- Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest in
Essex ,England lies between the parishes ofLittle Hallingbury andTakeley , and covers 1,049 acres (4.2 km²) of woodland, grassland with trees, lake and marsh. It is approximately 40 minutes north east ofLondon by car, just off Junction 8 of theM11 motorway .Bishop's Stortford and Stansted Airport are nearby. The forest is not particularly near, nor related to the town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire. Rather, in common with several other Hatfields, its name is derived from theAnglo-Saxon word Hoep-Field meaning Heath-field, orheathland in view of the woodland [cite web
title = Hatfield Forest History
publisher = National Trust
url = http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-hatfieldforest/w-hatfieldforest-history.htm
accessdate =2008-05-26 ] .Hatfield is the only remaining intact Royal Hunting Forest from the time of the Norman kings, and is now maintained by the National Trust. It is open to the public.
Historical significance
“Hatfield is of supreme interest in that all the elements of a medieval Forest survive: deer, cattle, coppice woods, pollards, scrub, timber trees, grassland and fen,...... As such it is almost certainly unique in England and possibly in the world …….The Forest owes very little to the last 250 years ….. Hatfield is the only place where one can step back into the Middle Ages to see, with only a small effort of the imagination, what a Forest looked like in use.” Oliver Rackham, 1976, The Last Forest (Dent Books).
Ecological significance
Hatfield Forest has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a National Nature Reserve.The ecology of the Forest is in notably pristine condition. It is one of largest areas of land in East Anglia which has not been ploughed in historical times. The ancient coppices and wood pasture are likely to be managed relics of the original wildwood and are now extremely rare providing a last refuge for much rare and specialized wildlife. There are over 800 ancient trees in the wood pasture areas of the Forest.
Of particular significance are the saproxylic beetles (species associated with decaying wood) and the site is in the top 10 in the UK for this specialised fauna. There are also over 600 species of fungi and 400 species of plant, both very high totals for a site in Essex. Recent surveys have found 8 species of bat in the Forest.
tansted Airport
In December 1999, A Korean Air Boeing 747 (cargo plane) taking off from nearby
London Stansted Airport , crashed into the forest near the village of Great Hallingbury, killing all of the air-crew on board. The National Trust is objecting to the proposed second runway at Stansted [cite news
title = Trust steps up Stansted campaign
work = BBB News
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/3544942.stm
date = 2004-08-08
accessdate =2008-06-01 ] .References
External links
* [http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-hatfieldforest.htm Hatfield Forest- The National Trust]
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