Essex Field-Names (Part 1)

Collected and arranged by William Chapman Waller, M.A., F.S.A.
An extract from the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, ‘new series’ Volume 5
(1895)
Part I: The Hundred of Ongar, and the Half Hundreds of Harlow and Waltham [Extracts cover High
Country Parishes only]
Short and disconnected lists of field-names appear from time to time in various publications, but,
as far as I know, no attempt has hitherto [to 1895] been made to collect and arrange systematically
those which are found to occur over the whole area of any particular county.  A passing reference
made some years ago (by whom and where, I have forgotten,) to “the valuable lists of names
contained in the Tithe Commutation Awards,” stuck, as such phrases will, in my mind, and it
occurred to me that I would someday try to collect those parishes comprised in the Hundred of
Ongar.  My first intention was to make a pilgrimage to each parish and there to inspect its
particular Award.  But further consideration led me to abandon this plan as not only tedious but
impracticable.  Later on, acting in concert with Council of the Society, I approached the Board of
Agriculture, in whose custody the sealed copies of various Awards are deposited.  At first certain
obstacles, which appeared almost insurmountable, stood in the way of my obtaining the facilities
necessary for the execution of the work contemplated.  But at length, thanks to the cordial interest
which the Right Hon. Herbert Gardner, one of our Vice-Presidents, manifested in a project
approved of by our Council, and the courteous kindness of certain permanent officials of the Board
over which he presides, all difficulties were got over, and the first instalment of Essex field-names
now finds its place in the Society’s Transactions.

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A few words explanatory of the scheme adopted are, perhaps, desirable.  The first proceeding was
to go through the Draft Awards of the forty-one parishes contained in the Hundreds chosen,
copying out all the field-names other than those absolutely common-place – such, for instance, as
Broadfield, Longfield, Tenacres, and a few others, which occur by the score.  The names
excerpted, to which the Tithe Map numerals were added, are in books which will ultimately be
added to the MSS Collections of the Society.  Each name was next re-copied on to a slip, with the
addition of a number corresponding to that assigned to be parish which it was found to occur. 
Duplicates having been eliminated, the slips were arranged alphabetically, in which order they are
now printed.  By way of pendant to this explanation, I must add a word of thanks to my friend, Miss
E M Allen, of Girton College, for the help she very kindly contributed towards the somewhat
tedious process of re-copying and sorting.
It would be out of place to attempt, here and now, to say much as to the names of which the list is
composed.  They exhibit a remarkable variety, the same name in precisely the same form rarely
occurring more than once over whole area under review.  And it must also be added that the
variations, in some few cases, appear to be due to the idiosyncrasies of the original draughtsman
or copyist, or of the person who informed him, rather to essential differences in the names
themselves.  The explanation of sundry inaccuracies is probably to be found in the fact that the
Awards, which were for the most part drawn up about half a century ago, were done in haste, and
many names seem to have been misunderstood, misspelt, and mangled, while others were
insufficiently authenticated. To give an instance or two: - the field which figures as ‘Peerless’
[Loughton] should indubitably appear as ‘Spare Leaze’, while ‘Luscious Mead’ [also Loughton] is
really Lusher’s or Lushen’s mead; the various ‘Readings’ [e.g. Little Hallingbury, Matching],
‘Reddings’ [Stapleford Abbots, Great Hallingbury, Epping], etc., of which ‘redene’ is the earlier
form.
Of all the names not immediately explicable three stand out as occurring more commonly than the
rest: they are Small Gains [e.g. Navestock, Abbess Roding, Bobbingworth, High Ongar, Moreton],
Rainbow Field [e.g. High Laver, Little Laver, Stondon Massey, Harlow, Hatfield Broad Oak], and
Perry Field [e.g. Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney, Fyfield, Magdalen Laver, Theydon Garnon].
Now ‘small’ is a word rarely found as part of a field-name: the comparison is usually expressed by
‘little’ and ‘great’. But in the case of ‘Gains’, the latter affixes occur once and once only, though
‘Gains’ itself never occurs without some qualifying word.  Perry Field may or may not be the
equivalent of the modern Peartree Field [e.g. Theydon Mount, Bobbingworth, Magdalen Laver,
Latton, Great Parndon].  But perige or peru is the Anglo-Saxon for pear-tree, and in one case I
have come on a ‘Piryfield’ in a late 13 th  century charter relating to a parish in which later on two
Perry Fields are found. … Rainbow Field [e.g. Navestock, Norton Mandeville, Abbess Roding,
Beauchamp Roding, Stondon Massey] I hand over to the conjectures of the ingenious, with the
remark that Rainbow, like Perry, also occurs as a surname.
Although many ‘Hop Gardens’ [e.g. Shelley, North Weald, Moreton, High Laver, Epping] remain to
bear witness to the time when each vill drank its own brew, ‘Flex’ [Norton Mandeville] has in three
instances only survived to recall the Statute passed in Henry the Eighth’s time, which rendered
obligatory the cultivation of a certain amount of hemp or flax in each parish.
A momentary glance at an Ordnance Survey Map will serve to shew that the Commutation Awards
by no means include all the placenames of the parish; and many which are nowhere recorded in
print, are yet enshrined in old documents, or, in some instances, still live on the lips of peasant-
folk, preserved through the centuries by oral tradition.  … Comment and criticism will of necessity
by more advantageously applied when, if ever, the lists for the whole county are completed.  [W C
Waller completed and published the work over nine parts from ‘old series’ Volume 5 to 9].