) From early
times the Lower forest (Wanstead Flats) contained
much open heath, which by ancient and unusual
custom was used to pasture sheep as well as other
cattle. (fn. 9) The Domesday sheep of Cann Hall probably
grazed there. In 1189 Richard I granted to Stratford Abbey in West Ham the right to pasture sheep
on the heath. (fn. 10) That was probably in confirmation
of a grant by Ralph of Hesdin, lord of Wanstead
manor. (fn. 11) In 1230, during a dispute, Ralph's son
Hugh of Hesdin seized some of the abbey's sheep
on the heath. (fn. 12) Wanstead Flats continued to afford
valuable pasture and to be the subject of disputes
in later centuries. (fn. 13)
In 1271 the manor of Wanstead contained 180 a.
arable, 6½ a. pasture, and 27 a. meadow. (fn. 14) Eight
customary tenants performed an annual total of
439 labour services, and owed the rents of 19 hens
and 122 eggs, as well as money rents. By 1361 the
arable on the manor had increased to 200 a., and
the pasture to 20 a., but there were only 22 a.
meadow, and only 300 labour services were being
performed. (fn. 15) Little is known of Cann Hall during the
Middle Ages. A custumal (1331) and a rental (1369),
both concerning an estate at 'Leyton' held by the
priory of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, probably relate to
Cann Hall. (fn. 16) In 1331 there were ten tenants, whose
holdings varied in size from 10 a. to 1 a. They all
owed haymaking, hoeing, and sheep-dipping
services, and the six smallest tenants also owed
regular weekly services. Ten tenants were listed in
1369, but only seven owed labour services. Only
one had a surname occurring also in the 1331
custumal, which suggests that Wanstead had suffered much in the Black Death.
Wanstead Park appears to have been inclosed
shortly before 1512. (fn. 17) This probably increased the
cultivable area of the manor, and compensated at
least partly for the loss of Aldersbrook, which became a separate manor about that time. In 1535
the manor of Wanstead included 128 a. arable and
24 a. meadow in the park, and 40 a. meadow in
North mead and Sayes, in the north of the parish. (fn. 18)
After the 16th century the proportion of grassland to arable tended to increase. In 1670 Cann
Hall manor contained 86 a. arable, 59 a. pasture, 36 a.
marsh, and 8 a. woodland. (fn. 19) That marsh, lying near
the river Lea, was the only such land in the parish.
At the same period part of Wanstead manor, held
by a tenant-farmer, contained 110 a. arable and 70 a.
meadow. (fn. 20) The enlargement and landscaping of
Wanstead Park in the late 17th and early 18th
centuries (fn. 21) greatly altered the face of the parish,
reducing still further the amount of arable. (fn. 22) In
1796 Wanstead contained some 450 a. grassland but
only 150 a. arable. (fn. 23) Here, as in neighbouring
parishes, there was great demand for grazing land,
and much of the park was being used for that purpose. (fn. 24)
It was estimated in 1796 that the arable in Wanstead comprised 100 a. corn and 50 a. potatoes. (fn. 25)
During the following decades market-gardening
increased, especially at Cann Hall. In 1811 there
were some 200 a. potatoes in the parish. (fn. 26) When
Cann Hall manor farm was advertised as to let in
1820 it was described as capital arable land, suitable
for cabbages, turnips, and potatoes, and well suited
for supplying the London markets. (fn. 27) In 1841 the
parish contained some 290 a. arable, 610 a. meadow
and pasture, 200 a. inclosed woodland, and 670 a.
forest waste, including Wanstead Flats. (fn. 28) Much of
the grassland lay beside the Roding, in the north-east of the parish. More than half the arable (158 a.)
was at Cann Hall. The total area of Cann Hall
farm was 201 a. Wanstead manor farm comprised
436 a., and Nightingale farm 91 a.
