Medieval to post-medieval coppice earthworks at Hatfield Forest (EHER 17333)

Coppice earthworks comprising banks and ditches in Warren Coppice and Round Coppice. These were documented during the 17th century and recorded during an earthwork survey carried out in 1993.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: 1993. Survey. Hatfield is one of the smaller forests of medieval England. A royal forest normally contained areas of coppice, woodland and tracts of rough grazing with pollard trees, other trees and scrub. Hatfield is the only royal forest where all these elements survive in recognisably their medieval form. The coppice woods with their banks and ditches around and between them certainly existed as defined coppices in the early 17th century and probably long before. The grassland with trees has contained old trees at least since the 14th century. The pollards are the oldest now living; the oaks and hornbeams near Bush End Gate are probably about 300 years old, the ashes and maples elsewhere somewhat older. The scrub areas contain many ancient hawthorn bushes. In April 1993, RCHME's Cambridge Office carried out an analytical earthwork survey of a part of Hatfield Forest in the vicinity of the post-medieval warren, following a request from the National Trust. Each coppice in the area near the Warren is demarcated by a bank and external ditch. The bank would have been enhanced by a fence to exclude grazing animals from entering the coppice. The modern coppices were first documented in the 17th century. Warren Coppice is now defunct but its enclosing angular bank and ditch survive intact. The banks are gently eroded and have a rounded profile, approximately 5m wide and up to 0.8m high. Round Coppice has a sinuous boundary, the earthworks have a similar profile although there is no trace of a ditch. A third stretch of ditch, at TL 5335 1965 may represent a further boundary leading north to south between the Forest Lodge and Round Coppice. This does not correspond with any historically documented coppice. The ditch is about 5m wide and 0.6m deep with slight traces of a bank to the west. For further details, see RCHME Level 3 client report and plan at 1:1000 scale. <1> Area part of an ancient landscape. <2> The forest is under the management of the national trust who keep it as a working woodland. It will remain under the guardianship of the national trust. <3> See also: <4> <5>