By the end of the 19th century Cann Hall had
been built up, while Wanstead Park and Flats had
become places of public recreation. (fn. 29) A directory
of 1906 lists only two farms, both in the east of the
parish, and three nurseries. (fn. 30) Nightingale farm,
Hermon Hill, and two nurseries are listed in 1926. (fn. 31)
Nightingale farm was developed for building in the
late 1930s. (fn. 32)
At the end of the 18th century an annual cattle
market was held on Wanstead Flats in March and
April. (fn. 33) An Easter pleasure fair was held on the
flats in the late 19th century, and continued until
1913 or later. (fn. 34)
Industry has never been important in Wanstead.
Until the 19th century the villagers worked mainly
in agriculture or in the service of the city merchants
residing in the parish. A glover was mentioned in
1643, a goldsmith in 1644, and a brickmaker in
1685–6. (fn. 35) Gravel-pit field at Cann Hall, recorded
in 1841, recalls a former industry in that area. (fn. 36) A
few years earlier gravel-digging had been carried on
in the parish by paupers under the supervision of
the overseer of the poor. (fn. 37) Whether it was exploited
commercially is not known. A brick field, on the
northern edge of Wanstead Flats, was in operation
c. 1830–90. (fn. 38) Stone-masons, for whom there was
much work in the large cemeteries south of the
flats, are occasionally listed in directories from the
1860s. (fn. 39) A few small manufacturing industries have
arisen during the present century. (fn. 40) Among those
existing in 1968 were the Essex Engineering Co.,
Nelson Road (tool makers) and W. H. Collings &
Son, Nightingale Lane (reinforced concrete).
FOREST.
Wanstead lay within the Forest of Essex. (fn. 41)
It was part of the forest bailiwick of Becontree
during the Middle Ages, and later of the Leyton
'walk'. (fn. 42) In 1086 it was densely wooded. (fn. 43) Much of
the woodland had disappeared by the early 17th
century, but there are few contemporary records of
the process. Ralph of Hesdin (d. 1222) claimed
freedom to assart 30 a. in the manor under a charter
of Richard I. (fn. 44) In 1293 it was stated that Wanstead
wood had some time previously been taken into the
king's hand for waste committed there during the
minority of Thomas Hesdin (or Huntercombe). (fn. 45)
The inclosure of Wanstead Park in the early 16th
century (fn. 46) probably involved some disafforestation.
In 1563 Lord Rich, who was lieutenant of the forest
as well as lord of Wanstead, sought the government's permission to inclose and fell a considerable
area of woodland in the north-west of the parish
called Great and Little Shrubbage. (fn. 47) Although most
of it was the lord's wood, it included some common
land, and Rich complained that his deer were continually disturbed by people and cattle. He claimed
that he himself, as lieutenant, had never refused
anyone permission to fell or inclose wood on a
freehold. His appeal failed, but it shows that the
forest was sometimes attacked even by those officially
charged to defend it.
A sketch map of the forest c. 1640 includes Great
Shrubbage with Parsons Grove (another name for
Little Shrubbage) beside it to the east. (fn. 48) Farther
south were two small adjoining woods called Cann
Hall Grove and Grittens, east of which was Wanstead Heath, stretching across to the pale of Wanstead Park. The heath, also called the lower forest
and later Wanstead Flats, extended into several
parishes but was mainly in Wanstead. It is recorded
as early as the 12th century. (fn. 49) In the 17th century, as
before, small-scale inclosures of the forest were not
infrequent, (fn. 50) but in 1673–4, when Sir Josiah Child
bought the manor, Great Shrubbage still comprised
160 a. and Little Shrubbage 60 a. while there was
another 100 a. common woodland within the parish. (fn. 51)
Some woodland also remained in Wanstead Park,
and Child increased it by new plantations. (fn. 52) By
1746 Cann Hall Grove and Grittens had disappeared, but Great and Little Shrubbage remained,
as well as the lower forest, part of which then extended as far south as the present Romford Road,
Manor Park. (fn. 53) The position was much the same 60
years later, (fn. 54) but then followed a period in which
Wanstead was the centre of the battle for the preservation of the whole forest.
The forest was threatened by the Crown, by
lords of the forest manors and other large land-owners, and by the forest officers themselves. (fn. 55) The
lord of the manor of Wanstead at that time was also
the hereditary lord warden of the forest. Sir Richard
Child, later Earl Tylney, had bought the office in
1709. (fn. 56) He and his son the second earl probably
prized it mainly as a post of dignity (fn. 57) and of leadership in the social and sporting life of the district. (fn. 58)
William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, who became lord warden on his marriage in 1812, was at
first zealous in defence of the forest, but by 1831
was openly supporting inclosures. (fn. 59) In 1831 he
appointed the steward of his manor of Wanstead as
steward also of the court of attachments. The
steward's loyalty, as he later confessed, was mainly
to his manor, and inclosures through the manor
court became frequent in the following years. (fn. 60) In
the 1850s, after destroying Hainault Forest, the
Crown resumed the sale of its forestal rights to the
lords of manors: those of Cann Hall were sold in
1856 and those of Wanstead manor in 1856. (fn. 61)
In 1841 there were still some 650 a. forest waste
in the parish, (fn. 62) but by 1871 more than half of it
had been inclosed in small parcels by Wanstead
manor court. (fn. 63) In most parts of the parish inclosures
do not seem to have provoked resistance, but public
opinion was sensitive to encroachments on Wanstead
Flats. In 1822 the vestry resolved to resist such
encroachments by every legal means, (fn. 64) and in 1851–2
Long-Wellesley, now Lord Mornington, succeeded
in inclosing 34 a. of the flats only after a legal battle
with the tenant of Cann Hall and other commoners. (fn. 65)
Earl Cowley's attempt in 1871 to inclose another
piece of the flats precipitated the last phase of the
Epping Forest controversy. (fn. 66) The Epping Forest
Commission, in its final report (1877) stated that
250 a. open waste remained in the manor of Wanstead, most of it on Wanstead Flats, and 73 a. in
Cann Hall manor, all on the flats. (fn. 67) In 1876 the
City of London had bought the soil of the Cann
Hall waste. (fn. 68) In 1880 it bought 184 a. of Wanstead
Park from Earl Cowley. (fn. 69) Under the Epping Forest
Act, 1878, and the subsequent arbitration award
Wanstead Flats and Wanstead Park were preserved
as part of the forest, along with a few smaller areas,
including Bushwood, near Leytonstone, George
Green, at Cambridge Park, and Eagle Pond,
Snaresbrook. (fn. 70) Wanstead Flats has occasionally
been threatened with development even since 1878.
In 1907 it was proposed that a concert hall should
be built on the Forest Gate side of the flats. (fn. 71) After
the Second World War both West Ham and East
Ham attempted to secure part of the flats for building, but they met determined and successful resistance from Wanstead. (fn. 72)
The lords and tenants of the manors in Wanstead,
like those elsewhere in the forest, enjoyed rights
of common pasture. Those of Wanstead manor had
the special right of sheep pasture on the flats. (fn. 73)
The parish cattle mark was a 'Q' surmounted by a
cross. (fn. 74) In the 19th century, and probably earlier,
it was used also to mark beasts from Aldersbrook. (fn. 75)
The commoners of both Wanstead and Cann Hall
manors had the right of turbary in the forest. (fn. 76) The
lord of Wanstead manor claimed the right to take
honey and beeswax. (fn. 77) He also claimed estovers and
sometimes even the right to fell mature trees or to
license their felling by his tenants. The wider claims
were rejected by the court of justice seat in 1673,
as they had been by the government in Lord Rich's
time, (fn. 78) but until the 19th century there was rarely
any opposition to small-scale felling licensed by the
manor courts.